Jehad Alamaliti (CV)

 

EDUCATION: Date	Degree	Institute
September/2013	Doctor of Philosophy with minor in business administration	Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH - Advisor: Dr. Viranga Tillekeratne
June/2007	Bachelor of Pharmacy (5-Years program equivalent to Doctor of Pharmacy in USA- verified by ECE)	University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

• September/2017- Current; Co-founder and Scientific Chief Officer at CyanoRx Pharmaceutical Company Based on Ningbo, China.
• November/2015-Current; Visiting Professor, Center of Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.
• November/2015-Current; Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, the University of Jordan.
• April/2014-November/2015; Postdoctoral Researcher (NIH Funded Postdoctoral Fellowship); Center of Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.
• Aug/2008-Sep/2013; Graduate Teaching Assistant; Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry, College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toledo
• June/2007-Aug/2008; Research Scientist - Formulation and Drug Delivery; North America Team, Research & Development Department, Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (Multinational Generic drugs company), Amman, Jordan.

 

 

Expertise:

 

• Synthetic medicinal chemistry.
• Isolation and structure elucidation of natural products.
• Drug delivery and formulation science.
• Analytical Chemistry.

 

Team Skills:

 

• Experience in managing a group of graduate/undergraduate students. During my teaching Experience in the University of Toledo, I have taught and organized undergraduate laboratories and classes. I have also supervised MS/PhD students’ research during my postdoctoral experience at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.
• Experience in managing students group organizations (vice president of MSA at the University of Toledo).
• Experience in working as a part of industrial research team and achieve the team’s goals efficiently.

 

Technical Skills:

 

• Knowledge of cyanobacteria chemical extraction, isolation and structure elucidation of their natural products
  • Expertise in medicinal chemistry, drug design and development
  • Lead discovery, lead optimization, structure activity relationship studies
    • Designing and carrying out multistep organic syntheses of natural products and small molecules with biological activity
    • Lead optimization and structure-activity relationship studies
    • Experience in microwave synthesis
    • Extensive knowledge and expreince in microscale-laboratory sytnetic techniques
    • Knowledge of pharmacokinetics and other drug design aspects.
    • Design formulations and develop manufacturing processes to support product development
    • Experience in Enzyme assay and method development
    • Expertise in Pharmaceutical formulations and various drug delivery techniques.
    • Perform technology transfer to or from production sites and train/assist technicians in scale-up and production.
    • Comply with all regulations as specified by FDA, and as defined in the Corporate Hygiene plan.
    • Assist in the writing and preparation of batch records, SOPs, development reports, and any other documentation required to support product development.
    • Document all experiments appropriately in a timely manner to facilitate and secure patent filings.
    • Skillful operation and maintenance of NMR, mass spectrometry, and HPLC.

• Purification methods including: fractional distillation, crystallization.
• Chromatography techniques: Flash column chromatography, automated flash chromatography (Combiflash®), Preperative TLC, HPLC, LC-MS and MPLC.
• Characterization of Organic Compounds: ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, COSY/TOCSY, HMBC, NOESY, HSMQC, FT-IR, Mass Spectrometry and polarimetry.
• Fragment based drug design and synthesis of natural products-inspired bioactive molecules.

Honors/ Awards and Accomplishments:

• Postdoctoral Fellowship: Fellowship is awarded by higher ministry of Edutaion/Jordan to pursue proposed research project at the University of California, San Diego for the academic year of  2017/2018 (The award Value is 40000$).
• Mobility Teaching Award by Erasmus Mundus: Erasmus mundus teaching mobility fellowship is awarded to fund an invitation for one-week of exchange teaching at the Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey, April/2017. Award value of 2000$.
• Business/Honor Award: Our UCSD team (Dr. William Gerwick, Dr. Jehad Almaliti and Baiely Miller) were honored to win the third place in the fourth annual TriNet challenge (which a business competition that encourages bright minds at UC San Diego to submit competitive project ideas for innovative, commercially promising, environmentally focused technology). The project was titled “Biomarine Surfactants” in which our team has discovered biosurfactants from a marine cyanobacterium, and developed a simple one-step method to produce from plant oils. The award value was 1500$.
• Research Grant: Innovative Multi-Disciplinary Research Grant was awarded for the amount of 25,000$ for a project entitled “Targeting Electrophilic Stress for Healthy Aging”. http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/health_aging_initiative_at_uc_san_diego_announces_inaugural_research_projec
• Honor Award: 1^st place award for oral presentation at the UCSD Post-doc open-mic night series.
• Honor Award: 1^st place oral presentation award, 46^th Annual Mid-Atlantic Graduate Student Symposium, The Ohio-State University, College of Pharmacy, Columbus, OH, June/2013. Award and research were featured in the University of Toledo Newsletter Sep/2013 (http://issuu.com/utcp/docs/refill_september_2013_hc). (Award cash value of 2000$)
• Travel Grant: American Chemical Society, Division of Medicinal Chemistry Travel Award to attend the 245^th ACS National Meeting and Exposition, New Orleans, LA, Apr/2013. Award and research were featured in the University of Toledo Newsletter June/2013 (http://issuu.com/utcp/docs/refill_june_2013). (Grant amount of 1000$)
• Travel Award: American Chemical Society, Division of Organic Chemistry Travel Award to attend the 245^th ACS National Meeting and Exposition, New Orleans, LA, Apr/2013. ( Award value of 600$)
• Travel Award: Wayne and Dorothy Hoss Fund for Graduate Education, the University of Toledo Foundation, to attend and present poster at the 243rd ACS National Meeting, March/2012. (Award Value of 1000$)
• Travel Award: Graduate Students Association, University of Toledo. To attend and present poster at the Annual Chemistry Graduate Students Symposium, Buffalo, NY, May 16-18, 2012. (Award Value of 300$)
• Undergraduate Student Fund: The winner of Japanese Government Scholarship for Foreign Undergraduate Studies, 2005-2006.
• Travel Award: Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC Travel Award, for presenting at the International Arab Pharmacists Conference, April/2008.
• Jordanian National Board of Pharmacy Qualification Exam (NBPQE): 11^th rank (out of 390 students), percentile rank of 2.8%, July/2007.

