GATC Health Announces Expansion of West Virginia Lab, Strategic WVU Appointments, and Focus on AI Driven Drug Discovery

MORGANTOWN, WV, March 11, 2025 – GATC Health Corp., a leading tech-bio company leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to transform drug discovery, today announced significant updates to its West Virginia lab, highlighting its commitment to innovation, regional collaboration, and addressing critical healthcare challenges. The expansion includes key appointments and a sharpened focus on leveraging artificial intelligence AI) to accelerate drug discovery and development.

Key Personnel Appointments

GATC Health is proud to announce the following strategic appointments that will further strengthen its ties with West Virginia University WVU) and enhance its research capabilities:

Robert Tinder, PhD, who joined GATC Health as a lead medicinal chemist and was recently promoted to Head of Chemical Research, has been appointed as an adjunct associate professor at West Virginia University’s Pharmaceutical Sciences department. Dr. Tinder relocated from Tacoma, WA to Morgantown to direct GATC Health’s WVU-adjacent lab and growing medicinal chemistry team. Currently, he and the team are scaling-up GATC Health’s lead compound for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), which has shown in animal studies to reduce fentanyl self-administration. His focus will be on developing GATC's AI capabilities, speeding up drug development including scale up and solving challenging medicinal chemistry problems using the company's Multiomics Advanced Technology™ (MAT) platform. 

Dr. Tinder brings over 30 years of experience to GATC Health, with expertise in in-silico drug design, automation, and process development. He earned his Ph.D. at UCLA, contributing to the discovery of Xtandi and selective estrogen modulators. Before joining GATC Health, Dr. Tinder founded Proteaf Technologies and Intense Process Technologies, serving clients including the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Energy, and major pharmaceutical companies. He has also been a chemistry advisor for GATC Health since 2021, where he designed and helped discover the company’s OUD drug candidate.

"At GATC, my focus is on developing our AI tools to solve challenging medicinal chemistry problems using our MAT platform. This means accelerating what we already know how to do: get molecules from discovery into humans safer and faster than ever before, and ultimately putting life-saving treatments into the hands of patients who need them," said Dr. Tinder.

Alexa Martin, PhD, currently a Scientist at GATC's West Virginia Lab, has been appointed a Visiting Research Scholar within the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at WVU. Dr. Martin, who received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from WVU in 2022 under the guidance of Dr. Gregory Dudley and Dr. Brian Popp, will further strengthen the collaborative relationship between GATC and WVU. Before joining GATC Health, Dr. Martin completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Emory Institute for Drug Development. Dr. Martin was born, raised, and educated in Appalachia and completed her B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

“I am incredibly proud and grateful to be a part of the GATC Health team. We are making astonishing strides towards treating diseases, often uniquely affecting Appalachians, while bringing back a strong medicinal chemistry presence to the region. I am looking forward to continuing and forging new collaborative efforts between GATC and WVU,” said Dr. Martin.

West Virginia Lab Expansion and Focus

GATC West Virginia, strategically located near WVU's campus in the WVU Innovation Building, is enhancing its AI-powered lab operations to facilitate rapid iteration between GATC Healthʼs MAT AI and traditional lab experiments. The lab is currently focused on synthesizing drug compounds, a crucial step in advancing preclinical testing for innovative treatments targeting conditions such as opioid use disorder, polysubstance use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, diabetes, glioblastoma, Alzheimer’s, and more.

To support this growth, GATC West Virginia is expanding its preclinical capabilities by hiring additional scientists this year, reinforcing its commitment to innovation and scientific excellence. This expansion is further supported by GATC Health's partnership with WVU to launch a strategic program aimed at accelerating academic research into market-ready therapies.

About GATC Health Corp

GATC Health Corp is a technology company revolutionizing drug discovery and development through its transformative AI platform and approach. The company’s validated and proprietary Multiomics Advanced Technology™ MAT) simulates human biochemistry’s billions of interactions to rapidly create novel therapeutics, identify and confirm targets, accelerate development, and de-risk drug pipelines by predicting efficacy, safety, and off-target effects.

For more information, visit www.gatchealth.com.