Jan Abendroth, Ph.D.
Group Leader II

"We are successful because we take ownership of our projects and care about your research."

Jan leads the crystallography and X-ray laboratory at Emerald BioStructures. Jan also oversees computational crystallography and is one of the main contributors of crystallography for the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID). Jan spearheaded the internal methods development for routine application of de-novo phasing using anomalous diffraction from iodide. Jan joined Emerald BioStructures in 2007. As a postdoctoral fellow he researched on the structural biology of complexes of membrane and soluble protein in Dr. Wim Hol's laboratory at the University of Washington (Seattle). Jan earned his Doctorate in Biochemistry in 2001 from the Universität zu Köln (Cologne, Germany), and received his undergraduate education both at the Universität zu Köln and at the NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. Jan has published his research in 32 peer-reviewed journal articles, 13 of which as first author.

Kateri Atkins
Group Leader I

“Successful collaborations begin with excellent communication and thrive when team members take ownership of the research."

Kateri’s contributions on many collaborations have been integral to their success, particularly those involving multi-target parallel protein purification strategies. She is currently responsible for managing all protein purification activities, and her program and people management skills have been an essential driver of Emerald’s position as the top depositor of new structures to the Protein Data Bank (PDB) in 2011. Kateri earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Old Dominion University in 2000 and originally joined Emerald BioStructures in 2005. Emerald was thrilled to have her rejoin the team after her return to the Washington state region in 2010.

Darren Begley, Ph.D.
Group Leader I

"Integrating X-ray crystallography with NMR, SPR and other biophysical techniques provides a robust and versatile strategy for characterizing drug lead interactions with their targets."

Darren is Group Leader for the Biophysics core at Emerald, which includes our nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy laboratory and management of our small molecule screening compound libraries. He has successfully led several fragment screening campaigns, and routinely conducts biophysics experiments to characterize drug lead binding interactions with biological molecules in solution. Darren earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Washington in 2009 under the direction of Gabriele Varani, and a B.Sc. from McGill University in Montréal, Canada. Darren completed a post-doctoral course of study at Emerald for the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease, integrating NMR, SPR, and X-ray crystallography to characterize the binding of small molecules with infectious disease proteins. Darren has written and published several first-author peer-reviewed papers, as well as two book chapters for a volume of Methods in Enzymology devoted to fragment-based screening and drug design.

Lawrence E. Chun, M.S/Ph.C., P.M.P
Project Leader II

"aut viam inveniam aut faciam (I'll either find a way or make one)."

Larry has been the lead scientist on numerous multi-year structure determination research collaborations, several of which have led to the development of clinical drug candidates. Larry has specialized in kinase crystallography and has delivered over 100 kinase crystal structures to clients. Larry joined BioStructures in 2002 as a Research Associate after earning his Ph.C in Biological Structure from the University of Washington in 1992, and recently earned his P.M.P certification in 2011. Larry brings extensive project management experience to Emerald and has published 12 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Matthew Clifton, Ph.D.
Project Leader I

“Successful collaboration stems from the ability of all sides to work together towards a common vision; understanding the client’s timelines and goals is essential.”

Matt has extensive experience in NMR spectroscopy, electron-microscopy, and X-ray crystallography, and he has applied this diverse knowledge to a large number of successful collaborations. As a postdoctoral fellow, he performed structural studies on a wide variety of proteins from the innate immune system in the laboratory of Dr. Roland Strong at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Matt earned his Doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Purdue University where his research focused biochemical and structural studies on membrane proteins including ABC transporters. Matt received his bachelors of science from the University of Oregon and has 12 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Tim Craig, Ph.D.
Project Leader I

“Emerald has the tools and experience to do great things for your membrane protein projects.”

Tim is a membrane protein scientist with over 10 years of experience. He started his training in membrane protein structural biology at Brandeis University, where he received BS degrees in Biochemistry and Neuroscience. He continued on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he performed NMR, X-ray crystallography, light scattering, and microscale biochemical experiments on components of the SNARE membrane fusion machinery. After his Ph.D., Tim completed his postdoctoral fellowship with Novartis, where he worked on accelerating production and crystallization of G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), Ion Channels, and other membrane proteins for preclinical drug discovery.

Doug R. Davies, Ph.D., P.M.P
Senior Project Leader

"One of the keys to our success across dozens of projects is our collaborative approach. At Emerald BioStructures we strive to provide clear communication and facilitate an ongoing scientific dialog with our clients. We believe this culture results in great science, not just great customer service."

