John Krstenansky, PhD, MBA, FRSC

Dr. John Krstenansky joined KGI in June 2013. His extensive professional experience spans several areas relevant to pharmacy practice. Prior to joining KGI, he was founding faculty, a professor, and the director of medicinal chemistry at the Department of Pharmaceutical Science and Research at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy in Huntington, WV. He also served as an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at Loma Linda University’s School of Pharmacy. He has held several leadership positions in industry, including vice president, chemistry at Consensus Pharmaceuticals in Medford, MA, and vice president, research & development, at EnzyMed in Iowa City, IA.

Krstenansky held several positions at Roche Bioscience/Syntex Discovery Research in Palo Alto, CA, including principal scientist, senior staff researcher, and research section leader, and was a senior research biochemist at Marion Merrell Dow Research Institute in Cincinnati, OH.

Krstenansky is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, and the Southwestern Association of Forensic Scientists.

He holds an MBA from Golden Gate University in Los Altos, CA, a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a BS and AB in chemistry and philosophy, respectively, from Loyola University of Chicago.

Tom Hsu, Jayapal Reddy Mallareddy, Kayla Yoshida, Vincent Bustamante, Tim Lee, John L. Krstenansky, Alexander C. Zambon, Synthesis and pharmacological characterization of ethylenediamine synthetic opioids in human m-opiate receptor 1 (OPRM1) expressing cells. Pharmacol. Research & Perspectives 2019; 7: e00511 doi: 10.1002/prp2.511

Srikanth Kolluru, Rosemary Momoh, Lydia Lin, Jayapal Mallareddy, and John L. Krstenansky, Identification of the binding pocket for flavonol inhibitors of the HPV16 E6 – procaspase 8 interaction. BMC Structural Biology 2019; 20: 30 doi: 10.1186/s12860-019-0214-3

Krstenansky JL, “Mesembrine Alkaloids: Review of their occurrence, chemistry, and pharmacology.” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2017; 195: 10-19

Yuan C-H, Filippova M, Krstenansky JL, Duerksen-Hughes PJ, “Flavonol  and benzimidazole derivatives block HPV16 E6 activities and reactivate apoptotic pathways in HPV+ cells.” Cell Death and Disease 2016; 7: 2060

Krstenansky JL and Muzzio M, “Analysis of the smoke of cigarettes containing Salvia divinorum.” Journal of Analytical Toxicology 2014; 38: 451-455

Yuan C-H, Filippova M, Tungteakkhun SS, Duerksen-Hughes PJ, Krstenansky JL, “Small molecule inhibitors of the HPV16-E6 interaction with caspase 8.”  Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2012; 22: 2125-2129

Krstenansky JL, Xu D, Leitzke R, Saldivar A, Gevorkian R, Shi W-X, “Adrenochrome and Related Oxidative Metabolites of Catecholamines: Effects on Dopamine Neurons and Receptor Binding Profiles.”  Schizophrenia Research 2011; 133: 264-265

Krstenansky JL, Wang J, Chenail GR, Tiffany MR, Kuesters GM, Natke BC, Nestor JJ, “Probing Proteinase Active Sites Using Oriented Peptide Mixture Libraries – ADAM-10.”  Letters in Drug Design and Discovery 2004; 1 (1) 6-13

Krstenansky JL, Khmelnitsky Y, “Biocatalytic combinatorial synthesis.” Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry 1999; 7 (10):  2157-2162

Vickery BH, Avnur Z, Cheng Y, Chiou SS, Leaffer D, Caulfield JP, Kimmel DB, Ho T, Krstenansky JL, “RS-66271, a C-terminally substituted analogue of human parathyroid hormone-related protein (1-34)., increases trabecular and cortical bone in ovariectomized, osteopenic rats.” Journal of Bone and Mineral Research1996; 11: 1943-1951

Qiu X, Yin M, Padmanabhan KP, Krstenansky JL, Tulinsky A, “The structures of thrombin complexed with a designed and a natural exosite-binding inhibitor.” Journal of Biological Chemistry 1993; 268 (27): 20318-20326

McLean LR, Lewis JE, Krstenansky JL, Hagaman KA, Cope AS, Matthews ER, Olsen KF, Uhrhammer DC, Owen TJ, Payne MH, “An amphipathic a-helical decapeptide in phosphatidylcholine is an effective lung surfactant.” American Review of Respiratory Disease 1993; 147 (2): 462-465

Krstenansky JL, del Rosario-Chow M, Currie BL, “The synthesis of syn- and anti-2(S)-phthalimidomethyl-2,3,4,4a,7,7a-hexahydro-6-oxo-5H-pyrano[2,3-b]pyrroles as rigid b-bend peptide-mimetics.” Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry1992; 29 (4): 707-711

Krstenansky JL, Broersma RJ, Owen TJ, Payne MH, Yates MT, Mao SJT, “Development of MDL 28,050, a small stable anticoagulant based on a functional domain of the leech antithrombin, hirudin.” Thrombosis and Haemostasis 1990; 63 (2): 208-214

Krstenansky JL, Owen TJ, Buck SH, Hagaman KA, McLean LR, “Centrally truncated and stabilized porcine neuropeptide Y analogs: Design, synthesis and mouse brain receptor binding.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 1989; 86 (12): 4377-4381