 

Presentations:

• Invited Speaker:
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Discovery of Novel Plasmodium-Selective Proteasome Inhibitors Based on the Natural Product Scaffold of Carmaphycin B” Invited by Skaggs School of Pharmacy, UCSD, San Diego, CA, September 29, 2017.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Integrating Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Natural Products for Lead Optimization.” Invited by Natural Products Affinity Group (NPAG) at the University of California, San Diego, CA, June 12, 2015.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation for Novel Malaria Proteasome Inhibitors as Potent and Selective Anti-Malarial Drug Leads.” College of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, November 2, 2016.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation for Novel Malaria Proteasome Inhibitors as Potent and Selective Anti-Malarial Drug Leads.” College of Pharmacy, Jordan University for Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, Septemeber 21, 2016.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Mining for Drug Leads in Crude Natural Products through Novel Medicinal Chemistry Approaches.” College of Pharmacy, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, United States, June 06, 2016.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S., “Integrating Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Natural Products for Lead Optimization.” Invited by Natural Products Affinity Group (NPAG) at the University of California, San Diego, CA, June 12, 2015.
  • Jehad Almaliti , Lena Keller, Gregory M. LaMonte, Betsaida BiboVerdugo, Bing Yu Zou, Jennifer Wang , Yevgeniya Antonova-Koch , Pamela Orjuela-Sanchez, Colleen A. Boyle , Edgar Vigil, Lawrence Wang , Greg Goldgof , Lena Gerwick , Anthony J. O’Donoghue, Elizabeth A. Winzeler, William H. Gerwick, and Sabine Ottilie, A Natural Product ‘MAKEOVER’ – Development Of Plasmodium-Selective Proteasome Inhibitors Aa Antimalarial Agents Based on Carmaphycin B” 2017 Annual meeting of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, Portland, OR, July 30^th , 2017.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S. Baiely Miller, Evgenia Glukhov, Toni Kline, Jeffrey Hanson^, Xiaofan Li, Sihon Zhou, William H. Gerwick, “Integrating Synthetic Organic Chemistry and Natural Products for Lead Optimization- the Carmaphycins as Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) Warhead” The 4^th International Conference of the School of Pharmacy at The University of Jordan, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, October 24, 2016
  • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Largazole Analogues Containing Modified Surface Recognition Cap Groups: Synthesis and Biological Activity.” 46th Annual Mid- Atlantic Graduate Student Symposium, The Ohio-State University, College of Pharmacy, Columbus, OH, June 9-11, 2013.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Hanigan, Christin L.; Casero, Robert A., Jr.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Largazole analogues with modified surface recognition cap groups: Design, synthesis and biological activity.” 44th Central Regional Meeting of the ACS, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, United States, May 15-17, 2013.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Synthesis and Biological Activity of Novel Largazole Analogues with Modified Surface Recognition Cap Group.” 8th Annual Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Program Symposium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, April 30, 2013.
  • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Bhansali, Pravin; Hanigan, Christin L.; Casero, Robert A., Jr.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Largazole Analogues with Modified Surface Recognition Cap Groups Targeting Histone Deacetylases.” 245th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, LA, United States, April 7-11, 2013.
    • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Bhansali, Pravin; Hanigan, Christin L.; Casero, Robert A., Jr.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Synthesis and Biological Activity of Largazole Analogs Targeting Histone Deacetylases.” 244th ACS National Meeting & Exposition, Philadelphia, PA, United States, August 19-23, 2012.
    • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Nada, Shadia; Shah, Zahoor A.; Tillekeratne, L. M. Viranga. “Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Neuroprotective Natural Products mimics.” 30^th Annual Chemistry Graduate Student Symposium, Buffalo, NY, May 16-18, 2012.
    • Almaliti, Jehad S.; Madineni, Anusha; Nada, Shadia; Shah, Zahoor A.; Tillekeratne, L. M. Viranga. “Neuroprotective Activities of a Common Structural Motif in Neuroprotective Natural Products.”  243rd ACS National Meeting & Exposition, San Diego, CA, United States, March 25-29, 2012. 

