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OUR TEAM

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In forming C-GRO Biosciences in 2011 we compiled a team with over 50 years of combined experience in chemically validating and standardizing natural products for biomedical research. We continue to build upon two decades of collaborations initiated by the Crews research group in providing marine natural products to both academic and commercial laboratories for conducting research at the interface of molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Our two member team has joined forces with a diverse group of consultants that includes researchers and technicians highly skilled in the preparation of our products.

Tyler's scientific career has focused on the study of chemically validating and standardizing the use of natural products for biomedical research. He began by working in the natural products and biotech industry under the tutelage of Anthony Almada, (co-founder EAS) and for Santa Cruz Biotechnology. He then transitioned into the laboratory of Professor Phillip Crews (UC Santa Cruz) where he received his bachelor's degree in Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and PhD in Chemical Oceanography with an emphasis on biologically active marine natural products. He is a co-author on over 25 scientific papers involving biologically active natural products and continues to be actively involved in natural products research. He has served an adjunct instructor at San Jose City College and UC Santa Cruz teaching courses in introductory organic and biochemistry, oceanography as well as the chemistry of nutrition. Tyler conducted postdoctoral research in the department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at UC Berkeley investigating therapeutic leads from medicinal plants and microorganisms as part of an NIH sponsored International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) program with Indonesia. He is now an associate professor of chemistry at Dominican University of California.

Clay obtained his BSc. degree in fisheries biology from the University of Washington with a focus in hatchery design for marine invertebrates. In addition he has more than 20 years experience as a diving instructor and 10,000 hours working in the underwater world as an underwater photographer, dive guide and aggressor fleet boat captain. He has managed commercial shellfish hatcheries and set-up a pilot hatchery to raise disease-resistant shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay. He is an expert in Indonesian coral reef ecology and is the co-author of Guide to Marine Life: Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida, ISBN-10: 1881652068

Clay Wiseman, BSc. Co-founder. Diving Specialist - Marine Invertebrate Zoology

Tyler Johnson, PhD. Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Professor Phillip Crews, PhD. (Consultant) Adviser & Visionary

Professor Crews is the recipient of numerous awards in natural products chemistry which include The American Society of Pharmacognosy (ASP) lifetime achievement award, the ASP Best Paper of the Year award (2005, J. Nat. Prod.) and the J. Clarence Karcher Lecturer Award (University of Oklahoma). He's been elected as a fellow to the ASP as well as to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He's also the principal author of Organic Structure Analysis, (1998) from Oxford University Press, USA. It is one the most comprehensive academic texts dealing with the structure determination of organic molecules using advanced spectroscopic methods including mass spectrometry and NMR. His laboratory has been engaged in disseminating biologically active marine natural products for over 35 years enabling scientists to further investigate how these unique organic compounds affect targets in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. A number of seminal publications have acknowledged the Crews laboratory for providing chemically validated pure material that was crucial in the preparation of their experiments (1-3).

Professor Crews continues to maintain an active research group at UC Santa Cruz where his laboratory publishes regularly on the discovery and development of biologically active natural products. Currently he serves as an industry advisor and visionary for C-GRO.

Seminal Publications in Molecular & Cellular Biology Utilizing Products Provided by the Crews Research Group.

1) Ayscough, K. R.; Stryker, J.; Pokala, N.; Sanders, M.; Crews, P.; Drubin, D. G.

High Rates of Actin Filament Turnover in Budding Yeast and Roles for Actin in Establishment

and Maintenance of Cell Polarity Revealed Using the Actin Inhibitor Latrunculin-A

Journal of Cell Biology, 1997, 2, 399–416.

Citations: (ISI, Web of Science) - 546

2) Bubb, M.R.; Spector, I.; Beyer, B. B.; Fosen, K. M.

Effects of Jasplakinolide on the Kinetics of Actin Polymerization

Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2000, 275, 5163-5170.

Citations: (ISI, Web of Science) - 256

3) Platani, M.; Goldberg, I.; Lamond, A. I.; Swedlow, J. R.

Cajal Body dynamics and association with chromatin are ATP-dependent

Nature Cell Biology, 2002, 4, 502-508.

Citations: (ISI, Web of Science) - 165

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CONSULTANTS

Jacqueline Clarke, MSc. Laboratory Director & Research Scientist

Jacqueline received her bachelors of sciences (BSc) degree in Chemistry from Seton Hall University. She completed her master of sciences (MSc) degree in Biology at Dominican University of California. Jacqueline's scientific focus has centered on the medicinal chemistry involving structure activity relationship (SAR) studies of marine natural products with therapeutic potential. For her Master’s thesis research, she engaged in the semi-synthesis of mycothiazole diastereomers with activity against cancer cell lines. Jacqueline has presented her research at multiple conferences and is a co author on several manuscripts. She concurrently serves as the Laboratory Manager at Dominican University of California, where she oversees day-to-day operations in the Natural Sciences Department, supports student research, manages instrumentation along with safety compliance, and helps train the next generation of scientists. She also works closely with faculty on curriculum development combined with laboratory instruction where she’s served as an adjunct instructor, teaching General and Organic Chemistry laboratory courses. Jacqueline is currently contributing her expertise to C-Gro BioSciences where she takes pride in delivering high-quality marine sponge derived natural product chemical probes to support diverse collaborator applications in biomedical research.