Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders

Deanna M. Barch

Deanna Barch(Co-Chair), PhD, is a clinical scientist whose research focuses on understanding normative patterns cognitive function and brain connectivity and the mechanisms that give rise to the challenges in behavior and cognition found in illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression, utilizing psychological, neuroimaging and computational approaches across the lifespan. She is the Vice Dean of Research in Arts & Sciences at Washington University. She is also the Couch Professor of Psychiatry and a Professor of Radiology. She is Deputy Editor at Biological Psychiatry and Editor-in-Chief of Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. She is also the President of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Barch is on the scientific boards of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the One Mind Foundation, and the Stanley Foundation. Dr. Barch was on the Executive Committee of the Association for Psychological Science and the Scientific Council of the National Institute of Mental Health. She is a Fellow of both the Association for Psychological Science and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, a member of the Society for Experimental Psychology, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Frances E. Jensen

Frances Jensen, M.D., (Co-Chair) is Professor of Neurology and Chairman of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Co-Director of Penn Translational Neuroscience Center. She was formerly Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director of Translational Neuroscience and senior neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is a graduate of Cornell Medical College and obtained her neurology residency training at the Harvard Longwood Neurology Residency Program. Her research focuses on mechanisms of epilepsy and stroke, and the mechanistic interaction of epilepsy with other disorders such as autism and dementia, with specific emphasis on elucidating new therapies for clinical trials development. Dr. Jensen received the 2007 Director’s Pioneer Award from the NIH to explore the interaction between epileptogenesis and cognitive dysfunction, and was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2015. Dr. Jensen was President of the American Epilepsy Society in 2012 and has served on a number of other leadership boards including the Council for the Society for Neuroscience and the Council at NICHD. She currently serves on the Board of the American Neurological Association, the scientific advisory panel at NIH for the BRAIN Initiative, and on a number of charitable foundations for neuroscience research. She has authored over 150 manuscripts on subjects related to her research and has been continuously funded by NIH since 1987. Dr. Jensen has trained numerous clinical and basic research fellows who now hold independent faculty positions nationally and internationally. Dr. Jensen is a Trustee of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and is involved in community outreach for brain research and education. In addition, Dr. Jensen is an advocate for awareness of the adolescent brain development, its unique strengths and vulnerabilities, as well as their impact on medical, social, and educational issues unique to teenagers and young adults, and author of the book “The Teenage Brain”, released by Harper Collins in 2015/16, translated and published in over 25 languages worldwide.

Merit Cudkowicz

Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc is the inaugural Executive Director of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, Former Chair of Neurology and current Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General Hospital and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 150 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic-led clinical trials and research studies in ALS. She is leading the first Platform Trial initiative in ALS and is also the Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke's Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). Dr. Cudkowicz provides mentorship to physicians globally in careers in experimental therapeutics.

Beverly L. Davidson

Beverly L. Davidson, PhD, is the Director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Chief Scientific Strategy Officer, and holds the Katherine A. High Chair in Cell and Gene Therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from University of Michigan. The Davidson lab is focused on genetic diseases that affect the brain, including how mutant gene products contribute to disease, and why certain brain regions are more susceptible. The team employs advanced molecular methods, sequencing and imaging modalities in animal models, and uses a variety of molecular tools to test various hypotheses. The lab is also engaged in the development of next generation therapeutics for inherited disorders, including the engineering of novel gene therapy vector capsids and cargo to approach tissue and cell type specific treatments. Dr. Davidon’s recent honors include election into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and the Hereditary Disease Foundation’s Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize for Innovation in Science. She is the immediate past president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, the largest international association of gene and cell therapy research.

Nita Farahany

Nita Farahany, J.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Law & Philosophy, Director of Duke Science & Society, and Chair of the Duke MA in Bioethics and Science Policy. From 2010-2017, she served on the U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. She is a widely published scholar on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the biosciences and emerging technologies, and a frequent commentator for national media and radio shows, and keynote speaker at major events and conferences including the Aspen Ideas Festival, TED, the World Economic Forum, corporate events, academic and judicial conferences. Farahany is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Council on Precision Medicine, President and Board member of the International Neuroethics Society, serves on scientific advisory boards, the Neuroethics Division of the BRAIN Initiative for NIH, the National Advisory Council of NINDS, Neuroscience Forum at the National Academies of Science, and is a co-editor-in-chief and a founding editor of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences. Farahany holds an A.B. (Genetics) from Dartmouth College, an A.L.M. (Biology) from Harvard University, and a J.D., M.A., and Ph.D. (Philosophy) from Duke University.

Eva L. Feldman

Eva Feldman, MD, PhD, is the James W. Albers Distinguished University Professor and the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology at Michigan Medicine and is a renowned neurologist and neuroscientist who has devoted her career towards understanding the etiology of neurological disorders and developing new treatments. Dr. Feldman is Director of the University of Michigan (UM) ALS Center of Excellence and the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies. She is annually listed in Best Doctors in America, a Past President of the Peripheral Nerve Society and American Neurological Association (ANA), a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), Association of American Physicians, and a Fellow of the AAAS. Her work is internationally recognized, with >500 published articles and 70 book chapters (Google Scholar h-index = 114) and >51,000 citations. She was the inaugural Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at UM when Alfred Taubman gave $100 million in 2011 to support translational research in the Institute by clinician scientists. She held this position from 2007-2017. Dr. Feldman is the only person to receive UM Medical Center Alumni Society Early and Advanced Career Distinguished Achievement Awards (2001, 2019). She has also received lifetime achievement awards from the ADA, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Endocrine Society, and the Society for Neuroscience along with numerous awards for mentoring.

Dr. Feldman has been continuously NIH funded since 1989, with a strong track record of successful collaborations, as she oversees an established lab with 25 exceptional scientists. Her research group develops novel cellular, gene, and growth factor therapies for neurologic disorders. Her team also conducts pioneering studies on the pathogenesis of neuropathy in metabolic diseases and the effect of the exposome on ALS, leveraging in vitro and in vivo models, clinical specimens, and multiple omics-based approaches. Her work identified dyslipidemia during diabetes as a key driver of nervous system damage, leading to new clinical patient care guidelines by the American Diabetes Association. She has also developed a clinical tool to diagnose diabetic neuropathy that is used worldwide and in multiple NIH clinical trials. Her work with the ALS exposome has identified pesticides and organic persistent pollutants as increasing ALS risk and decreasing ALS survival. She has begun an ALS prevention basic and clinical research program that was recently award an NIH Director’s Transformative Award in 2021. With a strong track record of directly translating basic research into advances in clinical treatment, she has mentored over 100 postdoctoral and clinical fellows and 10 graduate students, was PI of T32 NS07222 NIH/NINDS Training in Clinical and Basic Neuroscience for over 2 decades, and currently mentors 4 NIH K award recipients, has 4 R01s and multiple foundation grants, and has received multiple mentoring awards. Dr. Feldman’s is married to Dr. Neal E. Little (MD, UM 1973) and has 3 children, Dr. Laurel Roberts (MD, UM 2012), Scott Roberts JD, and Dr. John Roberts (MD, UM 2018).

