Experiments conducted in cells are a crucial part of the drug development process at the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). Cellular models of ALS can shed light on the biology of the disease by showing how it affects the body at the most basic levels. Large numbers of drugs can be tested in cells rapidly to identify promising treatments to advance into animal models of the disease. Using cutting-edge techniques to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), ALS TDI scientists can even use skin cells donated by participants in the ALS Research Collaborative (ARC) to create ALS-affected motor neurons for use in the lab.

Dr.Kyle DentonThis essential work takes place in the Augie’s Quest Translational Research Center and is driven by ALS TDI’s cell biology team, led by Director of Cell Biology Dr. Kyle Denton. Dr. Denton has been with ALS TDI since 2016. He joined the team after receiving his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Connecticut and working as a postdoc studying hereditary spastic paraplegia, another form of motor neuron disease related to ALS. Prior to this role, he worked as a member of the translational research team and was instrumental in establishing ALS TDI’s leading iPSC program. Dr. Denton’s leadership and expertise in stem cell biology are essential to guiding the efforts of this group.

In addition to Dr. Denton, the Cell Biology team includes a number of researchers with diverse skills and areas of expertise.


The lYiding Yanongest-tenured member of the team, Associate Scientists III Yiding Yan, joined ALS TDI in 2015, and has more than two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Yiding serves as the team's primary molecular biologist. Much of her work involves manufacturing DNA plasmids, or genetic structures that can be added to cells to model genetic mutations found in ALS.


Therese DaneAssociate Scientist III Therese Dane also first came to ALS TDI in 2015 to work on the ALS Research Collaborative (ARC), which was then known as the Precision Medicine Program. She then left the company for a time, gaining new expertise in genome editing. In 2021, she returned to join Dr. Denton’s team, where she primarily conducts experiments in the group’s cellular models of C9orf72-related ALS.


Swetha GurumurthyIn addition to Dr. Denton, Yiding, and Therese, the cell biology team has added several new members over the past year. Associate Scientists I Swetha Gurumurthy was the first to join in 2022, after receiving an MS in human physiology from Boston University. Her research focuses on testing drug-like compounds in cellular models of ALS and working with iPSCs and more recently, studying the role of DNA damage in disease pathogenesis.



Associate Scientist I Amit Mishra also came to TDI in 2022. He initially Amit Mishracame to the organization to conduct tissue culture­–based experiments. However, Dr. Denton says that the team soon discovered that he possessed an additional skillset – an advanced knowledge of coding. Now, in addition to his previous duties, Amit works on data management and analysis, supporting the cell biology group’s collaborations with the team behind ALS TDI’s ARC natural history study.


Dr. Anushka BjargavaScientist I, Dr. Anushka Bhargava joined the team late last year. She recently received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), University of Sheffield,, where she studied C9orf72-based ALS in both iPSC-derived neurons and zebrafish. At TDI, her work will focus on generating new models of  ALS in patient-derived iPSCs, primarily TDP43, while supporting C9orf72 projects.



The most recent addition to the team is Scientist II Thomas (TJ) Krzystek, who started in June 2023. TJ received his Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo and has been a joint postdoctoral researcher in the labs of Dr. Zhigang He at Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School and Dr. Naoko Mizuno at the NIH. He brings expertise in disease modeling with iPSC-derived neurons, with a focus on mechanisms of organelle trafficking defects in Huntington’s disease models.

“The way this group has developed recently has been really exciting to watch,” says Dr. Denton of his team. “They all have diverse skill sets and work together very well. We have molecular biology expertise from Yiding, who has been doing that for 25-plus years. Genome editing experience with Therese. Novel disease model generation with Anushka. Cell culture skills from Swetha. And then bioinformatics and coding experience with Amit. Combining all of their abilities in one team has worked out very well.”

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