Programs and Operations Staff
Elizabeth Ponder, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Dr. Elizabeth Ponder joined Stanford ChEM-H in 2014 as the Associate Director. She leads planning and operations for ChEM-H in partnership with the faculty executive committee. Dr. Ponder completed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral training at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Bogyo. Her past work has included promoting public-private partnerships in the non-profit sector, managing multidisciplinary research in the higher education sector, and business development consulting in the for-profit biotech sector. Dr. Ponder joined ChEM-H from the University of California, Berkeley where she served as the Executive Director of the Henry Wheeler Center for Emerging & Neglected Diseases (CEND).
Kathy Morway
Administrative Associate
Macromolecular Structure Knowledge Center Staff
Marc C. Deller, D. Phil.
Head, Macromolecular Structure Knowledge Center
Dr. Marc C. Deller joined Stanford ChEM-H in August of 2015 as the Head of the Macromolecular Structure Knowledge Center. Dr. Deller graduated with a D.Phil. from The University of Oxford in 2000, where he carried out research in the laboratory of Prof. E. Yvonne Jones on the structure and function of cytokines and cytokine receptors. He continued research in this field for his postdoctoral training at Yale University in the laboratory of Prof. Elias Lolis. Dr. Deller joins ChEM-H with 15 years of combined industrial and academic experience in high-throughput protein expression, purification, crystallization and structure determination, including time at both Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and The Joint Center for Structural Genomics at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.
Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center Staff
Mark Smith, Ph.D.
Head, Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center
Dr. Mark Smith joined Stanford ChEM-H in May 2013 as the Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the laboratory of Prof. Richard Stoodley at the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (UMIST), where his research focused on the application of Lewis acid catalyzed hetero Diels-Alder reactions to the synthesis of novel disaccharide structures. In 2000, Dr. Smith joined the research laboratory of Prof. David Crich at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Here his research focused on the generation of new reagents for the synthesis of beta-mannosides from thioglycosides. From 2002 to 2013, Dr. Smith worked as a medicinal chemist in Roche’s research facilities both in Palo Alto, CA and then Nutley, NJ, where he specialized in antiviral research.
Nick Cox, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar, Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center
Dr. Nick Cox joined the Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center at Stanford ChEM-H in 2014 as a postdoctoral scholar. Dr. Cox completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Washington under the supervision of Prof. Gojko Lalic. Dr. Cox is primarily interested in applying synthetic chemistry to aid research in the development of new technologies for treating human diseases. At present, Dr. Cox is collaborating with Prof. Gerald Grant of the Stanford School of Medicine and Prof. Jennifer Cochran of the Stanford Department of Bioengineering to develop molecular tools for the treatment of gliomas.
Dave McCutcheon, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar, Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center
Dr. Dave McCutcheon joined the Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center at Stanford ChEM-H in July 2015 as a postdoctoral scholar. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Prescher at the University of California–Irvine, where he developed an expedient method to synthesize D-luciferin, the bioluminescent substrate for firefly luciferase, along with a novel set modified analogues. Dr. McCutcheon’s primary research interest is the application of organic chemistry to further the understanding of biological systems and thereby improve human health. Presently, he is involved in collaborations with the laboratories of Dr. Justin Annes and Dr. Ellen Yeh within the Stanford School of Medicine.
Timothy Rhorer, M.S.
Research Assistant, Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center
Timothy Rhorer joined Stanford ChEM-H in September of 2014 as a research assistant for the Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center. He earned his Master of Science in Chemistry from Colorado State University under the direction of Prof. Tomislav Rovis. At Colorado State his research focused on the development of new carbene catalysts and the optimization of multi-catalytic cascade reactions. Tim has spent the last several years working as a medicinal chemistry research associate at Crestone Inc., a Colorado based pharmaceutical start-up, where he performed advanced lead optimization on a series of antibacterial small molecules.