Yasmin L. Hurd

Yasmin Hurd, Ph.D., is the Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience and the Director of the Center for Addictive Disorders within the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System. Dr. Hurd's multidisciplinary research investigates the neurobiology underlying addiction disorders and related psychiatric illnesses. A translational approach is used to examine molecular and neurochemical events in the human brain and comparable animal models in order to ascertain neurobiological correlates of behavior. A major focus of the research is directed to risk factors of addiction disorders including genetics as well as developmental exposure to drugs of abuse.

Steven E. Hyman

Steven E. Hyman, MD, is the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where he directs the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. The Stanley Center conducts global, large-scale studies of neuropsychiatric genetics and follow-up biological studies employing stem cell biology, neurobiology, and technology development in support of translational efforts to identify biomarkers and promising therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders.
From 2001 to 2011 Hyman served as Provost of Harvard University, the university’s chief academic officer where he had a special focus on building cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations in the humanities, sciences, and engineering. From 1996 to 2001, he served as Director of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where he invested in neuroscience and emerging genomic technologies and initiated a series of large practical clinical trials to inform practice. He has served as Editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience (2002-2016), founding President of the International Neuroethics Society (2008-2013), President of the Society for Neuroscience (2015), and President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2018). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine where he chaired the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, which brings together industry, government, foundations, patient groups, and academia (2012-2018) and served on the governing Council (2012-2018). Hyman chairs the Board of Directors of the Charles A. Dana Foundation (NY). In 2016, he was awarded the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health by the National Academy of Medicine. He received his BA, summa cum laude, from Yale College, an MA from the University of Cambridge, which he attended as a Mellon fellow studying History and Philosophy of Science, and an MD, cum laude, from Harvard Medical School.

John H. Krystal

John Krystal, M.D., is the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Professor of Translational Research, Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine and Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, Yale University School of Medicine, and the Yale Psychiatry Residency Training Program. He has published extensively on the neurobiology and treatment of schizophrenia, alcoholism, PTSD, and depression. Notably, he led the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine in humans. He is the Director of the NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism and the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the VA National Center for PTSD. Dr. Krystal is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. Currently, he is president of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP), a member of the NIMH National Mental Health Advisory Council, and editor of Biological Psychiatry (IF=11.412).

Robert C. Malenka

Robert C. Malenka, MD, PhD, is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Nancy Pritzker Laboratory and co-founder of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford University. After graduating from Harvard College he received a Ph.D.in neuroscience and M.D. in 1982 and 1983, respectively, from Stanford University School of Medicine. Over the ensuing 6 years he completed residency training in psychiatry at Stanford and 4 years of postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 1989, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Physiology at UCSF, at which he reached the rank of Full Professor in 1996. In addition to running an active research program at UCSF he was the Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction and Associate Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry. He returned to the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1999. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine as well as an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He has served on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and as a Councilor for the Society for Neuroscience and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is on the scientific advisory boards of numerous non-profit foundations including the Cure Alzheimer's Fund, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and One Mind.

Dr. Malenka's findings have been published in >300 research papers in leading science journals. He has received numerous awards including the Kemali Foundation International Prize in Neuroscience (2000); the CINP-Lilly Neuroscience Basic Research Award (2002), the Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize (2006), the NARSAD Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Neuroscience Research (2010), the Pasarow Foundation Award for Extraordinary Accomplishment in Neuropsychiatry Research (2011), the Society for Neuroscience Julius Axelrod Prize (2016), and the Society for Neuroscience Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize (2022). His laboratory continues to conduct cutting edge research on the molecular mechanisms of neural communication as well as the role of synaptic dysfunction in brain disorders including addiction, autism, and depression.

He has also co-authored a textbook entitled Molecular Neuropharmacology: A Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience (McGraw Hill, 3rd edition, 2015). His many years of investigation have produced a number of hypotheses that provide the foundation for much of the research in many of the world's laboratories that study how neurons communicate with one another and how this communication is modified during learning and by experience. His laboratory continues to conduct cutting edge research on the molecular mechanisms of neural communication as well as the role of synaptic dysfunction in brain disorders including addiction, autism, and depression.

Husseini K. Manji

Husseini Manji, MD, FRCPC, is a Professor at Oxford University, Visiting Professor at Duke University, and Co-Chair of the UK Government Mental Health Mission. Dr. Manji is also past Global Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience at Janssen Research & Development pharmaceutical companies, and Global Head, Science for Minds, J&J. He has been inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (NAM, formerly IOM), is a member of the National Institutes of Health Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee, the World Dementia Council, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Councils, the Board of Mass General-Brigham Incorporated; the Board of Trustees of Harvard University/McLean Hospital, Scientific Advisory Board of the Stanley Center at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is chair of the National Academy of Medicine Neuroscience, Behavior, Brain Function & Disorders group, and has held numerous leadership positions within the NIH, NAM, the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium Executive Committee. Before joining J&J, Dr. Manji was Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world.

The major focus of Dr. Manji’s research is the investigation of disease and treatment-induced changes in synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Manji has helped to discover, develop, and launch several new medications for serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. These include the first novel antidepressant mechanism in over 30 years, the first medication in Neuroscience granted FDA “Breakthrough designation”, a once every 6-month treatment for schizophrenia, novel mechanism(s) for Alzheimer’s Disease, multiple sclerosis among others. Dr. Manji also has been actively involved in developing biomarkers to help refine these multifactorial diseases, and to develop a holistic approach towards neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Manji has received a number of prestigious awards, including the NIMH Director's Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, PhRMA Research & Hope Award for Excellence in Biopharmaceutical Research, the American Federation for Aging Research Award of Distinction, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award, the ACNP’s Joel Elkes Award for Distinguished Research, the DBSA Klerman Senior Distinguished Researcher Award, the Briggs Pharmacology Lectureship Award, the Caring Kind Alzheimer’s Disease Leadership Award, and the Global Health & the Arts Award of Recognition, and has also been recognized as one of 14 inaugural “Health Heroes” by Oprah magazine.

Gentry Patrick

Gentry N. Patrick, PhD, is the Kavli and Dr. William and Marisa Rastetter Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Neurobiology and Professor in the Department of Neurobiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California San Diego. Dr. Patrick is a leader in the field of ubiquitin-dependent protein turnover in neurons in health and neurodegenerative disease with a particular interest in the trafficking and turnover of synaptic proteins including AMPA-type glutamate receptors. Dr. Patrick received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1999 after working in the laboratory of Dr. Li-Huei Tsai. He was a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation and a United Negro College Fund/Merck postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Erin Schuman at California Institute of Technology. Dr. Patrick joined the UC San Diego faculty in 2004. In 2021, he was named the founding Director of the Center for Empathy and Social Justice in Human Health (CESJHH) within the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion (TDSI). The mission of CESJHH is to bring empathy and compassion to the work of addressing health injustice through research, communication, and advancing representation of marginalized communities in the STEM and healthcare profession pipeline.

