University of Maryland BS 05/1968 Zoology
State University of New York at Albany PHD 05/1973 Cell Biology
Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellow 1974 Biophysics

I began my academic career as an Assistant Professor at Harvard University and then became an Associate Professor. We developed and applied novel fluorescence-based reagents and live cell imaging technologies to investigate fundamental cellular processes such as cell movements and cell division. I then moved to Carnegie Mellon University as a Professor of Biological Sciences and as Director of the Center for Fluorescence Research in the Biomedical Sciences. In 1991, I became the Director of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Light Microscope Imaging and Biotechnology, and in 1995, I was also named Vice Dean of CMU’s Division of Molecular Sciences. I continued to develop live cell and tissue reagent and imaging technologies, while applying the technologies to understand fundamental processes in cells and tissues. I continued as a leader in the field of non-muscle cell movements and became a leader in the emerging field of digital imaging of dynamic cell biology. I co-founded Biological Detection Systems (BDS) to commercialize the multi-color cyanine dyes and research imaging platforms and it was acquired by Amersham-then GE Life Sciences and now Danaher. I left CMU in 1997 to found Cellomics, Inc., the company that developed High Content Screening (HCS). HCS was the foundation for a shift from focusing primarily on generating images to generating large-scale, quantitative image-based data from cells, tissues and small organisms. I was CEO of this company from 1997 through 2003 when it became part of Thermo Fisher. I then founded a third company, Cellumen, that developed a predictive safety assessment platform using primary hepatocytes, and other key cells with multiplexed panels of reagents, reference safety databases, machine learning and artificial intelligence. I was CEO of Cellumen from 2004 until 2010 when it became part of Cyprotex. I also co- founded Cernostics, Inc., a fluorescence-based, tissue systems pathology company that has created a reimbursed test for selecting at risk Barrett’s esophagus patients and it was acquired by Castle Biosciences in 2022. I returned to academia at the end of 2010 as the Director of the UPitt Drug Discovery Institute to link large- scale patient cell and tissue imaging with human, biomimetic microphysiology systems (MPS) and Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) to optimize drug discovery, development and diagnostics. One of our large team programs focuses on liver associated diseases including NAFLD (MAFLD) and Type 2 Diabetes, melanoma and colon cancer. In addition, we have applied the liver MPS alone and coupled MPS for ADME-TOX. We are recognized as pioneers in coupling human MPS with QSP and other computational methods in drug discovery. We are in an excellent position to translate our experience to developing the next generation of an integrated database/analytics and semi-automated MPS pipeline to produce more reproducible and clinically relevant datasets for precision medicine. I am the co-founder of PredxBio, an unbiased spatial analytics company, and BioSystics, an MPS analytics platform that is adding patient digital twin and patient biomimetic twin technology for precision medicine. BioSystics merged with Nortis, an MPS chip company, and the combined company is focusing on precision medicine. 

Selected Publications in Key Areas 

Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) Coupled to High Content Screening (HCS) 

• Lefever DE, Miedel MT, Pei F, DiStefano JK, Debiasio R, Shun TY, Saydmohammed M, Chikina M, Vernetti LA, Soto-Gutierrez A, Monga SP, Bataller R, Behari J, Yechoor VK, Bahar I, Gough A, Stern AM, Taylor DL. A Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Platform Reveals NAFLD Pathophysiological States and Targeting Strategies. Metabolites. 2022;12(6). doi: 10.3390/metabo12060528. PubMed PMID: 35736460; PMCID: PMC9227696.  
• Taylor, DL et al. Harnessing Human Microphysiology Systems as Key Experimental Models for Quantitative Systems Pharmacology. Handbook of experimental pharmacology, doi:10.1007/164_2019- 239 (2019). 
• Pei, F, Li, H, Henderson, M, Titus, S, Jadhav, A, Simeonov, A, Cobanoglu, MC, Mousavi, S, Shun, TY, McDermott, L, Iyer, P, Fioravanti, M, Carlisle, D, Friedlander, R, Bahar, I, Taylor, DL, Lezon, T, Stern, A, Schurdak, M. (2017). Connecting neuronal cell protective pathways and drug combinations in a Huntington’s Disease model through the application of quantitative systems pharmacology. Sci Reports 7: 17803. DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-17378-y. 
• Stern, AM, Schurdak, ME, Bahar, I, Berg, JM, Taylor, DL. (2016) A perspective on implementing a quantitative systems pharmacology platform for drug discovery and the advancement of personalized medicine. J Biomol Screen.21: 521-534 

