Dena Grayson

Early life and education

Dena Minning was born on January 5, 1971 in Melbourne, FL. Minning graduated from Melbourne High School in 1988 where she was a member of the varsity soccer team that captured the Florida High School State Championship in 1987. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida in 1992. After graduating from college, Minning enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University, School of Medicine, where she earned a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular cell biology. In 1999, The New York Times, Science Daily and the Duke Chronicle covered research on Ascaris hemoglobin that Minning had published in Nature, and stated, "The discovery may yield new therapies for diseases such as cancer, in which starving tumors of oxygen is a major therapeutic focus." Minning completed her internship in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Career

According to Fox 35, Dr. Grayson is "an accomplished physician and medical researcher." Although as of 2016, she did not hold a medical license and has not practiced medicine for over ten years, Dr. Grayson is a Medical Doctor (M.D.) who spent years treating uninsured patients for free. In the early 2000s, she shifted her focus to medical research as a way of treating multiple patients by finding cures. Minning worked as a biotechnology consultant at MEDACorp from 2002-2003. From 2003 to 2008, Minning served as an Associate Director of Licensing and Director of Medical Sciences at Amgen, and worked on developing treatments for cancers, asthma, anemia, hypercholesterolemia, heart failure, and pain. While at Amgen, Minning was selected as a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute in 2006. Minning then served as Vice President of Translational Sciences at 3-V Biosciences from 2008 to 2010, where she oversaw the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs active against deadly viruses. Minning served as the Vice President of Translational Sciences for AlloCure from 2011 to 2014, where she led research on a mesenchymal stem cell therapy for acute kidney injury. In 2010, Minning founded MedExpert Consulting, a biotechnology consulting company, where she helped research and develop BCX4430, a broad-spectrum antiviral drug that is active against Ebola, Marburg, Yellow Fever, Zika, and other deadly viral diseases. Minning briefly lobbied for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals for 3 months in 2013 and for 1 month in 2014 to fund research of a treatment for Ebola and other deadly viruses. In 2014, she was co-author of an article published in Nature on the efficacy of BCX4430 against Marburg virus and of a paper on the activity of BCX4430 against Yellow Fever.