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Dr. Patrick's lived experience is a testament to the power to access, mentorship, and advocacy. His personal and professional journey into Neuroscience and academia has presented him with opportunities to leverage his own experience as an underrepresented minority student in STEM to innovate and advocate for systemic change in STEM education. Dr. Patrick is the creator and faculty director of the PATHways to STEM (PATHS) thru Enhanced Access and Mentorship scholars program. The PATHS program, now in its 6th year (cohort P6), was initially funded by a $6.9 mil grant from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to support partnership between UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), for the replication of UMBC's Meyerhoff Scholars Program to both UC campuses.

Raymond Sanchez

Raymond Sanchez, MD, has over 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, and is currently a Senior Advisor at Bain Capital Life Sciences and Norwest Ventures, both investment and venture firms. He also serves on several Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Boards as well as an Advisor to the NeuroImpact Fund for IASO Ventures. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from January 2019 to August 2024 when it was acquired by AbbVie Inc. From November 2007 to January 2019, Dr. Sanchez held various roles of increasing responsibility at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc., a privately-held healthcare company, most recently as Senior Vice President, Global Clinical Development beginning in November 2013. From June 2018 to January 2019, Dr. Sanchez concurrently served as Chief Medical Officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company (later acquired by Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.). Prior to joining the life sciences industry, Dr. Sanchez trained in psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine where he where he was Chief Resident as well as a fellow and an instructor. Dr. Sanchez was an executive co-chair of the International Society for CNS Drug Development from November 2017 to January 2022, and has also contributed to other academic and charitable organizations such as the Connecticut Mental Health Center Foundation and Yale School of Medicine. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the PharmaVoice 100 for his excellence and innovation in the life sciences, and is also well-published. Dr. Sanchez holds two degrees from Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a medical degree from the Feinberg School of Medicine.

Terrence J. Sejnowski

Terrence Sejnowski, PhD, is the Francis Crick Professor at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he directs the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, and a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, where he is co-Director of the Institute for Neural Computation. He is the President of the Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) Foundation, which organizes the largest annual conference on machine learning and artificial intelligence. Dr. Sejnowski pioneered computational neuroscience and his long-range goal is to build linking principles from brain to behavior using computational models. This goal is being pursued with a combination of theoretical and experimental approaches at several levels of investigation ranging from the biophysical level to the systems level. His laboratory has developed new methods for analyzing the sources for electrical and magnetic signals recorded from the scalp and fMRI brain imaging by blind source separation using independent components analysis (ICA) and delay-differential analysis (DDA). Dr. Sejnowski has published over 500 scientific papers and 12 books, including "The Computational Brain" with Patricia Churchland and "The Deep Learning Revolution." His Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with Barbara Oakley, "Learning How to Learn", is based on the principles of learning in brains and has been viewed by over 3 million learners in over 200 countries; their new three-MOOC specialization, "Uncommon Sense Teaching," is aimed at helping teachers navigate the complexities of two major learning systems in brains. He received the IEEE Neural Network Pioneer Award in 2002 and the Gruber Prize in Neuroscience in 2022 and has received honorary doctorates from the University of Zurich and Princeton University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors.

Doug Williamson

Doug Williamson, MD; MRCPsych is an independent expert and advisor in neuroscience drug development and has served as a member of the Neuroscience Forum since 2011. He received his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and was subsequently admitted to Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He was an MRC Clinical Scientist at the University of Oxford Department of Psychopharmacology, where he researched neuroendocrine responses to antidepressant treatment and treatment resistant depression prior to joining Eli Lilly in 1996. At Lilly, he led the development of a combination of olanzapine and fluoxetine obtaining the first ever approval for treatment resistant depression. Dr. Williamson subsequently led Lilly's US Medical Affairs group for depression and bipolar products before leading the early phase neuroscience clinical development portfolio. He joined Parexel, a global CRO, in 2012 serving as Global CNS Therapeutic Area Head before being promoted to Vice President across all therapeutic areas. Dr. Williamson joined Lundbeck in 2016, where he led the US R&D organization as Senior Vice President and a member of the Global R&D Executive Committee. Since 2021 he has served as Chief Medical Officer for, and provided consultation services to, a number of biotech companies in diverse areas including narcolepsy, Parkinson's psychosis, rare disease, ALS and epilepsy as well as holding a board position on a psychedelics company. He is a scientific advisor to Nucleate Chicago, a startup incubator, and a certified Crossfit coach.

Katja Brose

Katja Brose, Ph.D., was most recently a Science Program Officer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The goals of Chan Zuckerberg Science Initiative are to support basic science and technology that will make it possible to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century. Before joining CZI, she was part of the editorial team at Cell Press for 17 years, where from 2004-20017 she was Editor-in-Chief of Neuron and a Publishing Director at Cell Press-Elsevier. During her tenure as Editor, Neuron undertook a major expansion of its scope building on its historical strengths in molecular and cellular neuroscience to cover all areas of neuroscience from molecular/cellular mechanisms to systems and cognitive neuroscience, genetics, neurological and psychiatric disease, theoretical neuroscience and emerging technologies. As Publishing Director, she was responsible for Cell Press strategy for review content, including oversight of the Trends family of review journals. She also led Cell Press' efforts around rigor and reproducibility. She has been an active committee member at the Society for Neuroscience, as a member of the Professional Development and Neuroscience Training Committees. She speaks frequently on topics related to scientific publishing and communication, including publication ethics and rigor and reproducibility in science. She earned her undergraduate degree in 1990 from Brown University, with a double concentration in Biology and European History. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California-San Francisco (1994-2000). For her graduate work, she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Marc Tessier Lavigne focusing on axon guidance mechanisms in the developing spinal cord.

Bruce Bebo

Bruce Bebo, PhD, is the Executive Vice President of Research at the National MS Society and leads the team that develops and implements the Society’s comprehensive research strategy. Dr. Bebo joined the Society in 2012 as the Associate Vice President of Discovery Research, with responsibility for the Society's biomedical research grant and fellowship programs. He brings over 25 years of experience in MS research. After receiving his Ph.D. in immunology from Texas A&M University, Dr. Bebo completed a National MS Society sponsored post-doctoral fellowship at the Portland VA Medical Center, and then served on the research faculty at Oregon Health and Science University. Dr. Bebo also brings experience from the industry and non-profit sectors, having served as the Director of Immunology Research for the pharmaceutical company Elbion, GmbH, and as the Director of Research and Medical Programs for the National Psoriasis Foundation. During his tenure at the National Psoriasis Foundation, he was instrumental in significantly increasing the foundation's research investments.

