From Molecules to Medicine: Women Leading the Way

Katherine Black, PhD, is a business development executive at Metabolon who works at the intersection of multiomic science and business decision-making. She earned her PhD with a focus on enzymology and completed her postdoctoral training studying infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, using metabolomics to understand system-level changes that influence host–pathogen interactions.

At Metabolon, Katherine partners with academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical organizations as a scientific and strategic collaborator, designing studies that are truly fit for purpose. She takes a holistic view of study design, ensuring each approach balances scientific rigor with the practical considerations needed to answer the questions at hand. Her experience in metabolomics, alongside proteomics, allows her to guide clients toward the most informative data while avoiding unnecessary complexity and maintaining depth and quality. In this role, she helps shape decisions and guides the direction of research by aligning study design with the outcomes clients need to achieve.

By translating complex scientific challenges into clear, actionable approaches, Katherine helps organizations generate the right data to inform critical research and development decisions, advancing progress from molecules to medicine.

Dr. Annie Evans is Head of Research and Development for discovery and targeted metabolomics and lipidomics technologies at Metabolon, Inc., where she has worked for more than 20 years. Under her leadership, Metabolon’s metabolomics and lipidomics methodologies have become the analytical foundation for thousands of commercial and academic studies from more than 800 institutions worldwide since 2004.

Dr. Evans has authored more than 30 publications spanning analytical methodology, informatics, data processing, quality management, and global profiling workflows for metabolomics and lipidomics, with applications in population health and precision medicine. Her work has appeared in leading journals, including Analytical Chemistry, Blood, PNAS, and Nature Genetics, and has been cited more than 2,000 times.

She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, where she studied mass spectrometry-based proteomics under the supervision of Dr. Donald Hunt. Her current research focuses on advancing Metabolon’s metabolomics and lipidomics technologies, developing approaches for large human cohort studies, and making these technologies precise, robust, and scalable enough to support individual patient health and precision medicine.

Pamela Nakhle, Ph.D., is a quality and regulatory leader with over 20 years of experience supporting the development of products and services spanning research-use-only (RUO) through diagnostic applications and ensuring their ongoing compliance within highly regulated environments. She has built and led quality management systems across CLIA/CAP, GCP, and ISO frameworks, with expertise spanning clinical research, product development, and regulatory compliance.

Throughout her career, Pamela has worked at the intersection of science, quality, and regulatory affairs, supporting the development of innovative solutions while ensuring they meet rigorous compliance standards. She brings a practical, systems-oriented approach to quality, with a focus on process improvement, risk management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Pamela earned her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has held leadership roles across rapidly growing biotech companies.

Leane is a laboratory operations executive with more than 20 years of experience leading high-complexity diagnostic and regulated lab environments. As Director of Laboratory Operations for Metabolomics Services at Metabolon, she oversees Global Discovery and core Targeted Metabolomics operations, driving process standardization, KPI development, workforce growth, and continuous improvement.

Leane brings deep expertise in CLIA, CAP, GLP, cGMP, ISO, and FDA-compliant quality systems, with a track record of scaling multi-site laboratory networks, optimizing capacity, improving turnaround times, and strengthening service delivery.

Before joining Metabolon, Leane held leadership roles at Labcorp Drug Development, ILS Genomics, Beckman Coulter Genomics, and Cogenics. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Greensboro College and an MBA in Business Analytics from UNC Wilmington.

Dr. Micaiah Ward is a Field Metabolomics Scientist supporting Metabolon’s North America East Region and Population Health activities. Prior to joining Metabolon, Micaiah earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Florida State University where her research incorporated genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics to investigate and characterize venoms from snakes, centipedes and scorpions.

In addition, she used genome-wide association (GWAS) and evolve and resequencing (E&R) approaches to identify the genetic architecture of evolved venom resistance in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Micaiah then served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where she honed experience in immuno-oncology, infectious diseases, and CRISPR technology.

Micaiah’s broad scientific acumen and multi-omics expertise allows her to highlight the added value of metabolomics in moving the needle of scientific progress across basic and applied research areas in academia and industry.

Emma Quinn, PhD, is a Senior Bioinformatician at Metabolon. Her background is in genomics and the analysis of large-scale datasets, including WGS, GWAS, and RNA sequencing, in the context of complex disease research.