Doug has been the lead scientist on numerous structure determination research collaborations and is currently responsible for technology development at Emerald BioStructures including fragment based crystallography. Doug oversees development and deployment of Emerald BioStructures' Fragments of Life™ (FOL) library, a novel collection of small molecule metabolites used for fragment based drug discovery. Doug joined Biostructures in 2005 as a Senior Research Scientist after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. Doug earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. Doug has published 14 peer reviewed journal articles, 11 as first author.

Thomas E. Edwards, Ph.D.
Senior Project Leader

"Communication is the most important aspect of a successful collaboration, from business development to the delivery of intellectual property. Projects are most successful when information is communicated effectively such that each and every person involved in the project is able to perform his or her job to its maximum potential."

With a wide expertise in RNA, DNA and protein structural biology, Tom has been at the forefront of numerous successful structure determination research collaborations including HCV, oncology and diabetes targets. Tom is a crystallographer for the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Diseases (SSGCID) and has deposited more than 180 crystal structures into the Protein Data Bank. Prior to joining Emerald in 2007, Tom obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Washington and was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Tom has published 36 peer reviewed journal articles, 14 as first author.

James Fairman, Ph.D.
Group Leader I

“Una validiores sumus (Together we are stronger) - the collaborative environment at Emerald BioStructures allows us to use innovative technologies to solve difficult problems.”

Jim received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2009 working with Dr. Chris Dealwis, where he studied macromolecular crystallography. During his time there he solved the structure of human ribonucleotide reductase, an important anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drug target, in complex with substrate and allosteric effector molecules. He then went on to do a 2 year post-doctoral fellowship in the Intramural Research Training program at the National Institutes of Health under the supervision of Dr. Susan Buchanan, where he studied purification and crystallization of membrane proteins. His research at the NIH centered on the bacterial adhesion membrane proteins intimin and invasin, and lead to the first ever de novo phased lipidic cubic phase membrane protein X-ray crystal structure. Jim joined Emerald BioStructures in 2011, where he applies his experience in membrane protein crystallography to SSGCID and client projects. Jim has published 6 peer-reviewed journal articles, 2 as first author.

David Fox, Ph.D.
Project Leader I

“Problem solving is always at the heart of every collaboration, and having the drive and determination to never give up on difficult problems is the key to success.”

David received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Washington in 2008 under the direction of Rachel Klevit, where he characterized several breast cancer related protein complexes through a variety of biophysical and structural techniques including NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and circular dichroism. David finished his post-doctorate studies at the National Institutes on Aging in 2011 under the direction of Weidong Wang, where he continued to apply biophysical and structural techniques to the study of DNA binding and repair proteins involved in Fanconi Anemia. He has extensive experience that spans gene to structure including bioinformatics, construct design, expression and purification of protein complexes, protein characterization and structure determination by both NMR Spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography

Don Lorimer, Ph.D.
Project Leader II

"The level of intensity at Emerald is unparalleled in the industry and the teamwork displayed by my colleagues is a critical factor in our success."

Don has over twenty years experience in drug discovery and played a major role in the development of Gene Composer software, Emerald’s tool for designing proteins and engineering genes for synthesis. Don has been the lead scientist on multiple gene-to-structure research collaborations, specializing in protein expression, protein engineering and protein crystallization. Don earned his PhD in Biochemistry from Michigan State University in 1989 and joined BioStructures in 2005 after working for Structural GenomiX and Axys Pharmaceuticals.

Amy Raymond, Ph.D.
Group Leader II

"Consistent, clear communication and data-driven decisions make the shared vision of the successful outcome a reality."

Amy currently oversees all molecular biology and bacterial protein expression activities at Emerald BioStructures, and specializes in protein engineering and expression. Amy has been the project leader on many successful structure determination and enzymatic activity projects, and continues to play a critical role in all gene-to-structure research collaborations. Amy earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the UC San Diego/San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program and completed her postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center before joining Emerald BioStructures in 2007. Amy has published 17 peer reviewed journal articles.

Pam Witte, B.A.
Group Leader I

"Attention to detail and a desire to succeed are the keys to a successful collaboration."

Pam has been the lead scientist on various inhibitor screening projects. She is currently responsible for managing the Insect and Mammalian Cell Culture functions, as well as the Assay Group at Emerald BioStructures. Pam joined Emerald BioStructures in 2003 as a Research Scientist after working for 10 years in the fields of Drug Discovery and Virology. Pam has published 9 peer reviewed articles.