Molecular Glues beyond borders
Meet the Team
Discover the innovative potential of Ligronbio, a groundbreaking Biotech firm founded in 2023 with expertise in structure based drug design, structural biology, bioinformatics, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. We are proud to have a world-renowned scientific advisory committee that brings together the best minds in the industry. With their expertise and insights, we are confident in our ability to achieve new heights in the field of targeted protein degradation.
Nataraj Pagadala, Ph.D
Founder & CEO
The Company was founded by Dr. Pagadala. Dr. Pagadala has more than 20 years of experience in the area of computational drug discovery. Dr. P. Nataraj Sekhar passed his M.Sc with Biochemistry in the year 2001 with first division from Srikrishna Devaraya University, Anantapur, India. Later, Dr. Pagadala did his advanced diploma course in Bioinformatics during the years 2001-2003. After completion, Dr. Pagadala worked as a part time faculty for advanced diploma course in Bioinformatics for three years from 2003-2006. Dr. Pagadala handled both the theory and practicals on sequence analysis, phylogenetics, genomics, protein structure predictions, protein-protein interactions, ligand docking and structure based and ligand-based drug design for the master students in Bioinformatics.
Dr. Pagadala joined in the Department of Genetics, Osmania University, Hyderabad for his Ph.D. degree in the year 2004 and completed it in the year 2007. Dr. Pagadala worked on 'Designing of new inhibitors for cyclooxygenase-2 involved in human diseases' for his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Dr. L. Ananda Reddy. Dr. Pagadala worked as a head of Computational Chemistry in Global Institute for Biotechnology, Hyderabad from 2006 to 2007. Dr. Pagadala also worked as a research associate for open-eye software from 2005 to 2007 and conducted two nation workshops on molecular modeling and computer aided drug design during my Ph.D period. Dr. Pagadala gave many seminars in national workshops and in most of the universities including the prestigious institute like "BITS Ranchi" on "computer aided drug design". After completion of his Ph.D, Dr. Pagadala did one year postdoc on development of peptidomemitics for the inhibition of integrase with its cofactor LEDGF based on NMR studies under the guidance of Prof. Marc De Maeyer from 2008-2009.
Dr. Pagadala also worked as assistant professor in the department of Biotechnology, Sri krishna Devaraya University, Andhra Pradesh, India from 2009-2010. Later Dr. Pagadala completed six years of postdoc in the area of computational drug discovery, modelling of amyloid fibrils and protein oligomers in the National Institute of nanotechnology, university of Alberta since May 2010. After completion of the postdoc in the university of Alberta, Dr. Pagadala was working as senior staff scientist in, Computational Drug Discovery" at Achlys Inc, Edmonton, Canada till 2017 Dec31st. He then moved to Cheminger Inc as a principal scientist for 2.5 years, before returning to academia as a senior scientist at Carnegie Mellon University for a year. Most recently, he served as a senior scientist at Biotheryx for 1½ years.
Scientific Advisory Committee
Dr. Venu Prabaker, MD
Chairman
Scientific Advisory Board
Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, Point Loma Nazarene University
Clinical Faculty, UC San Diego
Chairman, Advisory Board – LigronBio
Dr. Venu Prabaker is a nationally recognized physician, healthcare innovator, educator, and startup advisor with over 35 years of distinguished service in medicine and digital health leadership. He has held faculty positions at 18 prestigious academic institutions, including UC San Diego, UC Irvine, USC, Yale, Stanford (Assistant Professor, 1993–1998), and Case Western Reserve University, where he served as Assistant Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at Point Loma Nazarene University and Clinical Faculty at UC San Diego. As Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, Dr. Prabaker has mentored thousands of residents, medical students, and advanced practice providers—hosting 2 to 4 trainees monthly for over three decades.
A serial entrepreneur and pioneer in healthcare technology, Dr. Prabaker founded and led several groundbreaking ventures, including:
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Health Care Medical Group (HCMG)
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CareMed Corp, which developed MedProFile, the first Windows-based electronic health record (EHR) system in the U.S.
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CareMed IT, My Own MD (acquired by Humana), and San Diego Independent ACO
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WellConnectMDs
He currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for startups including Co-Cardio Inc., ConcisePH, and QRinger, and is an active advisor to Sharp Community Medical Group and numerous professional organizations.
Dr. Prabaker is a co-founder of the San Diego Physicians of Indian Origin (SAPI) and the American Tamil Nadu Medical Association (ATMA), and has held leadership roles in the San Diego County Medical Society, California Medical Association (CMA), and TiE Southern California, where he serves on the Executive Committee and as a Charter Member.
