State University of New York at Stony Brook B.S. Chemistry 1971
University of California at Los Angeles Ph.D Biological Chemistry 1977
Brandeis University Postdoctoral Fellow Biochemistry 1980

As Director of Novel Therapeutics of the Drug Discovery Institute of University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine my goal is to provide team-oriented therapeutics-focused scientific leadership to help guide highly collaborative multidisciplinary drug and biomarker discovery teams comprised of experienced professionals, physician scientists, faculty, fellows and graduate students. Our goal is to determine the mechanisms of disease progression and, based on the knowledge gained, identify biomarkers and develop novel therapies. I collaborate with several teams both within and outside the Drug Discovery Institute. We have developed and implemented a broadly applicable Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) platform to understand fundamental underpinnings of liver diseases, Type 2 Diabetes, glioma, breast and colon cancer metastasis, and neurodegenerative diseases. I have experience leading drug discovery/development teams in both the academic and industrial communities from an early discovery stage through clinical development and approval. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh, I served as the Associate Director, Novel Therapeutics at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. I co-led several cancer- related projects, served as a consultant to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research and was responsible for designing and implementing several phenotypic screens and animal model studies in conjunction with integrative approaches to target identification. These efforts helped establish the Broad Institute as a MLPCN Core Screening Center. Before joining the Broad, I spent 17 years in the pharmaceutical industry with Merck and then DuPont/Merck Pharmaceuticals where I served as the Executive Director, Chemical Enzymology. In addition to playing a key role in the discovery, development, and approval of the nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor for HIV, Sustiva, my team identified presenilin as the pharmacologic target of gamma-secretase inhibitors that led to clinical candidates for Alzheimer’s disease and an oncology indication. In addition to experience developing drugs, I led the effort at Merck/DuPont that elucidated the mechanism of drug-induced thrombocytopenia by a class of fibrinogen receptor antagonists. Based upon these studies, my team then developed a diagnostic test for predicting those individual patients at risk for developing thrombocytopenia thereby reducing the incidence from 2-5% to <0.1%.  

 Selected Publications: 

• Lefever D*, Miedel MT*, Fen P*, DiStefano J, Saydmohammed, Chikina M, DeBiasio R, Shun, TY, Vernetti L, Soto-Gutierrez A, Monga S, Bataller R, Behari J, Yechoor V; Bahar I, Gough A, Stern, A, Taylor D. A Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Platform Reveals NAFLD Pathophysiological States and Targeting Strategies. Metabolites 2022 Jun 7;12(6). doi: 10.3390/metabo12060528. PubMed PMID: 35736460; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9227696. 
• Gough A, Soto-Gutierrez A, Vernetti L, Ebrahimkhani MR, Stern AM, Taylor DL. Human biomimetic liver microphysiology systems in drug development and precision medicine. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 Apr;18(4):252-268. doi: 10.1038/s41575-020-00386-1. Epub 2020 Dec 17. Review. PubMed PMID: 33335282; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9106093. 
•  Furman SA, Stern AM, Uttam S, Taylor DL, Pullara F, Chennubhotla S. In situ functional cell phenotyping reveals microdomain networks in colorectal cancer recurrence. Cell Reports Methods. 2021 September; 1(5). doi: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2021.100072. 
•  Chen F, Shi Q, Pei F, Vogt A, Porritt RA, Garcia G Jr, Gomez AC, Cheng MH, Schurdak ME, Liu B, Chan SY, Arumugaswami V, Stern AM, Taylor DL, Arditi M, Bahar I. A systems-level study reveals host-targeted repurposable drugs against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Mol Syst Biol. 2021 Aug;17(8):e10239. doi: 10.15252/msb.202110239. PubMed PMID: 34339582; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8328275. 
•  Saydmohammed M, Jha A, Mahajan V, Gavlock D, Shun TY, DeBiasio R, Lefever D, Li X, Reese C, Kershaw EE, Yechoor V, Behari J, Soto-Gutierrez A, Vernetti L, Stern A, Gough A, Miedel MT, Lansing Taylor D. Quantifying the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in human biomimetic liver microphysiology systems with fluorescent protein biosensors. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2021 Nov;246(22):2420-2441. doi: 10.1177/15353702211009228. Epub 2021 May 6. Review. PubMed PMID: 33957803; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8606957.