Across academia and industry, she has worked with pharma and biotech partners on study design, data analysis, interpretation, and drug target discovery. She is particularly interested in how metabolomics adds functional context to genomic and proteomic data, helping to build a more complete picture of biological activity.

Dr. Natasa Giallourou is Associate Director of Scientific Strategy at Metabolon, where she advances scientific initiatives, product strategy, and external partnerships that translate metabolomics data into scalable solutions for research, and commercial innovation.

Prior to joining Metabolon, Natasa served as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at biobank.cy. Her research projects involved integrating metabolomic data with other ‘omics’ data in population-based studies, with a focus on identifying biomarkers for complex diseases. She has also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London, where she specialized in utilizing metabolic phenotyping to address global health challenges, particularly in the field of public health nutrition.

Natasa served on the Board of Directors of the International Metabolomics Society between 2020-2025 and continues to actively contribute to the community though participation in diverse initiatives across education, training and industry engagement.

Christine Nnyamah, PhD, is a Field Metabolomics Scientist at Metabolon, where she works at the intersection of translational science and commercial strategy. She brings an interdisciplinary career spanning mechanistic bench research in metabolic disease, clinical trial operations, venture strategy, and scientific consulting, which allows her to engage with client programs across a uniquely broad range of use cases and scientific contexts.

Christine earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Illinois Chicago, where her doctoral research explored gut microbiome-derived short-chain fatty acid signaling and its role in energy homeostasis, immune regulation, and metabolic disease. During this time, she pursued multiple commercial internships and apprenticeships supporting startups with key operations and providing scientific due diligence for commercial translation in the Chicagoland life sciences investing ecosystem. She has also worked as a Clinical Research Specialist, ensuring trials at UI Health were adequately resourced and scientifically sound.

Whether she is helping a biopharma team build a biomarker strategy, supporting an academic lab in characterizing a disease mechanism, or working through a multiomics study design, her ability to think across scientific, clinical, and commercial angles is what drives the work forward.

Beyond science, Christine is energized by engaging with her community, investing in the people around her, and seeking out new experiences wherever she can find them.

Katherine Black, PhD, is a business development executive at Metabolon who works at the intersection of multiomic science and business decision-making. She earned her PhD with a focus on enzymology and completed her postdoctoral training studying infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, using metabolomics to understand system-level changes that influence host–pathogen interactions.

At Metabolon, Katherine partners with academic, biotech, and pharmaceutical organizations as a scientific and strategic collaborator, designing studies that are truly fit for purpose. She takes a holistic view of study design, ensuring each approach balances scientific rigor with the practical considerations needed to answer the questions at hand. Her experience in metabolomics, alongside proteomics, allows her to guide clients toward the most informative data while avoiding unnecessary complexity and maintaining depth and quality. In this role, she helps shape decisions and guides the direction of research by aligning study design with the outcomes clients need to achieve.

By translating complex scientific challenges into clear, actionable approaches, Katherine helps organizations generate the right data to inform critical research and development decisions, advancing progress from molecules to medicine.

Dr. Annie Evans is Head of Research and Development for discovery and targeted metabolomics and lipidomics technologies at Metabolon, Inc., where she has worked for more than 20 years. Under her leadership, Metabolon’s metabolomics and lipidomics methodologies have become the analytical foundation for thousands of commercial and academic studies from more than 800 institutions worldwide since 2004.

Dr. Evans has authored more than 30 publications spanning analytical methodology, informatics, data processing, quality management, and global profiling workflows for metabolomics and lipidomics, with applications in population health and precision medicine. Her work has appeared in leading journals, including Analytical Chemistry, Blood, PNAS, and Nature Genetics, and has been cited more than 2,000 times.

She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, where she studied mass spectrometry-based proteomics under the supervision of Dr. Donald Hunt. Her current research focuses on advancing Metabolon’s metabolomics and lipidomics technologies, developing approaches for large human cohort studies, and making these technologies precise, robust, and scalable enough to support individual patient health and precision medicine.

Pamela Nakhle, Ph.D., is a quality and regulatory leader with over 20 years of experience supporting the development of products and services spanning research-use-only (RUO) through diagnostic applications and ensuring their ongoing compliance within highly regulated environments. She has built and led quality management systems across CLIA/CAP, GCP, and ISO frameworks, with expertise spanning clinical research, product development, and regulatory compliance.

