Former Director of the Nucleic Acid Synthesis Facility at North Carolina State University (NCSU), Winnell co-developed the drug-discovery technology with her expertise in oligonucleotide synthesis. She has 25 years of laboratory management experience, nine years specializing in DNA and RNA oligonucleotide synthesis, and has published eight scientific articles. Prior to her work at NCSU, Winnell held biochemistry laboratory and instrumentation management positions at Ciba-Geigy and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.