Andrea Beckel-Mitchener

Andrea Beckel-Michener, PhD, is at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and serves as the Deputy Director of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. She joined NIH in 2004 and during that time has overseen several large programs and collaborative projects including management of the Functional Neurogenomics program at NIMH, the Common Fund’s Single Cell Analysis Program and the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN). Prior to joining NIH, she worked at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and for GlaxoSmithKline (formerly SmithKline-Beecham) in the U.K.

Diane Bovenkamp

Diane Bovenkamp, Ph.D., is the chief scientist at BrightFocus Foundation, overseeing global operations of the organization’s research programs. She serves as the scientific liaison in local, national, and international forums, and identifies and develops new research initiatives, partnerships, and funding policies consistent with the mission of BrightFocus, which centers on research in Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration, and glaucoma

Teresa Buracchio

Teresa Buracchio, MD, is Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Office of Neuroscience in the Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She oversees the review of new drug programs for a variety of neurologic conditions and psychiatric diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, ALS, neuromuscular disease, neurogenetic disorders, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. Prior to joining FDA in 2013, Dr. Buracchio worked at AbbVie as an Associate Medical Director for Neuroscience Clinical Development. Dr. Buracchio received her medical degree from Rush Medical College and completed a neurology residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Buracchio completed fellowship training in geriatric neurology at Oregon Health & Science University and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon.

Sarah Caddick

Sarah Caddick, Ph.D., is Founder and CEO of THALAMIC in the United Kingdom. She also serves as Neuroscience Adviser to Lord Sainsbury of Turville and his charitable organization, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. She is a neuroscientist who has held leadership roles in academia and private/public grant-making organizations where she has been responsible for the development, oversight and restructuring of strategic, programmatic, operational and grant-making activities across a broad range of scientific disciplines. She currently serves on a number of boards, including the Global Council for Brain Research (World Economic Forum), the Science Museum (London), WiredDifferently.org, and Autistica. She is a former guest curator and presenter for TEDGlobal and the Skoll World Forum.

Rosa Canet-Avilés

Rosa Canet-Aviles, PhD, is the Vice President of Scientific Programs at CIRM and leads a team that actively works towards identifying the most promising basic and early stage research in stem cells and other areas related to regenerative medicine and enabling their success. Under her leadership, the Scientific Programs team manages a portfolio of hundreds of active programs that include basic mechanistic research, discovery, exploratory research, and identification of potential candidates for translational development. Rosa is also responsible for the education and training programs as well as the internal and external collaborative networks and consortia that will result from the early-stage scientific programs managed by this group. Together with the rest of the leadership team, Rosa is responsible for the strategic alignment and connectivity with other CIRM programs (e.g., clinical networks, knowledge and data networks, registries, educational and communication portals) with the ultimate goal of translating all these efforts into cures.
Rosa brings nearly two decades of experience developing and leading multi-stakeholder initiatives across biopharma, government and nonprofit organizations. In her recent role as the Director of Strategic Alliances at the Eisai Center for Genetics Guided Dementia Discovery (G2D2), as part of the leadership team at G2D2, Rosa was responsible amongst other for the strategic planning of alliances and external innovation partnerships in the neurobiology business unit. As such, Rosa was instrumental in driving growth to the organization through the identification and management of external innovation opportunities. During the previous 7 years, Rosa was the Director of Neuroscience Research Partnerships at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), Rosa was responsible for the development and management of the Neuroscience Research Partnership portfolio of projects and programs that includes: the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) for Alzheimer’s Disease (AMP-AD) 1 and 2, AMP Parkinson’s Disease (AMP-PD), AMP Schizophrenia (AMP SCZ), the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative 3 (ADNI3) and the Biomarkers Consortium Neuroscience Steering Committee (BC NSC). Rosa managed different teams in coordination with NIH, FDA, non-profit organizations and industry leaders.
Rosa earned her PhD degree in neuroscience from the School of Medicine at Leeds University, UK. She also holds a BS in organic chemistry from the Central University of Barcelona.

Michael F. Chiang

Michael Chiang, MD, is director of the National Eye Institute, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. His clinical practice focuses on pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus, and he is board-certified in clinical informatics. His research develops and applies biomedical informatics methods to clinical ophthalmology in areas such as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), telehealth, artificial intelligence, clinical information systems, genotype-phenotype correlation, and data analytics. His group has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, and has developed an assistive artificial intelligence system for ROP that received Breakthrough Status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
He received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Biology from Stanford University in 1991, an MD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in 1996, and an MA in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University. He completed residency and pediatric ophthalmology fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute. Between 2001-2010, he worked at Columbia University, where he was Anne S. Cohen Associate Professor of Ophthalmology & Biomedical Informatics, director of medical student education in ophthalmology, and director of the introductory graduate student course in biomedical informatics. From 2010-2020, he was Knowles Professor of Ophthalmology & Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, and Associate Director of the Casey Eye Institute, at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Casey Eye Institute. He co-directed an NIH-funded T32 training program in visual science for graduate students and research fellows, as well as an NIH-funded K12 clinician-scientist program at OHSU.
He has served as a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Board of Trustees, Chair of the AAO IRIS Registry Data Analytics Committee, Chair of the AAO Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Chair of the AAO Medical Information Technology Committee, and on numerous other national and local committees. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association and on the Editorial Board for Ophthalmology and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Ophthalmology, and is Associate Editor of the textbook Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine. He has previously served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and on the Editorial Board for Ophthalmology Retina.

Maria D. Dearing

M. Denise Dearing, PhD is the Director of the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) in the Directorate of Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is a Distinguished Professor and was previously the Inaugural Director of the School of Biological Sciences, and Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Utah. Dr. Dearing’s research focuses on the ecology and evolution of dietary specialization in mammalian herbivores. In that work, she has trained dozens of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduates. She and her lab seek to understand the physiological, microbial and behavioral mechanisms used by herbivores to metabolize or circumvent dietary toxins. Her past NSF funding includes a postdoctoral fellowship; awards from IOS, including a CAREER award and other grants for work in nutritional ecology and disease ecology from multiple BIO divisions. In her role at NSF, Dr. Dearing leads IOS in supporting the research community in advancing the scientific community’s understanding of organisms as integrated units, including in how they behave, develop, and interact with a changing environment.

Dr. Dearing earned her B.S. in Biology from Eastern Connecticut State University, 1985 an M.S. in Biology from the University of Vermont in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utah in 1995. She served as Associate Dean, College of Science between 2012 and 2014.

