Varghese John, PhD

Dr. Varghese John is an accomplished medicinal chemist who leads the Drug Discovery Laboratory in the Department of Neurology at UCLA. His scientific interests are focused on bench-to-bedside translation of new therapeutics for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, which is particularly challenging because the molecules have to cross the blood-brain barrier to effectively engage their target. His current research focus in Alzheimer's Disease has led to the identification of a molecule that has advanced into Phase 1b/2a clinical trials. In the future, working with JCCC, John intends to develop targeted therapies using deformable nanovesicles (DNV) for glioblastoma and other brain tumors.

Subbiah N, Campagna J, Spilman P, Alam MP, Sharma S, Hokugo A, Nishimura I, John V. Deformable Nanovesicles Synthesized through an Adaptable Microfluidic Platform for Enhanced Localized Transdermal Drug Delivery. J Drug Deliv. 2017;2017:4759839. doi: 10.1155/2017/4759839. Epub 2017 Apr 5.

Ellerby HM, Bredesen DE, Fujimura S, John V. Hunter-killer peptide (HKP) for targeted therapy. J Med Chem. 2008 Oct 9;51(19):5887-92. doi: 10.1021/jm800495u.

Genka S, Deutsch J, Shetty UH, Stahle PL, John V, Lieberburg IM, Ali-Osman F, Rapoport SI, Greig NH. Development of lipophilic anticancer agents for the treatment of brain tumors by the esterification of water-soluble chlorambucil. Clin Exp Metastasis. 1993 Mar;11(2):131-40.

Greig NH, Stahle PL, Shetty HU, Genka S, John V, Soncrant TT, Rapoport SI. High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of chlorambucil tert.-butyl ester and its active metabolites chlorambucil and phenylacetic mustard in plasma and tissue. J Chromatogr. 1990 Dec 14;534:279-86.

Genka S, Deutsch J, Stahle PL, Shetty UH, John V, Robinson C, Rapoport SI, Greig NH. Brain and plasma pharmacokinetics and anticancer activities of cyclophosphamide and phosphoramide mustard in the rat. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 1990;27(1):1-7.