Bioanalysis Rising Star Award finalist: Ryan Johnson

Nominated by: Xiaorong Liang, Genentech (CA, USA)

Supporting comments:

“It’s my great honor to nominate Dr Ryan Johnson for the Bioanalysis Rising Star award. Currently Ryan is a group leader at Genentech leading oncology bioanalysis group. He is a rising star in our DMPK department. He has made great contribution to the Genentech pipeline including IND/NDA filing packages since he joined our bioanalytical group in June 2019. One of his research highlights is the volumetric absorptive microsampling technologies (VAMS) in a clinical trial where he has encountered and overcome many assay challenges. Results from this clinical trial will be published this year and are likely to impact many upcoming clinical trials involving the VAMS. Ryan is a key organizer for our departmental seminar forum ‘Informal Science Exchange’, which promotes the science exchange. He hosted DMPK Science Day for 2021, which was a full day event showcasing and promoting DMPK’s great science and technology initiatives. Because of his excellent work and great contribution to the Genentech pipeline, he has been endorsed by our leadership team for a promotion to the position of Senior Scientist with DMPK in the next quarter. Ryan has great potential to be a strong leader in the bioanalytical field. I strongly support him for the Bioanalysis Rising Star Award.”

Describe the main highlights of your bioanalytical work 

The Mitra® and Tasso VAMS devices offer a minimally invasive and user-friendly collection of blood volumes as low as 10µL. However, the bioanalytical challenges associated with such devices must be explored before they can be routinely employed for clinical and preclinical studies. Over the past year, our lab has validated assays that are currently supporting a clinical trial where blood samples are collected by VAMS devices. During this assay work, we explored the impact of blood hematocrit, anticoagulant, hyperlipidemia and storage conditions on the LC−MS/MS determination of exogenous drugs. ‘New chemical modalities’ are a major focus of drug discovery at present. For our bioanalytical group, this means that we are working with interesting molecules that can behave in unpredictable ways. One class of new modalities that our lab has interest in is covalent inhibitors. Covalent inhibitors tend to exhibit poor stability in complex biological matrices given their reactivity. Procedures must be established to minimize perceived degradation to sustain sample integrity. From our bioanalytical work on covalent inhibitors, we’ve identified a variety of interesting bioanalytical challenges and countermeasures that can likely inform future work with similar molecules.