Among her awards and honors are the 2018 Joseph Grinnell Award (American Society of Mammalogist); the 2014 C. Hart Merriam Award (American Society of Mammalogists); a 2008 Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Distinguished Mentor Award; and a 2008 Distinguished University Teaching Award (University of Utah). She was elected in as a 2021 fellow to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Brian Fiske

Brian Fiske, PhD, is Co-Chief Scientific Officer for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. He works with a team of professionals who stay closely linked to the Parkinson's community in order to develop an aggressive and innovative strategic vision for accelerating research and drug development for Parkinson's disease. Dr. Fiske earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Texas A&M University and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia. After completing postdoctoral research at Columbia University, Brian spent several years as an editor for the scientific journal, Nature Neuroscience, before coming to the Foundation in 2004 to help bring new treatments to people with Parkinson's.

Magali Haas

Magali Haas, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.E., is CEO and President of Cohen Veterans Bioscience, a non-profit brain research organization based in Cambridge, MA. Cohen Veterans Bioscience was established as a joint initiative between Orion Bionetworks, Inc. and Steve A. Cohen to advance the detection and treatment of post-traumatic stress (PTS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) and related co-morbidities through cutting-edge research, so that the burden of these conditions may be lessened on service members, veterans, and their families. Orion Bionetworks was founded in 2012 by Dr. Haas to accelerate the development of next-generation diagnostics and treatments for brain disorders by harnessing the power of biotechnology (including neuroimaging, ‘omics, and biosensors) in combination with high-performance computing and data analytics, to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease and discover new ways to improve brain health.
Magali has over 15 years of pharmaceutical executive and clinical research experience, predominantly at Johnson & Johnson, where she assumed broad end-to-end development leadership roles in medical marketing, full clinical development, early development, and translational and biomarker sciences in psychiatry and neurology. She successfully filed NDAs in the US and Europe for risperidone indications in Autism, Adolescent Schizophrenia, Juvenile Bipolar Disorder and Conduct Disorders. She also led Development Teams evaluating compounds for Depression, Neuropathic Pain, Epilepsy, and Migraine Disorder.
As an “intrapreneur” at J&J she established the first Neuroscience Translational Medicine & Integrative Solutions department, and co-founded the first Companion Diagnostics Center of Excellence as well as an R&D Innovation team. She serves on several advisory boards including the Alzheimer’s Association National Plan Milestone Workgroup, Brain Canada, Pear Therapeutics and IMEC for nanoelectronics.
Magali earned her bachelor of science degree in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a master of science degree in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University, New Jersey, and a medical degree and doctorate in neuroscience from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.

Julie Harris

Julie Harris, Ph.D., is the Vice President of The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. In this role, she leads efforts to identify bold research at the very frontiers of bioscience with the potential to reshape our fundamental understanding of biology. Julie's professional background spans science philanthropy, non-profit organizations, biotech, and academic science sectors. She was previously Executive Vice President of Research Management at the Cure Alzheimer's Fund. In that role, Julie managed a dynamic grant portfolio in support of the most promising science and scientists working to end the burden of Alzheimer's disease. Julie was also the Vice President of Preclinical Biology at Cajal Neuroscience, a Seattle biotech startup focused on identifying therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. For nearly a decade, she worked at the Allen Institute for Brain Science as a scientist and Associate Director of Neuroanatomy, where she played pivotal roles building several of the Institute's signature open science resources, including the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas. She received a B.S. in Zoology from Michigan State University, a Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior from the University of Washington, postdoctoral training at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, and has > 50 peer-reviewed publications to her name.

H.E. Hinson

H.E Hinson, M.D., is a Professor of Clinical Neurology at University of California, San Francisco and a Neurointensivist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Her research focuses on developing precision strategies for the treatment of acute neurotrauma by integrating high dimensional molecular and clinical data to infer predictive analytic models of clinically relevant endpoints. The lab uses analytical tools such as machine learning to tackle complex datasets generated in the course of neurological critical care. She is also interested in biomarker discovery in the acute clinical setting. With the assistance of collaborators, the group also is actively pursuing fluid-based protein biomarkers using modalities including mass spectrometry (global discovery proteomics). Nationally, at the American Academy of Neurology, Dr. Hinson chairs the Clinic Research Subcommittee, is Vice Chair of the Science Committee, and serves on the Academic Neurology Committee. She is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Neurology, Stroke, and Neurotrauma. Dr. Hinson is a national leader in equity initiatives. She founded the American Academy of Neurology’s LGBTQI section in 2017 and served as its inaugural chair from 2018-2020. Dr. Hinson serves on the American Heart Association’s Journal EDI Editorial Board and is one of three EDI Associate editors for the journal Neurology.
She completed her MD at University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio in 2005 and her Neurology residency at the University of Maryland in 2009. She followed her residency with subspecialty training in Neurocritical Care at Johns Hopkins University, graduating from fellowship in 2011. She joined the faculty at Oregon Health Science center in 2011, and later received her Masters of Clinical Research there in 2016. In 2023, she moved her lab to UCSF, based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

Richard J. Hodes

Richard Hodes, M.D., is the Director of the National Institute of Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 1995 Dr. Hodes was elected as a member of The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives; in 1997 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and, in 1999 he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He also maintains an active involvement in research on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, through his direction of the Immune Regulation Section, a laboratory devoted to studying regulation of the immune system, focused on cellular and molecular events that activate the immune response.
In the past Dr. Hodes acted as a clinical investigator in the National Cancer Institute, then as the Deputy Chief and Acting Chief of the Cancer Institute's Immunology Branch. Since 1982 he has served as Program Coordinator for the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Cancer Research Program, and since 1992 on the scientific advisory board of the Cancer Research Institute. Dr. Hodes received his M.D. degree from the Harvard Medical School and completed a research fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and clinical training in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Stuart W. Hoffman

Stuart W. Hoffman, Ph.D., is the point of contact for VA/ORD on traumatic brain injury research. In this role, Dr. Hoffman has oversight for two VA TBI Research Centers and is the Co-chair of the Government Steering Committee for the VA/DoD Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium, as well as a the VA TBI subject matter expert for the National Research Action Plan for Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families. Dr. Hoffman also serves on several intra- and interagency advisory committees for VA and DoD, including the Congressionally-mandated Traumatic Brain injury Advisory Committee for the Veterans Health Administration.
Dr. Hoffman received his doctoral degree in behavioral and molecular neuroscience at Rutgers University in 1995 and completed his postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1997. Dr. Hoffman’s professional career began at Emory University as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology in 1998 and was an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine from 2000 to 2006. Immediately prior to joining the VA in 2010, Dr. Hoffman was the Research Director for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hoffman has more than 30 years of translational neuroscience research experience that focused on neuroprotection and methods to promote recovery of function after brain injury.

