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
Board of Director
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.
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
Lead Cellular Immunologist
Founder & CEO,
Biofuture Inc
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.
Scientific Research Team
Kirti K Chahal, Ph.D
Senior Scientist-Cell & Molecular Biology
A highly accomplished and versatile research scientist with over a decade of multidisciplinary experience in pharmacology, drug discovery, and translational research, spanning academia and industry. This includes over 7 years of progressive experience at Ranbaxy Research Laboratories in India and more than 7 years of research involvement at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), across multiple roles including Volunteer, Visiting Graduate Student (Junior Specialist), Staff Research Associate, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCSD (Sep 2021–Dec 2021), led studies on Hedgehog signaling and chemokine receptor pharmacology. Designed and executed complex molecular and cellular experiments including real-time BRET/NanoBit assays, dual-color flow cytometry, luciferase-based assays, cytotoxicity assessments, confocal microscopy, Western blots, pulldown assays, RT-qPCR, and proximity biotinylation using APEX2-tagged SMO constructs in DAOY cells. Successfully established proof-of-concept for spatiotemporally resolved biotinylation and generated stable cell lines via lentiviral transduction. Developed and validated new experimental protocols, mentored graduate students, authored manuscripts, and contributed to grant applications. Gained proficiency in R and Python for LC-MS data analysis. Previously worked as a Staff Research Associate (Apr 2021–Aug 2021) and Junior Specialist/Visiting Graduate Student (Dec 2017–Mar 2021) at UCSD, actively participating in NIH-funded research projects in oncology and neurobiology. As a Volunteer (Nov 2014–Nov 2017), contributed to foundational laboratory operations and assay development, laying the groundwork for future experimental initiatives. Throughout this tenure at UCSD, collaborated closely with Dr. Ruben Abagyan's lab and the Cancer Cell Map Initiative, focusing on high-impact drug repurposing studies. Prior to UCSD, held multiple research and managerial roles at Ranbaxy Research Laboratories, India between 2006 and 2014. Progressed from Research Associate to Manager of Query Handling, gaining deep experience in preclinical pharmacology, regulatory documentation, and cross-functional project execution. Played a pivotal role in pharmacological profiling, interpretation of preclinical findings, and preparation of regulatory responses to global health authorities. Recognized as Best Employee of the Month for outstanding contributions. Academically, earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology (Apr 2021) from Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology (GJUST), India, in collaboration with UCSD, under the guidance of Prof. Milind Parle and mentorship of Prof. Ruben Abagyan. Dissertation focused on “Investigations on Repurposing of Medicines for New Therapeutic Indications,” reflecting a strong foundation in computational and experimental pharmacology. Holds an M. Pharmacy in Pharmacology (2006) and B. Pharmacy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (2004), both from GJUST, where earned the Gold Medal for academic excellence in M. Pharmacy. Recipient of several prestigious honors, including the Cancer Systems Biology Training Program Fellowship (2019, 2020) for research on oncogenic Hedgehog signaling, and the ASPET Mentoring Network Travel Award (2019) to attend the Experimental Biology (EB) conference in Orlando. Authored 11 peer-reviewed publications with over 185 citations and delivered presentations at national and international symposia. Highly skilled in assay development, molecular cloning, GPCR signaling, cellular pharmacology, and data analytics, with a demonstrated commitment to scientific innovation, teamwork, and mentorship.
Amineh Rastandeh, MS.C
Research Associate-Assay Development
Amineh Rastandeh is a research-focused biochemist with a Master of Science in Chemistry from San Diego State University and a strong background in molecular biology, virology, and advanced sequencing technologies. Her research centers on understanding genome packaging selectivity in bacteriophage MS2, with expertise in RNA/DNA extraction, protein purification, plasmid construction, and data analysis using Python and Bowtie. Amineh brings three years of biotech industry experience from TriLink Biotechnologies, where she contributed to mRNA vaccine production through synthesis of proprietary CleanCap mRNA and process optimization. She has presented her work at prestigious conferences including the 2023 Gordon Research Conference for Physical Virology, and has earned multiple awards recognizing her academic excellence and scientific contributions.