Management Team
Put a face to our executive leadership members

Ratmir Derda
Founder & CEO
Dr. Derda is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta. He is the author of over 45 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor on 10 patent applications (three issued patents). He is also an advisory board member of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Journal, and recipient of several awards including the David Gin New Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society (2017), Martha Cook Piper Research Prize from the University of Alberta (2017), Rising Star in Chemical Biology award from International Chemical Biology Society (2015), Young Investigator Award from Boulder Peptide Society (2014) and the Gold Medal at the XXIX International Chemistry Olympiad (1997).

Zoe O'Gara
Director of Discovery
Zoë completed her Bachelor of Science with Honours from Dublin City University in Genetics and Cell Biology. She also completed a voluntary internship with the National Centre for Medical Genetics in Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin under the supervision of Prof. David E. Barton. Her ambition to fulfill her career goals brought her to Canada where she joined 48Hour Discovery Inc in November 2018. Her main focus was working on and improving the panning pipeline. Now she is responsible for managing a team of talented scientists in the panning division of 48Hour Discovery Inc while also spearheading a scale up of panning operations.

Jessica (Yun) Cao
VP of Data Science and Information Technology
Dr. Cao completed her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta. Shortly thereafter, she joined the Derda Research Group in August 2017 as a computing research assistant. Jessica’s research in the Derda lab focused on database design, management, web application development, data visualisation and analysis. She transitioned to 48Hour Discovery in April 2018 as Lead Data Scientist, where she focused on the implementation of data science and machine learning in our data analysis pipeline. She also was responsible for leading the development of web application and database. Dr. Cao has nearly 8 years experience of algorithm development, software development and database management. She also has extensive experience with Data Science.
- Email:jcao@48hourdiscovery.com

David Alton
VP of Finance & Business Development
David Alton holds an MBA from the University of Alberta. David’s career has spanned the public and private sectors. He was a senior manager in the Federal Government before moving to the University of Alberta holding Director positions with the National Institute for Nanotechnology and the Alberta Cancer Diagnostic Consortium. David has in depth experience in starting, operating and financing new technology companies. He is a co-founder of four spin-off biomedical companies from the University of Alberta.

Martin Truksa
VP of Research and Development
Martin has a PhD in molecular biology and a MBA specialized in technology commercialization, combined with more than 25 years of experience in academic and industrial labs, as well as in government.
He worked as a scientist with the National Research Council, Bioriginal Food & Science Corp. and the University of Alberta. Before joining 48Hour Discovery, he was a senior manager with the Government of Alberta working in the area of emerging technologies, creating an environment and programs that help technology ventures to succeed.

Adam Brown
VP OF MARKETING
Adam is one of Edmonton's Top 40 Under 40, a Juno winner, and former CEO of Nanolog Audio. He received his MBA and Bachelors of Commerce from the University of Alberta, and recently gained his PMP designation. Previously, Adam was the Strategic Initiatives Lead at Wyvern, an Edmonton company that successfully graduated from Y Combinator and raised $10M during his tenure. Adam brings over 10 years of marketing and sales experience.
Our Team

Darren Martin
Scientist

Ganesh Sable
Senior Scientist

Gary Bao
Machine Learning Specialist

Ismat Luna
Scientist

Jessica Hamilton
Scientist

Manjot Kaur
Scientist

Rejwana Haque
Data Scientist

William Kirby
Scientist