Mark Brennan, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Brennan founded SureGene and developed its core technology and methodological approaches. He leads the company’s scientific programs and is a member of the board of directors. He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications, most of which deal with the genetics and molecular biology of naturally occurring regulatory variation in model organisms. Dr. Brennan has received numerous grants related to the genetics of psychiatric illnesses and pharmacogenomics. For over 15 years, he taught neurotransmitter biochemistry to medical students, and for 12 years, he was the primary lecturer in, and course director of, a graduate-level human genetics course at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is a cofounder of the Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Louisville. As Chief Scientific Officer at SureGene, he brings a unique perspective to the study of neuropsychiatric illnesses in which statistical genetic approaches are combined with molecular and biochemical insight into the underlying biology. Dr. Brennan completed his postdoctoral training in Molecular Biology at the University of Utah. He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Indiana University and his BA in Biology from Wabash College.
Herbert Meltzer, MD
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Dr. Herbert Meltzer is a Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He has received the Lieber Prize for Schizophrenia Research, Efron Award of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Gold Medal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and numerous other awards for his research in schizophrenia and its treatment. Dr. Meltzer has been the president of the American (ACNP) and the International (CINP) Colleges of Neuropsychopharmacology. Areas of clinical expertise include schizophrenia, psychopharmacology, antipsychotic drug development, and cognition. His research interests include investigating the cognitive deficit in schizophrenia; identification of new antipsychotic drugs; studying the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs; genes conveying risk for schizophrenia; pharmacogenetics; pharmacoeconomics; and suicide prevention. Dr. Meltzer earned his MD at Yale University, his MA at Harvard University, and his BA at Cornell University.
Tim Ramsey, MS, MBA
Vice President of Product Development
Mr. Ramsey straddles both the scientific and business operations at SureGene where he focuses on translating SureGene’s discoveries into commercial products and managing SureGene’s external partnerships. Mr. Ramsey is the primary inventor on several SureGene patents. He was the second employee at SureGene, joining Dr. Brennan in founding the company in 2005. Prior to joining SureGene, Mr. Ramsey was at Eli Lilly in the Neuroscience Discovery Group, where he was the interface between the finance, marketing, new product development, and R&D groups. During his tenure at Eli Lilly, he was an active member on all of their neuroscience drug development teams from discovery through the end phase II. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago and his MS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Bill W. Massey, PhD
President and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Massey is President and Chief Operating Officer of SureGene. He is an academic scientist and business professional with a proven track record of leadership success. He has twenty-two years experience in executive management, operations, basic research, clinical affairs, regulatory affairs and marketing, in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology-related industries. He has played a leadership role in the successful filing of 28 IND applications and 8 NDA applications. Dr. Massey is the inventor of over 200 new chemical entities designed as putative antipsychotic agents. Dr. Massey comes to SureGene from Vanderbilt University where he held the Jack Martin Research Professorship in Psychopharmacology and performed research on the biological basis for antipsychotic drug action in the laboratory of Dr. Herbert Y. Meltzer. Dr. Massey earned his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and his BS in Biology from the University of Central Arkansas and completed the undergraduate Zoology Program at the University of Arkansas.
Qian Liu, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Dr. Liu joined SureGene in 2010 and is a Senior Research Scientist in the Bioinformatics group. Dr. Liu has a PhD in Molecular Biology and an MS in Statistics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her graduate work focused on studying the pathogenesis of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), the most common genetic disease of skeletal muscle. Dr. Liu has extensive bioinformatics experience including analysis of expression and tiling arrays to identify genes that are involved in pathogenesis.
Saranya Padmanabhan
Research Scientist
Ms. Padmanabhan joined SureGene in 2010 and is a key member of the bioinformatics group. Ms. Padmanabhan holds an MS in Bioinformatics from George Mason University and a BS in Bioinformatics from Vellore Institute of Technology University, India. In addition to bioinformatics analysis, she is also involved in database management work at SureGene.
Calvin Patrick III
Senior Software Developer
Mr. Patrick has been with SureGene since 2007, and has been a valuable part of the team. He has been involved with several projects at SureGene and has been the chief architect of different software tools developed at SureGene. He has an Associate degree in Computer Science from Indiana University Southeast. Prior to starting at SureGene, he interned as a programmer at United Parcel Service, Louisville Headquarters, from August 2005 to August 2006.