Michael J. Baltezor, Ph.D.

Director, BIO Center
Deputy Director, IAMI
785 864-1040
Fax: 785 864-5097
mbaltezor@ku.edu

Dr. Baltezor has been involved in the development of pharmaceutical and medical products for over 30 years. This includes a spectrum of ethical and OTC drugs and devices including traditional oral solid and liquid dosage forms, topical products and sterile products. Many of these involved novel drug delivery approaches and/or required resolution of solubility/stability issues. Mike’s primary areas of expertise are in pharmaceutics, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, QA/regulatory and other chemistry, manufacturing and controls activities.

Dr. Baltezor’s responsibilities have included management of both scientific disciplines and business disciplines with the goal of optimizing new product development efforts and providing an environment that encouraged teamwork. Scientific disciplines included preclinical, pharmaceutics/pre-formulation, analytical chemistry, clinical packaging, central clinical laboratory and Phase I through IV clinical development. Business disciplines included project management, business development, finance and contracts/legal. 

Scott Weir, Ph.D.

Director, IAMI
785 864-1945
Fax: 785 864-1916
sweir@kumc.edu

Dr. Weir's research focuses on clinical pharmacology and developing innovative approaches to advance promising drug candidates from discovery through early drug development. He has over 22 years of professional experience in the field of drug discovery and development. He joined Marion Laboratories Inc. in 1986 as a clinical pharmacokineticist. His leadership, experience and relationships in industry are paving the way for the University of Kansas Cancer Center to attain its goal of becoming the No. 1 academic generator of onocology drugs.

In addition to his position as director of the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation, Dr. Weir also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics at the University of Kansas Medical Center and is the program leader for the Drug Discovery, Delivery and Development program for the University of Kansas Cancer Center. He also holds a courtesy faculty appointment within the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Kansas and is the Frank B. Tyler Cancer Research Professor in Therapeutic Discovery.

Lian Rajewski , Ph.D.
Research Professor
785 864-2048
Fax: 785 864-5097
lrajewski@ku.edu

 Dr. Rajewski has extensive experience developing oral solid dosage formulas from conducting laboratory research and leading large multidisciplinary teams of scientists to conducting market research and preparing commercialization plans. At the BIO Center Dr. Rajewski collaborates with non-profit organizations on the reformulation of drugs for the pediatric population, works with project team members to define a commercialization strategy for products that are developed, prepares documents appropriate for technology transfer to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities and performs technical evaluation of patents.
 

Rodney Deeken
Research Associate
785 864-5138
Fax: 785 864-5097
roddeeken@ku.edu

Rodney Deeken has more than 20 years experience in pharmaceutical research and development in both compliance-based (GMP) and research-based projects. He has focused on protein determinations in support of in vivo drug studies for early stage experimental oncology compounds. Currently, he is developing protein extraction techniques for use with both Western Blot analysis and ELISA analysis. This work includes optimization of immuno-reagent selection and western blot procedures to provide  semi-quantitative western  blot data. Recent efforts are focused on ELISA techniques to provide better sensitivity and precision in the evaluation of these experimental compounds.
 

John Haslam, Ph.D.
Research Associate
785 864-4847
Fax: 785 864-5097
jhaslam@ku.edu

Dr. Haslam has more than 40 years of industrial and academic research experience. Dr. Haslam has extensive research experience with the development of drug delivery systems including immediate and sustained release of tablets and capsules.
 

Stefano Pogany, Ph.D.
Research Associate
785 864-5138
Fax: 785 864-5097
StefanoPogany@ku.edu

Dr. Pogany has many years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He specializes in analytical chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry. He spent much of his career at Merck and Co. where he invented and prepared new prodrugs. He developed and validated several HPLC and GC assays in use by pharmaceutical companies and has been involved in the synthesis of bioerodible polymers as matrices for drug release. In addition, Dr. Pogany worked for the Department of Defense on the conception and synthesis of high temperature lubricants for Army tanks.
 

Karl Schorno, Ph.D.
Research Associate
785 864-5138
Fax: 785 864-5097
kschorno@ku.edu

Dr. Schorno has over 30 years experience working in the pharmaceutical industry and in academic settings. More than 10 years of this experience has been focused on developing assays for drugs and their metabolites for pharmacokinetic analysis using LC/MS. Dr. Schorno has worked at Kansas City Analytical Services as the Analytical Director and then as the Director of Methods Developments. He also worked at Applied Analytical Industries for two years working with analytical scientists in the development of LC/MS methods.
 

Mehmet Tanol, Ph.D.
Research Associate
785 864-5138
Fax: 785 864-5097
mtanol@ku.edu

Dr. Tanol has extensive experience working independently on the organic synthesis of small molecules and peptide molecules. Dr. Tanol has more than 20 years experience in an academic research environment. His expertise includes synthesis of prodrugs (POM , Cyclic Peptides); total synthesis of potentially active heterocycles; stereoselective total synthesis of natural products with pharmacological activity; synthesis of new biodegradable transdermal penetration enhancers; studies on physicochemical properties of synthesized compounds, leading to SAR and QSAR studies; preparation of the new enhancers and prodrugs for targeted drug delivery systems; and structure elucidation of unknown compounds using spectrometric methods.
 

Doug Brown
Senior Research Assistant
785 864-5193
Fax: 785 864-5097
dougbrown@ku.edu

Doug Brown performs lead optimization studies for drug discovery on various cancer compounds to determine cytotoxicity on cancer cell lines. He has eight years of industrial experience in which he performed biopharmaceutical quality control testing for release and stability studies of human drug products under cGMP/GLP guidelines, regulated and maintained all cell lines for use in bioassays, performed various tests on food products to ensure their quality and performed viral antigen production through upstream and downstream processes.
 

Kathy Heppert
Senior Research Assistant
785 864-5138
Fax: 785 864-5097
kheppert@ku.edu

Kathy Heppert's area of expertise is in separation methods. She has 14 years of industrial experience, largely involved with development of separation methods for the analysis of drugs in biological matrices. Her expertise includes HPLC with UV, fluorescent and electrochemical detection and gas chromatography with FID, NDP, ECD and MS detection, and NMR and FTIR instrumentation.
 

Nancy Schwarting
Research Assistant
785 864-1523
Fax: 785 864-5097
nschwarting@ku.edu
 

Nancy Schwarting has expertise in animal handling including dosing of pharmaceutical agents and gathering biological fluids for analysis. She handles in vivo studies including control and CIA models of rheumatoid arthritis.