Michael l. Hutton

Michael Hutton, PhD, joined Eli Lilly as Chief Scientific Officer for Neurodegenerative Disease in 2009 and was promoted to his current position; Senior Vice President and CSO, Neurodegeneration and Genetic Medicine, in 2018. He is based at Lilly Research Laboratories in Indianapolis and is responsible for Lilly's Discovery portfolio for Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, ALS and related monogenic disorders, in this role Dr Hutton also leads the Neurogenetics program. Lilly's Neurodegeneration Portfolio currently includes experimental therapies in clinical development for amyloid, tau and other genetically validated targets. Genetic medicines (siRNA and gene therapies) have also now been added that target common diseases and monogenic indications. An amyloid targeting antibody, donanemab (Kisunla) that was developed within the Lilly discovery team, was recently approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease in the USA and in other countries.
Prior to joining Lilly, Dr Hutton held leadership roles at Merck (2 years) and at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (11 years) where he held the position of Professor of Neuroscience. During his time at the Mayo Clinic, Dr Hutton's team played a major role in determining the causes of Fronto-temporal Dementia with the discovery of causative mutations in the tau (MAPT) and progranulin (GRN) genes as well as the associated mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration. Dr Hutton received the Potamkin (2000) and Metlife (2001) Prizes for his work on Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia and he has authored over 250 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Michael Irizarry

Michael Irizarry, M.P.H., M.D., is Vice-President of Clinical Research at Eisai, responsible for the overall strategy and clinical development of the Alzheimer’s-related neurosciences portfolio. He earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed neurology residency and Memory Disorders Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and continued as Harvard Medical School faculty in the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. His research encompassed molecular mechanisms, clinical-pathological correlations, animal models, biomarkers, and epidemiology of neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to joining Eisai in 2018, Dr. Irizarry held a series of leadership positions at Eli Lilly (Vice-President, Early Clinical development, Neurosciences), and GlaxoSmithKline (including acting Vice President for Worldwide Epidemiology).

Pushkar Joshi

Dr. Pushkar Joshi is the Chief Scientist and Innovation Director at One Mind. A developmental neurobiologist by training, Pushkar works at the intersection of Neuroscience, S&T Technology policy, and Strategic Communications to accelerate scientific research and technological innovation for brain disorders.

Prior to joining One Mind, Pushkar was the Director of Strategy & Business Development at the Palo Alto-based neurotechnology startup, Inscopix, Inc. At Inscopix, he led the development of the company’s foundational business strategy, forged strategic partnerships with leading research institutions, companies, and nonprofits, and helped with financing efforts. Pushkar led Inscopix’s alignment with the Obama BRAIN Initiative by creating the $ 2 Million DECODE Grant Program for biomarker discovery for brain disorders. He also organized two high-profile, multi-stakeholder summits, DECODE 2016 (Precision Neurotherapeutics) and DECODE 2020 (The State of Mental Health), which put a spotlight on the challenges and opportunities in brain health and elevated the lived experience voice.

Pushkar received his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Rochester and his postdoctoral training at Stanford University. He is an alumnus of the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Program at the National Academy of Sciences and the Program in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Sahib Khalsa

Sahib Khalsa, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who serves as Director of Anxiety Disorders Research at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. He also holds the West Innovation Chair and leads the Healthy Hearts Behavioral Medicine Program, an interdisciplinary collaboration with the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center that treats anxiety and stress-related disorders in individuals with cardiac conditions. Dr. Khalsa has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed papers and serves as Associate Editor for Biological Psychology and JMIR Mental Health.

Dr. Khalsa's clinical expertise focuses on treating anxiety disorders and trauma and stress-related disorders particularly in individuals with cardiac arrhythmias or other medical conditions.

Dr. Khalsa’s primary research focuses on understanding how the brain senses and interprets internal bodily signals, such as heartbeats, breathing, and gastrointestinal activity, and how these interoceptive processes contribute to anxiety, mood, and eating disorders. His work combines neuroimaging, computational modeling, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions to identify novel treatments that improve emotional resilience and mental health.

George F. Koob

George F. Koob, Ph.D., is Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health, Washington, DC. As an authority on alcoholism, drug addiction and stress, he has contributed to our understanding of the neurocircuitry associated with the acute reinforcing effects of alcohol and drugs of abuse and the neuroadaptations of the reward and stress circuits associated with the transition to dependence. Dr. Koob has published over 600 peer reviewed papers and several books including the “Neurobiology of Addiction,” a comprehensive treatise on emerging research in the field.

Walter J. Koroshetz

Walter Koroshetz, M.D., was selected Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) on June 11, 2015. Dr. Koroshetz joined NINDS in 2007 as Deputy Director, and he served as Acting Director from October 2014 through June 2015. Previously, he served as Deputy Director of NINDS under Dr. Story Landis. Together, they directed program planning and budgeting, and oversaw the scientific and administrative functions of the Institute. He has held leadership roles in a number of NIH and NINDS programs including the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative, the Traumatic Brain Injury Center collaborative effort between the NIH intramural program and the Uniformed Health Services University, and the multi-year work to develop and establish the NIH Office of Emergency Care Research to coordinate NIH emergency care research and research training.
Before joining NINDS, Dr. Koroshetz served as vice chair of the neurology service and director of stroke and neurointensive care services at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He was professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and led neurology resident training at MGH between 1990 and 2007. Over that same period, he co-directed the HMS Neurobiology of Disease Course with Drs. Edward Kravitz and Robert H Brown.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Koroshetz graduated from Georgetown University and received his medical degree from the University of Chicago. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Koroshetz trained in neurology at MGH, after which he did post-doctoral studies in cellular neurophysiology at MGH with Dr. David Corey, and later at the Harvard neurobiology department with Dr. Edward Furshpan, studying mechanisms of excitoxicity and neuroprotection. He joined the neurology staff, first in the Huntington’s Disease (HD) unit, followed by the stroke and neurointensive care service. A major focus of his clinical research career was to develop measures in patients that reflect the underlying biology of their conditions. With the MGH team he discovered increased brain lactate in HD patients using MR spectroscopy. He helped the team to pioneer the use of diffusion/perfusion-weighted MR imaging and CT angiography/perfusion imaging in acute stroke, which is now widely employed in medical practice.
Active in the American Academy of Neurology Dr. Koroshetz chaired the professional organization's Public Information Committee, led the AAN's efforts to establish acute stroke therapy.

Dimitri Krainc

Dimitri Krainc, M.D., Ph.D., FANA is the Ward Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Feinberg Neuroscience Institute at Northwestern. Previously, Krainc spent two decades at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he completed his research and clinical training and served on faculty. His research group discovered how lysosomes and mitochondria interact in normal and diseased cells. This work opened a new area of cell biology for studies of diseases that involve mitochondria and lysosomes and led to pioneering design and development of targeted therapies. Krainc received the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, Outstanding Investigator award from NIH, and was elected to the Association of American Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. He currently serves as President of the American Neurological Association.