Selected Honors & Awards:
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Provider Excellence Award, California Clinical Partners ACO (2021)
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Top Doc in San Diego, selected by physician peers – 9 consecutive years
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Tamil American Pioneer (TAP) Award by FeTNA (2023) – First recipient from San Diego
Dr. Prabaker remains passionately committed to advancing preventive care, supporting medical innovation, and mentoring the next generation of healthcare leaders.
Olivier Boutaud, Ph.D.
Olivier Boutaud earned his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. After a post-doctoral position at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA, he joined the Faculty in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt. There, he spent 20 years studying the pharmacology of NSAIDs. During this time, he discovered a new platelet phenotype associated with high reactivity and led a clinical study to assess this phenotype as a possible marker for high risk for heart attack. He was also associated with several clinical studies investigating the effects of paracetamol, aspirin and resveratrol in neurological and cardiovascular disorders. Another interest of Olivier was how protein modifications by reactive dicarbonyls contribute to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. This work culminated with Olivier leading a phase 1 clinical study investigating the safety of a natural scavengers of reactive dicarbonyl in humans. In 2020, Olivier moved to the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Vanderbilt University, where he directs the laboratory of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK). He currently serves as the Senior Director of DMPK for the Warren Center. Olivier is the author of over 100 research and review publications and has contributed to 8 patents.
Jack Adam Tuszynski, Ph.D.
Dr. Tuszynski obtained an M.Sc. with distinction in physics at the University of Poznan, Poland. In 1983 he was awarded a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is currently full professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin (Politecnico di Torino) in Italy. His employment experience includes being an assistant professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland and then being appointed as professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Alberta. Dr. Tuszynski also held visiting professor appointments at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, Nankai University, China, ENS Lyon, France, University of Leuven, Belgium, Universität Gießen, Germany, Universität Düsseldorf, Germany and Danish Technical University. He also worked as a research manager in a private R&D company in Brussels, Belgium, called Starlab. Between 2005 and 2020 Dr. Tuszynski held the prestigious endowed chair in experimental oncology at the University of Alberta. He holds 1 Brazilian and 5 US patents, has published almost 600 refereed journal papers, 60 conference proceedings, 12 research monographs and 20 book chapters. He has served on the editorial boards of 30 scientific journals and has been an Associate Editor for the Frontiers Collection of the Springer Verlag, Heidelberg. Dr. Tuszynski gave 200 invited talks at conferences and workshops on six continents. His record of graduate supervision includes over 20 PDFs, 32 PhDs and 53 M.Sc. stduents. He has been collaborating with and consulting for companies in the biotech and pharma area around the world, including Sinoveda (Canada), Telormedix (Switzerland), Novocure (Israel), Oncovista (San Antonio), CSTS (Canada) and Autem Medical (Brazil). He co-founded two University of Alberta spin-off companies: ProPhysis and Achlys. His research focuses on the use of high-performance computing in drug discovery and involves biomolecular modeling, virtual drug screening, bioinformatics and systems biology. As a result, one of the lead drugs he discovered computationally is now completing Phase I/II clinical trials for metastatic baldder cancer. Another drug is currently undergoing lead optimization for colorectal cancer. The 2023 book entitled “Quantum Body”, he co-authored with Deepak Chopra and Brian Fertig, presents a vision for the future of medicine inspired by modern physics.
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Amir Landi, Ph.D
Amir Landi is a formally trained medical doctor (MD), immunologist (PhD) with mastery in cellular immunology/vaccinology, and professional public health leader (MPH candidate) with specialization in Global Health. In addition to his clinical experiences, leadership in laboratory medicine and public health systems under WHO guidelines, he has 20 years of comprehensive and diverse experiences in leading and performing basic/translational research in Canadian BSL2-Enhanced and GLP laboratories with GMP-compatible QC/QA documentation, in the field of immunology, vaccinology, virology, autoimmune liver diseases, biomarker research, medical diagnostics, and myalgic encephalitis, for which he is one of the well-known leading scientists of Canada. He is expert in professional leadership, evidence synthesis, program evaluation/indicator definition & construction, data processing/analysis/validation, and project management in the field of public health. Dr. Landi is currently working as a senior scientist and principal investigator with the 2020 Nobel Prize Winner in Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute at the University of Alberta, which is ranked as the 92nd University of the world in 2022. Amir has had an instrumental role in developing a hepatitis C vaccine, which will be entering the clinic in 2023-2024, a true example of Bench-to-Bedside research. He has 14 issued and >10 ongoing patents, published 24 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and presented at more than 60 national/international scientific meetings as invited speaker and presenter.
MyPhuong Le, Ph.D
MyPhuong obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and Translational Research from University of Florida. From her work at the University of Washington, Blue Heron Biotechnology, and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, she has over 20 years of experience in the life science field, including drug and device development. In addition to research projects, MyPhuong developed and managed the quality management system under ISO 13485 for medical devices for Microtek.