 

Professional Membership:

• Member of the Originator Drugs Registration Committee, Jordanian Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) 2017.
• Member, American Chemical Society (ACS), Division of Organic Chemistry and Division of Medicinal Chemistry since 2010.
• Member, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) since 2008.
• Member, Jordanian Pharmaceutical Association since 2007

 

Publications:

• A Rua’a, Malek A Zihlif, Hana Hammad, Zeyad D Nassar, Jehad Al Maliti, Mutasem O Taha “Ligand-based computational modelling of platelet-derived growth factor beta receptor leading to new angiogenesis inhibitory leads” Computational and Biological Chemistry 2017, 71, 170-179.
  • C. Benjamin Naman,* Jehad Almaliti,* Lorene Armstrong,*  Eduardo J. Caro-Diaz, Marsha L. Pierce, Evgenia Glukhov, Amanda Fenner, Carmenza Spadafora, Hosana M. Debonsi, Pieter C. Dorrestein, Thomas F. Murray, William H. Gerwick “Discovery and Synthesis of Caracolamide A, a Calcium Channel Modulating Dichlorovinylidene Containing Acyl Amide from a Panamanian Marine Cyanobacterium cf. Symploca sp.” Journal of Natural Products 2017, 80 (8), 2328-2334.* Authors contributed equally
  • Almaliti, Jehad; Gutierrez, Marcelino; Gerwick, William. “Dudawalamide A-D, cytotoxic members of the Kulolide Superfamily of Cyclic Depsipeptides from Marine Cyanobacterium”, Journal of Natural Products 2017, 80 (6), 1827–1836.
  • Almaliti, Jehad; Negmeldin, Ahmed T.; Hanigan, Christin L.; Perera, Lalith; Casero, Pflum, Mary K. H., Robert A., Jr.; Tillekeratne, Viranga. “Largazole Analogues Embodying Radical Changes in the Depsipeptide Ring: Development of a More Selective and   Highly Potent Analogue”, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59 (23), 10642-10660.
  • Co-author of “Sharing and Community Curation of Mass Spectrometry Data with Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking”, Nature Biotechnology 2016, 34, 828-837.
  • Paatero, Anja O.; Kellosalo, Juho; Dunyak, Bryan M.; Almaliti, Jehad; Gestwicki, Jason E.; Gerwick, William H.; Taunton, Jack; Paavilainen, Ville O. “Apratoxin Kills Cells by Direct Blockade of the Sec61 Protein Translocation Channel”, Cell Chemical Biology 2016, 23(5), 561-566.
  • Karin Kleigrewe, Jehad Almaliti, Isaac Yuheng Tian, Robin B. Kinnel, Anton Korobeynikov, Emily A. Monroe, Brendan Duggan, Vincenzo Di Marzo, David H. Sherman, Pieter Dorrestein, Lena Gerwick and William H. Gerwick. “Combining Mass Spectrometric Metabolic Profiling with Genomic Analysis: A Powerful Approach for Discovering New Natural Products from Cyanobacteria.” Journal of Natural Products 2015, 78(7), 1671-1682.
  • Almaliti, Jehad; Nada, Shadia E.; Shah, Zahoor A.; Tillekeratne, L. M. Viranga. “Natural Products Inspired Synthesis of Neuroprotective Agents Against H₂O₂-Induced Cell Death.” Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2013, 23 (5), 1232-1237.

·         Gregory M. LaMonte*, Jehad Almaliti,* Betsaida Bibo-Verdugo,* Lena Keller,* Bing Yu Zou, Jennifer Yang, Yevgeniya Antonova-Koch, Pamela Orjuela-Sanchez, Colleen A. Boyle, Edgar Vigil, Lawrence Wang, Gregory M. Goldgof, Lena Gerwick, Anthony J. O’Donoghue, Elizabeth A. Winzeler, William H. Gerwick, and Sabine Ottilie, “Development of a Potent Inhibitor of the Plasmodium Proteasome with Reduced Mammalian Toxicity” Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2017, 60 (15), 6721-6732. * Authors contributed equally

 

Patents:

 

• Almaliti, J.; Al-Hamashi, A.; Bhansali, P.; Tillekeratne, L. M. V. “HDAC Inhibitors as Anti-Cancer Agents.” US Patent No. 14/712,341 filled on May 14, 2015.
• Provisional patent: Almaliti, J.; Gerwick, W.; “Selective Immunoproteasome Inhibitor” US patent application No. 62/506,062.