Bill Martin

Bill Martin, PhD, is the Global Therapeutic Area Head of Neuroscience for Janssen Research & Development. Dr. Martin brings a diverse background and more than 20 years of demonstrated success in neuroscience R&D leadership to the scientific community. His experience spans drug discovery and development, scientific and business strategy, as well as company formation and growth. At Janssen, Bill has end-to-end responsibility for the neuroscience R&D portfolio from discovery, translational medicine, biomarkers and to clinical development. Prior to Janssen, Bill co-founded Blackthorn Therapeutics where he held positions of increasing responsibility, from Chief Scientific Officer and Head of R&D to President and CEO. He began his career at Merck and later joined Theravance Biopharma where he held multiple leadership positions across all aspects of Neuroscience R&D.

Bill has served on numerous Boards of Directors and Advisory Councils, including those of BlackThorn Therapeutics, the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, the Coalition for the Life Sciences and Brown University’s Carney Institute for Brain Science. He has held leadership positions in the Society for Neuroscience, the American Physiological Society and the International Brain Research Organization and has published extensively, with more than 75 publications in scientific journals. He graduated from Swarthmore College, earned a Ph.D. from Brown University, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.

David P. McMullen

David McMullen, PhD, is responsible for the total product lifecycle review of neurosurgical, neurointerventional, neurodiagnostic, neuromodulation, and rehabilitation devices at FDA. He was previously the Program Chief of the Neuromodulation and Neurostimulation Program at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and co-leader of the NIH BRAIN Initiative team focused on the development of non-invasive brain stimulation. Dr. McMullen is a neuroscientist and medical doctor whose program of research focuses on sensorimotor neuroscience and improving brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) by incorporating novel technology, such as augmented reality interfaces and intelligent robotics.

Caroline Montojo

Caroline Montojo, PhD, is President and CEO of the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization in NYC that advances neuroscience's impact on society by supporting cross-disciplinary intersections such as neuroscience and ethics, law, policy, and public engagement. Caroline serves on the Advisory Board of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and is a member of the US NIH BRAIN Initiative Neuroethics Working Group. She was previously Director of Life Sciences and Director of Brain Initiatives at The Kavli Foundation. She has facilitated efforts to advance neuroscience, including the U.S. Brain Initiative and International Brain Initiative.

John H. Morrison

John H Morrison, PhD is currently UC Davis Distinguished Professor, Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), and Professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine at UC Davis. Dr. Morrison earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Johns Hopkins University and Ph.D. from the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and completed postdoctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He then served as a faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute until he joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 1989 where he went on to be Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and serve as Dean of Basic Sciences and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Mount Sinai before moving to UC Davis in 2015, to be Director of the California National Primate Research Center. Dr. Morrison has served on Council for the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), as Editor-in-Chief of SfN’s public-facing website, BrainFacts.org, Secretary of SfN, and is currently serving as President of SfN. Dr. Morrison is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Morrison’s research program focuses primarily on the neurobiology of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, particularly as they relate to cellular and synaptic organization of cerebral cortex. His laboratory is particularly interested in age-related alterations in structural and molecular attributes of the synapse that compromise synaptic health, lead to cognitive decline, and potentially leave the brain vulnerable to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In recent years, Dr. Morrison has developed and characterized both amyloid and tau-based nonhuman primate (NHP) models of AD. In addition, he has been studying neuro-invasive viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in NHP models and is now pursuing mechanistic links between COVID-19 and risk of onset and acceleration of AD neuropathology.aroline Montojo is President and CEO of the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization in NYC that advances neuroscience's impact on society by supporting cross-disciplinary intersections such as neuroscience and ethics, law, policy, and public engagement. Caroline serves on the Advisory Board of the Science Philanthropy Alliance, and is a member of the US NIH BRAIN Initiative Neuroethics Working Group. She was previously Director of Life Sciences and Director of Brain Initiatives at The Kavli Foundation. She has facilitated efforts to advance neuroscience, including the U.S. Brain Initiative and International Brain Initiative. Caroline conducted research at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Her research focused on investigating neural biomarkers for psychiatric illness, using neuroimaging and behavioral techniques, for which she was awarded the Arnold Scheibel Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in Neuroscience Award and the Stephen R. Mallory Schizophrenia Research Award.

John Ngai

John J. Ngai, PhD, is the Director of the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN®) Initiative. Dr. Ngai earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Pomona College, Claremont, California, and PhD in biology from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons before starting his faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley. During more than 25 years as a Berkeley faculty member, Dr. Ngai has trained 20 undergraduate students, 24 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows in addition to teaching well over 1,000 students in the classroom. His work has led to the publication of more than 70 scientific articles in some of the field’s most prestigious journals and 10 U.S. and international patents. Dr. Ngai has received many awards including from the Sloan Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience. As a faculty member, Dr. Ngai has served as the director of Berkeley’s Neuroscience Graduate Program and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. He has also provided extensive service on NIH study sections, councils and steering groups, including as previous co-chair of the NIH BRAIN® Initiative Cell Census Consortium Steering Group. Dr. Ngai will oversee the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of the NIH BRAIN Initiative as it takes on the challenges of the next five year plan.

Sanjeev Pathak

Sanjeev Pathak, M.D., is the Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development at Acadia Pharmaceuticals where he heads all phases of clinical development and translational sciences. He is a pediatric and adult psychiatrist as well as a clinical neuroscientist with more than 25 years of experience in drug development and clinical research. His experience spans both common and rare diseases including neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. He has led or supported teams in achieving approvals for Seroquel® (quetiapine), Seroquel XR® (quetiapine), Aristada® (aripiprazole lauroxil) and LYBALVI® (olanzapine/samidorphan). Prior to joining Acadia, Dr. Pathak served as Vice President of Clinical Development at Alkermes. Prior to Alkermes, he held roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca and led clinical development efforts across all phases of development. Before transitioning to the industry, he was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Over the years, Dr. Pathak has been a practicing physician and brings these lessons to clinical development. He completed his residency and fellowship trainings at University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and received his medical training from the top medical school in India, the All-India Institute of Medical Science.

Steven M. Paul

Steven Marc Paul, M.D., is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer at Karuna Therapeutics, Inc. He is expert in central nervous system (CNS) drug discovery and development. Dr. Paul spent 17 years at Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), during which time he held several key leadership roles, including Executive Vice President for Science and Technology and President of the Lilly Research Laboratories. At Lilly he was responsible for the company’s overall research and development efforts and helped to oversee the development of CNS drugs such as Zyprexa® and Cymbalta® as well as the development of xanomeline where its antipsychotic and procognitive properties were initially demonstrated. Prior to Lilly, he spent 18 years at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and served as the Scientific Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Paul is a co-founder and board member of Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SAGE), a co-founder of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR) where he served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the board of directors, and a member of the board of directors at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY). Dr. Paul is the former director of the Appel Alzheimer Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College and is currently a Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University of St. Louis School of Medicine.

