OUR DRUG DISCOVERY TEAM
Uniquely qualified to assist in your drug discovery challenges and bringing your ideas to life
Josh Carter
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Josh has been the driving force behind Helix BioStructures’ initial formation and ongoing success. In his previous position at Shamrock Structures LLC Josh was integral in the early phases of developing a protein crystallographic service pipeline. As a result, Josh maintains extensive working knowledge with X-ray crystallographic data collection and analysis. This experience covers a number of synchrotron facilities with which Helix maintains excellent partnerships. In addition, Josh has also been involved with the development of automated software for collection and analysis of crystallographic and cryo-EM data sets. He continues to strive to seek out improvements from a product service and business development standpoint. These efforts have resulted in the successful growth of the crystallographic and cryo-EM imaging business; while also expanding into the protein production and computational drug design services since Helix formed in 2017. Josh maintains a BS degree in Biology.
Matt Kelker, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Matt is an established biophysicist and protein chemistry expert with a long history establishing early-stage R&D programs. His experience encompasses both academic and industry appointments covering a wide range of topic areas. These areas include eukaryotic and prokaryotic protein expression covering strain development, optimization, expression, and purification from laboratory to pilot scale-up. In addition, he has in-depth familiarity with implementation of corporate structural biology program to assess structure/function relationship of biotechnology products, analytical fermentation analysis, as well as designing and commissioning of pilot scale-up protein production facilities. Matt has received a Ph.D. in Biophysics & Structural Immunology from Scripps Research under Dr. Ian Wilson and completed his post-doc in NMR under Dr. Wolfgang Peti at the Brown University Medical School. He has a BS in Molecular Biology from Purdue University and is Six Sigma Green Belt certified.
Kyung Hoon Lee, M.S.
Director of Protein Sciences & Molecular Biology
Kyung has broad knowledge and experience in molecular biology and biochemistry, including strain engineering, protein expression, purification, characterization, process development, optimization, and automation. Before joining the Helix team, he led multiple large-scale protein production projects and supported regulatory studies and safety assessments of Ag industry products for its global registration. He also has extensive knowledge and experience in anaerobic biochemistry, and assay development, producing and characterizing a particular class of enzymes that catalyze key steps in the biosynthesis of natural products and metabolites while he worked in academia. He cares about people and their career development. He has experience in HR, worked as an HR manager and a professional development leader, and is trained in people and project management. Kyung has received an M.S. in Biological Sciences from Seoul National University.
Anne Mulichak, Ph.D.
Consultant - MX Data Collection
Anne has extensive experience as a macromolecular crystallographer in academia, in the pharmaceutical industry and in a synchrotron setting. Prior to joining Helix, Anne worked for over 15 years at IMCA-CAT at the Advanced Photon Source, a facility focused on high-quality, high-throughput x-ray data collection tailored to the needs of drug discovery efforts at global pharmaceutical companies. Through this experience Anne has gained not only expertise in synchrotron data collection but a deep appreciation for the importance of timely, reliable and secure proprietary experiments for the critical work of drug discovery.
Jen Arruda
Scientist I
Jennifer established her career later in life and found her passion in protein biochemistry and structural biology. She brings to us 14 years’ experience in both academia and industry. Her experiences span areas such as protein expression in multiple expression systems, microbial fermentation, protein purification and assay development.
Nicole Windland
Lead Administrator & Logistics Manager
Nicole is the Lead Administrator and Logistics Manager for Helix BioStructures overseeing all shipping and experimental logistics for the company. From an administrative standpoint, she brings a critical component of organizational and project management expertise to sustain Helix’s day-to-day operations. Prior to joining Helix, she held administrative positions ranging from small businesses to start-ups as well as various academic institutions. She holds a BS in Elementary Education from Indiana University.
Jungki Min, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist II
Jungki is a seasoned scientist with expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology. His unwavering passion lies in unraveling the intricacies of atomic-level details through X-ray crystallography and Cryo-EM. Over decades, he has amassed a wealth of knowledge across academia, government, and industry, delving into diverse biological processes and mechanisms. His research portfolio encompasses epitranscriptomics, glucocorticoid resistance, allergy, multidrug tolerance/resistance, cholesterol metabolism, Hippo pathway, and remodeling actin cytoskeleton. With a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and structural biology earned from Duke University under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Brennan, Jungki further refined his skills through postdoctoral training in the X-ray core facility led by Dr. Lars Pedersen at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Beyond mere exploration, Jungki actively immersed himself in the dynamic field of protein engineering, embodying a multifaceted and impactful scientific journey.
James Fuller, Ph.D.
Director of Electron Microscopy
James is a biochemist and structural biologist with 7 years of laboratory experience independently taking projects from conception, through protein production and purification, to structural and quantitative results. He has a deep understanding of structural biology encompassing sample preparation, data collection, and data processing for SAXS, x-ray crystallography, and single-particle cryo-EM. His experience also includes significant experience with robotics for high-throughput crystallization screen setup; cryo-EM sample preparation on Vitrobot systems; optimization of ice and particle distribution (by modification of buffer, grid, blotting, detergent, etc.) for cryo-EM. As a result of this imaging work, James is familiar with a variety of structure solution software, including ATSAS, Chimera, PyMol, coot, ccp4, Phenix, RELION, CisTEM, Sphire, EMAN2. James has also expanded work with structure software with additional computational expertise including general Linux/UNIX (workstations and remote clusters), Bash shell scripting, Adobe Illustrator & InDesign, and Git. James holds a BA in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics.
Guillermo Morales, Ph.D.
Industry/Operations Advisor
Guillermo is a veteran of the biopharmaceutical field. His knowledgebase lies in medicinal chemistry, molecular modeling, and pharmaceutical drug development. He has more than 25 years of R&D experience in the development of advanced compounds from conception, through preclinical drug development to formulation and optimization up to initial regulatory involvement including Investigational New Drug (IND) submissions. He has successfully employed computational models to design and develop new therapeutic agents now in preclinical development. Through his computational modeling and docking efforts, he has become adept in discovering potential compound lead candidates by utilizing commercial compound libraries and custom-made targeted virtual compound libraries (1 to 6 million compounds). His degrees include an MBA, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and a BS in Industrial Chemistry.
Marti Jensen
Director of Accounting
Marti started her accounting career with Ransburg Corporation as a general accountant and developed a specialty in cost accounting. Eventually, she transitioned from Accounting Manager to Controller over the next several years specializing in Manufacturing Accounting. Given her expertise and experience, she was asked to join a start-up company at the time, Wagner & Wetzel CPA. Currently, she performs a variety of Accounting & Bookkeeping services for multiple companies. Marti holds an AS in Accounting as well as QS Auditor Certification.
Drew Wagner
Chief Financial Officer
Drew is a partner with Wagner & Wetzel CPA Group. Wagner & Wetzel was formed in 2006 to focus on the small business clients. With over 40 years of combined experience in operational financial management as Controllers and Chief Financial Officers along with technical tax experience the firm maintains the perfect foundation for accounting and related help for small businesses and their owners. Drew holds a BS in Accounting & Operations as well as CPA and CCFIP Certifications.