Throughout her career, Pamela has worked at the intersection of science, quality, and regulatory affairs, supporting the development of innovative solutions while ensuring they meet rigorous compliance standards. She brings a practical, systems-oriented approach to quality, with a focus on process improvement, risk management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Pamela earned her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has held leadership roles across rapidly growing biotech companies.

Leane is a laboratory operations executive with more than 20 years of experience leading high-complexity diagnostic and regulated lab environments. As Director of Laboratory Operations for Metabolomics Services at Metabolon, she oversees Global Discovery and core Targeted Metabolomics operations, driving process standardization, KPI development, workforce growth, and continuous improvement.

Leane brings deep expertise in CLIA, CAP, GLP, cGMP, ISO, and FDA-compliant quality systems, with a track record of scaling multi-site laboratory networks, optimizing capacity, improving turnaround times, and strengthening service delivery.

Before joining Metabolon, Leane held leadership roles at Labcorp Drug Development, ILS Genomics, Beckman Coulter Genomics, and Cogenics. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Greensboro College and an MBA in Business Analytics from UNC Wilmington.

Dr. Micaiah Ward is a Field Metabolomics Scientist supporting Metabolon’s North America East Region and Population Health activities. Prior to joining Metabolon, Micaiah earned her Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Florida State University where her research incorporated genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics to investigate and characterize venoms from snakes, centipedes and scorpions.

In addition, she used genome-wide association (GWAS) and evolve and resequencing (E&R) approaches to identify the genetic architecture of evolved venom resistance in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Micaiah then served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where she honed experience in immuno-oncology, infectious diseases, and CRISPR technology.

Micaiah’s broad scientific acumen and multi-omics expertise allows her to highlight the added value of metabolomics in moving the needle of scientific progress across basic and applied research areas in academia and industry.

Emma Quinn, PhD, is a Senior Bioinformatician at Metabolon. Her background is in genomics and the analysis of large-scale datasets, including WGS, GWAS, and RNA sequencing, in the context of complex disease research.

Across academia and industry, she has worked with pharma and biotech partners on study design, data analysis, interpretation, and drug target discovery. She is particularly interested in how metabolomics adds functional context to genomic and proteomic data, helping to build a more complete picture of biological activity.

Dr. Natasa Giallourou is Associate Director of Scientific Strategy at Metabolon, where she advances scientific initiatives, product strategy, and external partnerships that translate metabolomics data into scalable solutions for research, and commercial innovation.

Prior to joining Metabolon, Natasa served as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at biobank.cy. Her research projects involved integrating metabolomic data with other ‘omics’ data in population-based studies, with a focus on identifying biomarkers for complex diseases. She has also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London, where she specialized in utilizing metabolic phenotyping to address global health challenges, particularly in the field of public health nutrition.

Natasa served on the Board of Directors of the International Metabolomics Society between 2020-2025 and continues to actively contribute to the community though participation in diverse initiatives across education, training and industry engagement.

Christine Nnyamah, PhD, is a Field Metabolomics Scientist at Metabolon, where she works at the intersection of translational science and commercial strategy. She brings an interdisciplinary career spanning mechanistic bench research in metabolic disease, clinical trial operations, venture strategy, and scientific consulting, which allows her to engage with client programs across a uniquely broad range of use cases and scientific contexts.

Christine earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Illinois Chicago, where her doctoral research explored gut microbiome-derived short-chain fatty acid signaling and its role in energy homeostasis, immune regulation, and metabolic disease. During this time, she pursued multiple commercial internships and apprenticeships supporting startups with key operations and providing scientific due diligence for commercial translation in the Chicagoland life sciences investing ecosystem. She has also worked as a Clinical Research Specialist, ensuring trials at UI Health were adequately resourced and scientifically sound.

Whether she is helping a biopharma team build a biomarker strategy, supporting an academic lab in characterizing a disease mechanism, or working through a multiomics study design, her ability to think across scientific, clinical, and commercial angles is what drives the work forward.

Beyond science, Christine is energized by engaging with her community, investing in the people around her, and seeking out new experiences wherever she can find them.