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Management

Management Team

Tioga Research’s senior management team evidences a constellation of special domain expertise, experience and skills. 

Elena Alifanova (Research Scientist)

Elena Alifanova has been a Research Scientist at Tioga Research since its founding in 2011 and has over ten years of experience in biochemical laboratory studies and formulation development. During her tenure at Tioga Research, Elena has designed, managed, and performed Standard Operation Procedures (“SOP”s) for a variety of advanced formulation development, stability and solubility studies for topical and transdermal drug delivery using Tioga Research HTE platforms, Franz diffusion cellsflow-through permeation cells, radiolabeling, and robotic metrology for identifying high-performing formulations. Prior to launch of Tioga Research, Elena spent over five years as a Research Technologist at Nuvo Research U.S. where she was responsible for high throughput formulation screening campaigns, permeation measurements and ELISA assays; she also developed SOPs and qualification reports, and contributed to the development of several formulation innovations, such as PENNSAID 2% for treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. Prior to joining Nuvo Research, Elena held positions as a Research and Laboratory Associate at research institutions in Russia where she conducted experimental studies of blood samples using erythrocytapheresis. Elena holds a M.S. in Biochemistry from Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia.

Edward Kisak (CSO)

Edward T. Kisak has served as CSO of Tioga Research since its founding. He has over ten years of experience in topical formulation development, having served in both managerial and lead scientist roles.  Ed has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara where his doctoral research focused on developing “vesosomes” – a multiplexed liposomal structure containing liposomes nested within other liposomes for advanced drug delivery therapies. This doctoral research was later pursued by Advanced Encapsulation – a start-up company co-founded by Ed to improve and develop the vesosome technology. Ed also served as consultant to Sinus Pharmaceuticals and reformulated their lead tobramycin sinusitis formulation, which later went on to clinical trials. After joining fqubed (later acquired by Nuvo Research, CA:NRI) in 2005, Ed acted as Director of Research, and was responsible for laboratory operations and for managing formulation innovation and skin delivery screening campaigns. During this tenure, Ed acted as the lead formulation scientist on developing PENNSAID® 2% (currently approved in the US for the treatment of osteoarthritis) along with other formulations in Nuvo’s pipeline. Additionally, he was the prime driving force behind the development, optimization and production-mode use of Tioga Research’s HTE platforms, including INSIGHT™, STORM™, SPATE™, SPLASH™, TORNADO™, MONSOON™ and SKIVER™. He is an inventor on more than 15 issued and pending patents, including that claiming the PENNSAID® 2% formulation. 

Avadhesh S. Kushwaha (Senior Formulation Scientist)

Avadhesh joined Tioga Research in 2015 as lead formulation scientist. Avadhesh has over 8 years of working experience in the research and early development of skin and nailapplied formulations. He received a PhD degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Mississippiwhere he contributed to programs directed to topical, transdermal, transungual and nosetobrain drug delivery systems for treating conditions such as nail psoriasis, onychomycosis, hypertrophic scars and chronic painAt Tioga Research, he has been responsible for research, innovation and early development of novel topical and transdermal formulations (such as solutions, gel, ointments, creams and patches), including measurements of delivery into and permeation through various types of membranes (such as human and porcine skinnail and mucosa), including using high throughput experimentation techniques. He has led programs to develop formulations for the treatment of skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and chronic pain. He has made major contributions to proprietary programs with numerous US and ex-US clients, including programs directed to transdermal patch formulations for the relief of chronic moderate-to-severe pain, peptide skin delivery, novel formulations to treat onychomycosis and formulations for intravenous and subcutaneous administration in toxicology studies. Avadhesh has published numerous international research papers and is an inventor on more than 10 issued and pending patents.

John M. Newsam (CEO)

John M. Newsam has been CEO of Tioga Research since launch in 2011, having served in corporate executive roles since 1996. He was CSO of Molecular Simulations Inc. (now Accelrys – from 1996, acquired by Pharmacopeia, Inc. in 1998), Office of the President for the Aktiengesellschaft (from 2000, acquired by BASF in 2008), CEO of fqubed, Inc. (from 2002, acquired by Nuvo Research in 2005), CEO of Bio4Front, Inc., and Senior VP of Business Development for Nuvo Research, Inc. (from 2009, CA:NRI). John is as a member of the advisory council of the Green Gateway Fund, and was previously a Venture Partner at NGEN Partners, and an advisor to the Scottish early stage venture fund ITI Life Sciences. John has contributed scientific and strategic consulting to several US Fortune500 companies, to early phase biotech and materials companies in the US, UK, and Korea, to government institutions such as IFP Energies Nouvelles, and has served on numerous academic advisory committees. A materials chemist by training, John has authored over 170 scientific publications, on topics such as high throughput experimentation, skin-applied formulations, zeolites, crystallography and materials simulation. He has been recognized by several awards, including the Corday-Morgan Medal, and by elections as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry. John has delivered undergraduate courses on entrepreneurship and business innovation at UC San Diego, and has been an Adjunct Professor at both UC Santa Barbara (Materials Department) and UCSD (Chemistry & Biochemistry Department). John holds BA Hons, MA and DPhil degrees in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Guohong Zhao (Manager, Analytical Development)

Guohong Zhao has served as Manager of Analytical Development of Tioga Research since September 2019. He has a broad background in analytical and physical chemistry and biochemistry, with over twenty-five years of experience in analytical method development for various products, including food and personal care products, by using variety of modern mass spectrometric techniques (LC-MS/MS, LC/TOF, GC-MS, FTMS, LDI-MS) and chromatographic techniques (HPLC, GC). Guohong has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland where his doctoral research focused on studying photodissociation and ion-molecule reactions of isomeric ions by using Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (also called Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry)He then pursued post-doctoral research in the Environmental Analytical Research Laboratory of Texas A&M University at Galveston. He helped establish and managed an analytical laboratory to support clinical metabolism studies while working as a research scientist in Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He joined Unilever as Senior Research Scientist to support formulation development and manufacturing processes for both hair care and deodorant products. Moving to Northland Laboratories (acquired by Matrix Science in 2018) in 2007, he was responsible for analytical method development and validation, problem solving in food testing, and technical reviews and approvals of laboratory daily operations. He has been a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry since 1994 and was previously a member of AOAC and IFT. 

Key Consultants

Ilya Feygin (Research Engineering)

Ilya Feygin is a true pioneer in high throughput experimentation. With degrees in Aeronautical and Electrical Engineering from the University of Latvia, he served as an engineering innovation consultant with Sigma and PA Consulting. Joining Merck, he led early efforts to implement combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening, rising to the esteemed level of Fellow. He was then recruited to Pharmacopeia to direct the research engineering support for combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening. He has contributed to HTE techniques for materials applications from as early as 1997, joining the fqubed team in 2002, and then transitioning to Tioga Research in 2011. Ilya has more than 25 years’ experience in research automation, evidenced in a number of engineering ‘firsts’ and by inventorship on 41 issued US patents. 

Stewart Smith (Analytical Chemistry)

Stewart Smith has worked in various senior analytical and quality roles in the pharmaceutical industry since 1983, having held positions of increasing responsibility at Syntex Research, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Dura Pharmaceuticals, and fqubed (Nuvo Research US). Stewart has been a principal at Pharmalytical Consulting LLC Since 2004 and served as Director of Quality at Tioga Research from 2011. Stewart has extensive hands-on and managerial experience with analytical development and validation for a wide range active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulation dosage types. Stewart has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and Oceanography from Humboldt State University (Arcata CA).