Scientist Position: Director, Assay Development

Prior to joining Sanford Burnham Prebys Eduard Sergienko was at Triad Therapeutics Inc., a company pioneering NMR- and enzymology-guided fragment-based drug discovery approaches. Starting in 2001, Eduard served as Enzymology group leader and member of several drug discovery project teams. The work of his group was instrumental in identification, optimization and characterization of a preclinical candidate acquired by Novartis Pharma AG (Switzerland) for advancing into clinical trials.

Eduard has over 20 years of experience in the field of biochemistry, with an emphasis on assay design and mechanistic enzymology. He graduated and received his PhD in Biochemistry from the Lomonosov Moscow University (Russia), where his doctoral thesis focused on the role of posttranslational modifications in the regulation of glycolytic enzymes. He furthered his expertise through training as a post-doctoral fellow at Henry Poincare University, France, and Rutgers University, New Jersey focusing on mechanistic enzymology, enzyme kinetics and assay design and development.

Techniques and Technologies
Assay Development

Dr. Sergienko has over 20 years of experience, which ranges from basic discovery to translational research. His primary field of expertise is in enzymology, protein chemistry, assay development and chemical biology. Eduard has an established track record of developing cell-based and biochemical assays. He applies his expertise in quantitative biology to designing biologically-relevant assays and devising optimal conditions for identification of small-molecule compounds with desired biological properties.

Dr. Sergienko has established collaborations with Principal Investigators within and outside Sanford Burnham Prebys, which has resulted in drug discovery and chemical biology projects in diverse therapeutic areas. Many of these collaborations attract funding through peer-reviewed mechanisms from NIH centers and institutes and diverse Disease Foundations. Similarly, during the Prebys Center’s participation as one of the four comprehensive centers within NIH Roadmap Initiative Molecule Library Probe production Center Network (MLPCN, and MLSCN prior to this), Eduard collaborated with and helped hundreds investigators within US and around the world with translating their unique biological discoveries and know-how into quantifiable detection properties applicable to lead identification and chemical biology. Eduard’s contributions to the fundamental and applied science (i.e. small molecule drug discovery and chemical biology) comprise 52 publications and 42 book chapters, 34 of which are “NIH Probe Reports” from the Molecular Libraries and 8 chapters are on assay development principles and techniques. Of note, 35 peer-reviewed publications resulted directly from collaborations.