Craig R.C. Sterling - Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Sterling founded Omscientia, Inc. in 2010 after leaving Rigaku as Director of Business Development, initially for Automation, and later for Life Sciences. Mr. Sterling went to Loyola Marymount University and later the University of Colorado at Boulder studying International Business, Biology and Political Science, before working for IBM. After IBM, he founded his first company, which was eventually acquired. Mr. Sterling then joined Emerald BioStructures, handling Business Development, R&D, and Product Management until his departure in 2006 to work for Rigaku. Mr. Sterling is well-known for the development or commercialization of new technologies in the fields of Structural Biology, Genomics, and Proteomics and has given talks as invited speaker or Session Chair for scientific meetings globally. He has been published in papers, Journals and scientific posters including honors and patents in the field.  An avid skier and bicyclist, Craig drives the Omscientia team outlook and philosophy of outdoor sport enthusiasts who seek discovery and balance in life. 

Duncan E. McRee, Ph.D. - Chief Scientific Officer

Omscientia is proud to have Duncan E. McRee, Ph.D., as our CSO!  Dr. McRee received his B.S. from the University of California at Davis and his Ph.D. from Duke University.  While at the University of California at Davis, Duncan met his wife, Janice, with whom he lives in San Diego, CA along with his three children, Alex, Kevin and Alisa.  Dr. McRee is well known in the field of Structural Biology, having authored the book Practical Protein Crystallography among many other publications and journal articles including the most cited journal article of 2007.  Dr. McRee is also responsible for the creation of MIFit and XtalView, which were some of the most used software applications for Structural Biology globally.  Dr. McRee was a researcher at Duke University, and later at Scripps, where he is still and Adjunct Professor, before becoming the Director of Structural Biology at Syrrx.  He later headed up the ActiveSight company doing contract research and drug discovery using Structure Based Drug Design and Fragment Screening, among other tools.  With his knowledge of the industry, science and his reputation, Dr. McRee is both an esteemed colleague, and a tremendous asset to the core team of Omscientia, Inc.  An avid hiker and sailor, Duncan fits with the Omscientia team outlook and philosophy of outdoor sport enthusiasts who seek discovery and balance in life.

Craig L. Magee, Ph.D. - Director of Applications and Development

Craig L. Magee, Ph.D. received his B.S. in Chemistry from Arizona State University, where he conducted research on the electron transport chain of the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center with Professor Neal Woodbury.  Craig later worked in the laboratory of Professor James P. Allen and received training in the field of macromolecular crystallography and structure solution by single crystal X-ray diffraction.  Craig received his PhD mentoring from Professor Allen, with specialization in membrane and soluble protein chemistry and biophysics at Arizona State University.  The focus of his work was conducted on the structural studies of the human survival of motor neuron protein, where he developed a high-throughput method for in vitro protein folding and succeeded in crystallizing the folded protein.  After obtaining his Ph.D., Craig continued his work at ASU as the Director of the Macromolecular X-ray Diffraction Facility and curriculum specialist for the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.  The recent focus of Craig’s scientific interest has been centered on protein structure elucidation, in vitro protein folding, de novo enzymatic proteins and the study of proteins utilized as molecular scaffolds for rational nanotechnology designs.  Craig is an expert in instrumentation and methodologies utilized in protein crystallography and the preparative processes associated with crystallizing a desired target.  After leaving ASU, Craig moved to Rigaku as Regional Account Manager in the sales of capital instrumentation for research in structural biology, materials science, petroleum industry, forensics and pharmaceuticals.  Like all of the members of the Omscientia team, Craig is an avid outdoorsman and participates in cycling, hiking, rock climbing, water sports and travelling with his Australian shepherds.

Greg Taylor - West Coast Sales Executive

Greg Taylor received his B.A. from Purdue University in Political Science, International Relations with a Minor in Aviation. Following graduation and a brief period of self-realization, entered the Marine Corps Officer Aviation Program to pursue his passion for flying, travel and adventure. While serving and deployed around the globe, he managed to complete Masters in Computer Data Management and Business Administration through Webster University. After ten years dedicated duty in the "Corps", satisfied with commitment to country, and way too much adventure, he began work on a PhD in International Marketing and Finance. During this time he discovered a talent in developing concepts for innovative and unique new service oriented businesses, starting the first mobile on-site document shredding and recycling service in California. After a five year period of entrepreneurship and acquisition of his first company, Greg then worked for two of the top fifty multi-national corporations furthering his extensive sales, marketing, and operations management expertise, rising to a Division VP for Export and Import Sales, later working for Korean based SSANG YONG, USA an international trading company. Greg's goal, as your personal Omscientia representative, is to develop a working relationship with you and your colleagues that will enable Omscientia to fulfill your lab's needs, supplying the equipment and consumables that meet or exceed technical requirements, unique to your facility and research. Greg is of Scottish-Irish Heritage and competes across the county in various Highland Strength Games. A "retired" rugby player, he volunteers as a High School football coach, working with place kickers and punters on all levels, college and professional.

Chad Simmons is a member of our Scientific Advisory Board. He received his Bachelor’s degree of Biochemistry and Psychology from Liberty University in 2000, and has 11 years of extensive experience in a variety of disciplines in academia in biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, DNA nanotechnology and X-ray crystallography. He has worked at the University of Virginia in a membrane protein crystallography laboratory, at Cornell University using single molecule biophysics to study mechanisms of transcription and the structural mechanisms of enzymes involved in amino acid metabolism, and at Arizona State University where he studied the structural features of synthetic enzymes that were evolved via directed evolution and crystallographic exploration of DNA nanostructures. He resides in Ahwatukee, Arizona, the southwest portion of Phoenix.

Ludmilla Shuvalova, Ph.D.

Omscientia is excited to have Ludmilla Shuvalova, Ph.D., on our Scientific Advisory Board.  Dr. Shuvalova received her MS in Biology from Moscow State University School of Biology and Department of Biochemistry, and her PhD at A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences.  Her PhD thesis included work in the area of muscle proteins, awarding her best research of the year; the first graduate from the institute to earn the award. Ludmilla had a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of Russian Academy of Sciences.  In 2002, she was appointed Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the Wayne F. Anderson Lab.  At one of the first NIGMS Structural Genomics Centers, the Midwest Center for Structural Genomics, a member of the Protein Structure Initiative, Ludmilla headed a group responsible for expression, purification, crystallization and data collection for problematic proteins resulting in over thirty (30) Protein Date Bank (PDB) deposits and seven publications.  In 2007, Dr. W. Anderson became director for a new multi-institutional project, The Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (funded by NIH).  As co-investigator, Dr Shuvalova oversees the project providing protein crystals needed for successful structure determination and directs faculty training in the work with new proteins selected as potential drug targets and vaccine candidates resulting in more than 60 PDB deposits and one published paper.  Dr. Shuvalova lives in North Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan with her husband, enjoying fishing and hiking and honing her talent in landscape photography and jewelry making.