2nd Annual Science Day
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 8:30 am - 4:00 pm in the Education Union Auditorium
Science Day is an annual event hosted by Saint Louis University School of Medicine Office of Research. This annual event features discussions with colleagues in science, topical presentations and a keynote speaker.
Keynote Speaker: Anthony Sardella, founder of evolve24 and chair of the API Innovation Center at Cortex

Anthony Sardella serves as chair of the API Innovation Center at Cortex, focused on advancing innovation in the field of drug manufacturing to foster U.S. health security. He has recently published a series of papers on U.S. health security and the fragility of the U.S. drug supply chain. He is also the chair of the Bellwether Foundation Brookings Commission, studying analytical solutions to detect the diversion of opioids in the drug supply chain.
Founder of evolve24, Sardella is a leader in predictive analytics and decision sciences. CIO Magazine and Forrester Research have repeatedly ranked the company among the top big data and analytics companies.
Previously, Sardella served as chief innovation and growth officer for a privately held company, where he led innovation and investment efforts to drive profitable growth opportunities for the portfolio. He also served as the director of analytics at Monsanto Company and contributed to developing and implementing strategies for faster adoption of Monsanto’s suite of biotechnology products.
Sardella is a toxicologist by training and has authored or co-authored more than 25 watershed research papers in the field of human health and environmental risk assessment, prepared on behalf of the World Health Organization, government agencies and non-governmental scientific bodies.
2023 Science Day Agenda
Welcome by Adriana M. Montaño, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Research
Resources Available at our SLU Cores
Presenters include:
Edwin Antony, Ph.D., Structural Proteomics
Andy Hall, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Manufacturing
Fahu He, Ph.D., Saint Louis University High Resolution NMR Facility
Fran Sverdrup, Ph.D., Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation - "Fostering
Drug Discovery at SLU"
Sharon Frey, M.D., Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development - "Saving
Lives with Vaccines"
Leslie Hinyard, Ph.D., The Advanced Health Data (AHEAD) Research Institute
Grant Kolar, Ph.D., The Research Microscopy and Histology Care
Maureen Donlin, Ph.D. & Michelle Pherson, Ph.D., Saint Louis Genomics Core Facility
Enbal Shacham, Ph.D., Taylor Geospatial Institute
Research Updates from SLU Core Users:
Rachel Schafer, Ph.D. student, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Andy Wu, M.D., Ph.D. student, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Reagan McGuffee, M.D., Ph.D. student, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Richard DiPaolo, Ph.D., Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology - "Research
Advances Using Single-Cell Transcriptomics in the Genomics Core"
Enrico Di Cera, M.D., Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - "The WUCCI-SLU
Agreement"
Gina Yosten, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Jeffery Scherrer, Ph.D., Community and Family Medicine - "Just In Time (JIT) Grants:
Working with ICTS Cores"
Introduction of Keynote Speaker by Christine Jacobs, M.D., Dean and Vice President of Medical Affairs
Keynote Speaker - Anthony Sardella, founder of evolve24 and chair of the API Innovation Center at Cortex
Topic: Building a Resilient US Drug Supply Chain Through Private-Public Partnerships
Anne Miller, Director of Research Commercialization, Saint Louis University Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) - "Technology Transfer: From Invention to Commercialization"
Huzeyfe Yilmaz, Ph.D., Division of Complex Drug Analysis- Office of Testing and Research & Food and Drug Administration - Center for Drug Evaluation and Research - "FDA's Role in Laboratory-Based Drug Assessment and Research"
What Does Innovation Success Look Like?
Presenters:
John Tavis, Ph.D., Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Tomasz Heyduk, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - "Practical
biophysics: Employing Simple Biophysical Principles for Detection of Biomolecules"
Adriana Montano, Ph.D., Department of Pediatrics
John Walker, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Pharmacology and Physiology
Brent Tetri, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine- Liver Center