 Microphysiological Systems (MPS) for drug discovery and development 

• Gough, A., Soto-Gutierrez, A., Vernetti, L., Ebrahimkhani, M. R., Stern, A. M., & Taylor, D. L. (2021). Human biomimetic liver microphysiology systems in drug development and precision medicine. Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 18(4), 252–268. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-020-00386-1 
• Saydmohammed, M., Jha, A., Mahajan, V., Gavlock, D., Shun, T. Y., DeBiasio, R., Lefever, D., Li, X., Reese, C., Kershaw, E. E., Yechoor, V., Behari, J., Soto-Gutierrez, A., Vernetti, L., Stern, A., Gough, A., Miedel, M. T., & Taylor, DL. (2021). Quantifying the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in human biomimetic liver microphysiology systems with fluorescent protein 
• biosensors. Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.), 246(22), 2420–2441. https://doi.org/10.1177/15353702211009228 
• Schurdak, M., Vernetti, L., Bergenthal, L., Wolter, Q. K., Shun, T. Y., Karcher, S., Taylor, DL, Gough, (2020). Applications of the microphysiology systems database for experimental ADME-Tox and     disease models. Lab Chip, 20(8), 1472-1492. doi:10.1039/c9lc01047e 
• Vernetti, L., Gough, A., Baetz, N., Blutt, S., Broughman, J. R., Brown, J. A., Foulke-Abel, J., Hasan, N., In, J., Kelly, E., Kovbasnjuk, O., Repper, J., Senutovitch, N., Stabb, J., Yeung, C., Zachos, N. C., Donowitz, M., Estes, M., Himmelfarb, J., Truskey, G., Wikswo, J., & Taylor, D. L. (2017). Functional Coupling of Human Microphysiology Systems: Intestine, Liver, Kidney Proximal Tubule, Blood-Brain Barrier and Skeletal Muscle. Scientific reports, 7, 42296. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42296 

Fluorescent analog cytochemistry (FAC) and fluorescent protein biosensors (FPB’s) 

• Taylor DL, Wang Y-L. Fluorescently labelled molecules as probes of the structure and function of living cells.  Nature (Lond.). 1980; 284:405 
• Taylor DL, Amato P, LubyPhelps K, McNeil P. Fluorescent analog cytochemistry. Trends in Biochem Sci. 1984;9:8891 
• Post PL, Trybus KM, Taylor DL.  A genetically engineered, proteinbased optical biosensor  myosin II regulatory light chain phosphorylation. J Biol Chem. 1994;269(17):128807 
• Giuliano KA, Post P, Hahn K, Taylor DL. Fluorescent protein biosensors.  Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct.  1995;24:40534  
• Senutovitch N*, Vernetti, L*, Boltz, R, DeBiasio, R, Gough, A, Taylor, DL. (2015) Fluorescent Protein Biosensors Applied to Microphysiological Systems. Exp Biol Med 240: 795-808. PMID: 25990438 

Tissue spatial biology for patient stratification in clinical trials and diagnostics 

• Furman, S. A., Stern, A. M., Uttam, S., Taylor, D. L., Pullara, F., & Chennubhotla, S. C. (2021). In situ functional cell phenotyping reveals microdomain networks in colorectal cancer recurrence. Cell reports methods, 1(5), 100072. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crmeth.2021.100072 
• Uttam, S, Stern, A, Sevinsky, C, Furman, S, Pullara, F, Spagnolo, D, Nguyen, L, Gough, Ginty, F, Taylor, DL, Chennubhotla, SC. (2020). A spatial analytics computational and systems biology platform predicts risk of colorectal cancer recurrence and identifies emergent spatial domain networks associated with recurrence. Nature Communications 11: 3515. 
• Spagnolo, D. M., Gyanchandani, R., Al-Kofahi, Y., Stern, A. M., Lezon, T. R., Gough, A., Meyer, D. E., Ginty, F., Sarachan, B., Fine, J., Lee, A. V., Taylor, D. L., & Chennubhotla, S. C. (2016). Pointwise mutual information quantifies intratumor heterogeneity in tissue sections labeled with multiple fluorescent biomarkers. Journal of pathology informatics, 7, 47. https://doi.org/10.4103/2153- 3539.194839  
• Pritchard, J., Davison, J., Campbell, B., Repa, K., Reese, L., Nguyen, X., Li, J., Foxwell, T., Taylor, D L, Critchley-Thorne, R. (2015). TissueCypher: A systems biology approach to anatomic pathology. J. Pathol. Inform. 1: 48.