Our Team

Irini Abdiaj, Ph.D. joined Prof. Tyler McQuade’s group in January 2019. She holds a M.Sc. in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies and an industrial Ph.D. in Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Toledo, Spain. Irini is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow and her doctoral work under the supervision of Dr. Jesus Alcazar was to utilize visible light photoredox catalysis in drug-discovery using flow chemistry. Currently, she is working in developing cost-effective strategies for the synthesis of the HIV drug Lamivudine.

Originally from Brussels, Mateo Berton, Ph.D., received his bachelor’s (2010), master’s (2012) and doctoral (2016) degrees in chemistry from the University of Valencia (Spain) where he studied the reactivity of carbon dioxide and explored its synthetic applications. In his postdoctoral position at Johnson & Johnson in the department of continuous flow chemistry under the direction of Jesús Alcázar, he gained expertise applying this methodology in drug discovery. In 2017, he joined Dr. Paul G. Williard’s group as a postdoctoral research associate where he studied solid state and solvent free aldol and hydride transfer reactions. Mateo is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. McQuade’s laboratory. His research focuses on the design of flow systems for the synthesis of on-demand organometallic reagents.

Brenden P. Derstine, Ph.D., received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Hartford in 2012. He completed his Ph.D. in 2018 under the guidance of Dr. Scott McN. Sieburth at Temple University where he focused on [4 + 4] photocycloadditions and titanium (II) mediated methodologies. In 2018, he joined the Gupton Lab and the Medicines for All Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University. His current research is focused on improving the synthetic route to access active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) through process intensification and continuous processing.

Kashinath Komirishetty, Ph.D. received his Ph.D in 2016 from CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, under the supervision of Dr. D. Srinivasa Reddy. During his Ph.D he worked on total synthesis of natural products and was involved in several medicinal chemistry programs. Later, in May 2016 he joined as a group leader at Ahammune Biosciences Pvt Ltd, Pune, India, where he worked on development of a drug candidate to treat Vitiligo, a skin depigmenting disorder. In February 2019, he joined Dr. McQuade’s lab and is currently working on low-cost synthesis of Lamivudine, an antiretroviral drug. His research interests include total synthesis, drug discovery and process development.

Cheryl L. Peck, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Gupton’s laboratory and Medicines for All. She holds a B.S. in chemistry with a minor in biology from Longwood University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her doctoral work with Dr. Webster Santos focused on the development and optimization of novel synthetic methods for the formation of carbon-boron bonds utilizing inexpensive reagents and environmentally friendly reaction conditions. Her current research at VCU is centered around the development of cost effective strategies for the synthesis of the HIV drug Emtricitabine.