Dr John A Gruner profile photo

Dr. John A. Gruner

Director of Neurophysiology

Dr. Gruner directs all neurophysiology studies at Melior. He specializes in working with clients to custom-design experiments to evaluate therapeutic efficacy in models of motoneuron disease (e.g. G93A transgenic SOD mice), neurotrauma, pain and muscle relaxation (nociceptive and proprioceptive spinal reflexes and neuromuscular function), sleep / wake and general cortical function (including high-frequency EEG analysis and evoked potentials), and EEG-based pro- and anti-convulsant evaluation.

During his 19 years at Cephalon, Inc., he designed and supervised neurophysiological and pharmacological studies involving numerous disease areas, including evaluation of neuroprotection by trophic agents, free radical inhibitors, kinase inhibitors, and other compounds in neuropathy, neurodegeneration, and motor neuron disease models. He has also elucidated mechanisms of action of proprietary analgesic agents and utilized evoked potentials for evaluating functional impairment in models of cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia.

He built and ran Cephalon’s preclinical sleep research laboratory, and studied the actions of dopaminergic agents and other drugs in sleep / wake and convulsant activity. He was a discovery team member for several sleep and wake enhancing and psychostimulant agents, including an H3-receptor inverse agonist (irdabisant) currently in clinical development.

Dr. Gruner received his B.A. from UCSD and Ph.D. at Purdue University, where he investigated the role of the cerebellum in motor control. As a postdoctoral fellow and later Research Asst. Professor in the Dept. of Neurosurgery at NYU, he designed stimulation systems for paralyzed muscle, was involved in experiments elucidating the role of synapsin phosphorylation in synaptic vesicle release, and carried out electrophysiological and behavioral studies to evaluate treatment efficacy using the spinal cord injury model he helped develop at NYU. Dr. Gruner is the author / co-author on over 40 publications and 1 patent in various areas of neurophysiology.

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
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 & Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences Indiana University, Department of Chemistry
Because Melior could do the orthotopic intracranial implants, we were able to do survival studies with brain tumor-bearing animals that were treated with our therapy, showing a beautiful survival with our agent versus control. Talk about something that gets your investors going! These beautiful survival curves with our agent versus control and visual photos are in all of our investor decks because… it's powerful.
Bruce Ruggeri, Ph.D.
Modifi Bio
Melior works in many therapeutic areas, like CNS, inflammatory disease, GI, cardiovascular, and oncology. I was very pleased that when it came to doing tumor studies, both subcutaneous and intracranial, they did them well. They reported on the studies on time and did the data analysis really well.
Bruce Ruggeri, Ph.D.
Modifi Bio
Their areas of expertise are extensive, and they are very experienced, responsive, and flexible in terms of how the study is run. Their pricing is reasonable, making them the best option for a young, not well-funded company like ours.
Maxine Gowen
Tamuro Bio
Melior’s team was very experienced and knowledgeable. They were always very open to suggestions and questions, spending a lot of time helping us feel comfortable with the study design. I would give them very high marks.
Maxine Gowen
Tamuro Bio
The most important factors in choosing to work with Melior were the fit between the tests they could run and our needs, as well as their tight budget and proximity. Melior was the best fit for our research goals.
Ira Spector
SFA Therapeutics