Gavegnano Drug Discovery Program

Laboratory Discovery Teams

Students will learn how candidate therapeutic agents are discovered and validated in laboratory settings and how the data generated in these steps are analyzed and prepared for publication. Students will assist in ongoing work in a lab as a part of partnerships with the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical enterprises to further develop candidate agents for eventual human use.

Collaborative Groups Supporting Student Work

Gavegnano Group | Dennis Liotta Laboratory | Ribeiro Lab | Gordon Lab | Michaelidis Lab | Maier Lab | Robinson Lab

Clinical Protocol Teams

Students will learn how to assemble pre-clinical packages from data generated on lead drug candidates and will actively engage in writing documents required for human clinical trial protocols, which are submitted to the FDA for review and approval before the launch of human clinical trials.

Collaborative Groups Supporting Student Work

Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine | Vincent Marconi, MD | Andy Miller, MD | Jennifer Felger, MD | William Tyor, MD | Candace Fleischer, MD | Gopinath Kaundinya, MD | Atlanta Trauma Alliance | Grady Trauma Project | Emory CFAR

Clinical Trial Data Analysis Teams

Students will learn how to perform “big data analysis” on data generated from human trials, which ultimately helps to shape the understanding of how novel agents impact humans during the trials. Students will assist in preparing datasets for publication and continue collaborative discovery and human trial efforts with pharma, NIH, and other partners. Data will also be used to help inform larger clinical trials built upon data collected from the Clinical Trial Data Analysis Teams.

Clinical Trial Shadowing Teams

Students will have the unique opportunity to shadow our clinical teams as the clinical trials from agents discovered in our groups are launched at Emory sites. Shadowing will encompass clinical visits, specimen collection, and data collection for endpoints for the human studies launched in our groups.

Collaborative groups supporting student work:

Gavegnano Group clinical study with Cecile Lahiri and Susan Ribeiro: Elucidating the role of the gut reservoir and inflammation in driving cardiovascular disease among persons living with HIV

Licensing and Marketing Team

Students will learn how to engage in licensing new drugs, a key step in bringing new drugs to market. In tandem, students will learn about marketing strategies to facilitate knowledge about these new drugs to the lay and clinical populations, which pairs with successfully launching new drugs and saving lives across different diseases.

Collaborative groups supporting student work:

Radyus Research

Bioethics Team

Students will learn about the role of ethics in human clinical trials and the critical balance of doing the best for patients while ensuring safe, fair, and transparent trial design, enrollment, and patient care. Students will also learn about the role of bioethics in post-approval drug accessibility for all groups and the logistical hurdles that exist towards access and equity for life-saving therapeutics.