Dr. Gary D'Souza

Senior Scientist

Gary D’Souza, PhD, is a senior scientist at Melior Discovery. He has over 10 years of research experience in immunology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and cell and molecular biology.

Dr. D’Souza received his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, investigating the safety and efficacy of a repurposed smoking cessation drug as a potential therapy for dysfunctional cholinergic transmission in Huntington’s disease. During his 4-year PhD, Dr. D’Souza took the drug from proof-of-concept animal studies to a small-scale, exploratory clinical study. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral training at the Biodesign Institute in Tempe, AZ, where he investigated the ability of a repurposed oncology drug to modulate neuroinflammation and amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. D’Souza continued his postdoctoral training at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL, where he took a systems neuroscience approach to diverse projects ranging from exploring changes in synaptic transmission after cocaine withdrawal to investigating aberrant calcium signaling in cognitive aging.

Over his research career, Dr. D’Souza has gained familiarity with inducible and genetic rodent models of inflammation, spinal cord injury, aging and neurodegenerative disease, and has extensive experience with all aspects of in vivo studies, including husbandry, genotyping, rodent surgery, behavioral studies, aseptic drug administration, perfusion, blood and tissue collection, and dissection. He also has expertise in numerous in vitro techniques including cell/tissue culture, cell and molecular biology based-assays, HPLC and microscopy. Further, Dr. D’Souza is also proficient in data analysis and interpretation, results-oriented project management, as well as clear and concise written and oral communication for scientific and non-scientific audiences.

Dr. D’Souza has a passion for preclinical drug development, and prides himself on his creative problem-solving, adaptability and attention to detail.

We chose Melior Discovery because they were responsive and cost effective. We are staying with them as a chosen scientific partner because of their thoughtful scientific input to experimental design and attention to detail. Their expertise and flexibility allowed us to quickly adapt the study design and evaluate additional outcome measures to pursue unexpected activity.
Sridharan Rajamani, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist
Gilead Sciences
I have been working with Melior on a number of projects over the course of a few years now. They have been a great partner throughout this time. The scientists whom I have worked with have been great problem-solvers and were customer focused
Jay Lichter
Avalon Ventures
[We] have been impressed with [Melior’s] ability to rapidly and effectively evaluate compounds in animal models…as we strive to identify compounds to ameliorate the devastating symptoms of Rett,
Monica Coenraads, Executive Director
Rett Syndrome Research Trust
Melior is more than just a service company. Their experienced staff guided us in our drug development efforts. We consider Melior an extension of our own research team.
Josh Schultz
Carolus Therapeutics
Addex Therapeutics has been collaborating with Melior Discovery for more than a year. The studies performed at Melior are always carefully planned and skilfully executed while the progress of the project is well-tracked and communicated to the customer. On several occasions, when testing our compounds in a new in vivo assay, we relied on Melior's scientists in their guidance and advice. We have been particularly pleased with a series of experiments involving assessment of compounds' profiles in the rat sleep/wake EEG. This approach, that has a translational relevance, offered a sensitive measure of a compound's efficacy and side-effects
Mikhail Kalinichev, Ph.D., Associate Research Director
Addex Therapeutics
Having worked with Melior quite extensively over the past several years, we find the team to be highly knowledgeable, responsive and adaptable to our needs. The overall process has been highly efficient and we are impressed by the quality of their reports
Christopher Prior, Ph.D., CEO,
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc.
…to evaluate our lead compound in an EEG-based sleep wake model. Melior’s very experienced team provided valuable insights and recommendations on study design, analysis and interpretation of the data. As a virtual company, Prexa relied on Melior to become an extension of our knowledge team and they met all our expectations
Pat Baskin and Ev Graham
Prexa Pharmaceuticals
State of-the-art Preclinical Pharmacology
Melior provided State-of-the-art Preclinical Pharmacology Support for a period of nearly a year where a series of in vivo studies were completed on a weekly basis. The staff was extremely user-friendly and the operational processes were excellent. I can recommend Melior without reservation.
Richard DiMarchi, PhD
Cox Professor of Chemistry & Gil Chair in Biomolecular Sciences Indiana University, Department of Chemistry