Dr. Paul has authored or co-authored more than 550 papers and book chapters. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He is also an elected Fellow Emeritus of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and served as ACNP President (1999). Dr. Paul is the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the NIH (FNIH) and previously served on the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in addition to serving on many other advisory committees and receiving many awards and honors for his scientific research.

Sri Ramulu Pullagura

Sri Ramulu Pullagura, PhD, is an accomplished biomedical scientist and program manager with a decade-plus career spanning translational research, preclinical drug development, and strategic partnership management. He currently serves as Program Manager for Neuroscience Therapeutics Research at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), where he leads multi-million-dollar public-private collaborations to accelerate biomarker discovery and therapeutic development for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and ALS. His role involves overseeing complex projects, securing funding, managing cross-functional teams, and fostering alignment between regulatory bodies, academia, and industry. Prior to joining FNIH, Dr. Pullagura held progressive leadership roles at The Jackson Laboratory, where he managed preclinical efficacy and toxicity studies, contributed to business development, and expanded client relationships. His scientific career began with research roles at The Rockefeller University and NorthShore University Health System, investigating molecular mechanisms in neurodevelopment and HIV pathogenesis. Dr. Pullagura earned his PhD in Biomedical Sciences from The Jackson Laboratory/University of Maine and holds a master's in Medical Biology from Long Island University. He is also a published author in high-impact journals and an NIH Director's Award recipient for his contributions to the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Schizophrenia program.

Marsie Ross

Marsie Ross, PharmD, is Head of Alliance Development and Public Policy at Harmony Biosciences. At Harmony Biosciences, we believe that where empathy and innovation meet, a better life begins for people living with neurological diseases. That's because both empathy and innovation are integral to the life-improving treatments we develop. They are also integral to a better future for patients and their communities, for healthcare providers, and for all of us. We start by listening to those living with neurological diseases and what they share about their lives, the challenges they face, and what they hope for in the future. Then we use those insights to ensure that the treatments we investigate and develop have potential to improve their lives in truly personal, relevant, and meaningful ways. With 20 years of healthcare experience, Dr. Marsie Ross joined Harmony Biosciences' medical affairs team in January 2018. During her time in medical affairs, Dr. Ross established strong peer to peer relationships with clinicians and researchers in the rare neurological disease space. Her dynamic and innovative approach to establishing genuine connections and sharing insights have helped foster relationships between Harmony Biosciences and professional organizations and societies. As the Head of Alliance Development and Public Policy, Dr. Ross reports directly to the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. In this role, Dr. Ross works alongside healthcare providers and professional societies to develop strategic and impactful solutions and programs that help build alliances within communities and in public policy. During her time at Harmony Biosciences, she has served on both the culture and mentorship committees.

Dr. Ross earned her Doctor of Pharmacy at Howard University in Washington, DC where she currently resides with her husband and two sons. Most importantly, she is a person with integrity and a deep love for advocating for people living with debilitating disorders. Dr. Ross is currently earning her Certificate in Social Impact Strategy in the Executive Program at UPenn.

Katie Sale

Katie Sale, BA, is the Executive Director of the American Brain Coalition (ABC), a nonprofit organization comprised of the United States' leading professional neurological, psychological, and psychiatric associations and patient organizations. The ABC seeks to advance the understanding of the functions of the brain, and to reduce the burden of brain disorders through education, public advocacy, and outreach. Ms. Sale has been the American Brain Coalition Executive Director since the ABC was incorporated in 2004. In her position as Executive Director, Ms. Sale provides executive leadership over the administration and daily operations to ensure strong integration among all programs and advocacy activities. She provides broad guidance on operations and policy implementation. Ms. Sale participates with the board in planning and establishing program policies, objectives, and priorities as well as directing the development and implementation of the ABC's strategic action plans. Ms. Sale services the needs of the ABC's membership comprised of patients, families, neuroscientists, clinicians, industry, and government agencies.

Joan Sereno

Joan Sereno, PhD, serves as Division Director of the Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences Division (BCS) in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate of the National Science Foundation. She earned undergraduate degrees in Psychology (B.S.) and Philosophy (B.A.) at Northern Illinois University, with minors in Anthropology, Biology, English and History. She received her doctorate in Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences from Brown University. After postdoctoral positions at Washington University in St. Louis, Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (The Netherlands), and UCLA, Dr. Sereno held faculty positions at Cornell University and, since 1999, at the University of Kansas. Joan Sereno's primary research area is psycholinguistics, the study of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that allow us to learn, produce and comprehend language. She has published extensively on a wide range of issues, including cortical restructuring as a result of learning new sound categories and the relationship between underlying linguistic representations and surface phonetic representations in speech comprehension. Understanding human behavior and its interactions with our environment is critical to the scientific enterprise and ultimately to prosperity and well-being, and that it is critical to communicate scientific discoveries to the public.

David Shurtleff

David Shurtleff, Ph.D., is Deputy Director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH; Formerly NCCAM) performing a wide range of activities supporting the Director and the NCCIH organization. A component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NCCIH defines, through scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health interventions.
Dr. Shurtleff began his NIH career in 1995 at the National Institute on Drug abuse (NIDA). In 1997 he was appointed Deputy Director of NIDA’s Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research. From 2001 to 2010, Dr. Shurtleff served as the Director of the Division of Basic Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, and from January 2011 to June 2013, he served as the Acting Deputy Director of NIDA before joining NCCIH. Prior to coming to NIH, Dr. Shurtleff was a research psychologist at the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he conducted basic behavioral, electrophysiological, and field research on a variety of issues related to cognitive performance, environmental stress, and peripheral neuropathy. Prior to joining NMRI, he served as a research fellow at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the Department of Medical Neurosciences.
He has received various honors and awards including several NIH Director’s Awards. One of these awards recognized his outstanding contributions to the development and advancement of diverse programs in basic neuroscience and behavioral research.

John Spiro

John Spiro, PhD, joined the Simons Foundation in 2007 and until 2020 was deputy scientific director, where he worked with the SFARI director to oversee all aspects of the foundation’s autism research initiatives, including managing a team of scientists and administrative staff involved in launching requests for applications, evaluating proposals and other projects, organizing scientific workshops and meetings and overseeing SFARI.org. He helped launch the Simons Variation in Individuals Project (now Simons Searchlight) and has spearheaded the foundation’s efforts to promote the use of preprints in the life sciences as well as other initiatives aimed at more open data sharing.
Dr. Spiro earned his undergraduate degree in biology from Haverford College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. His thesis was based on work in the laboratory of the late Walter Heiligenberg, and his postdoctoral work was with Richard Mooney at Duke University. His research interests were in cellular and systems neuroscience, and he focused on preparations where it was possible to forge links between cellular neurobiology and behavior.
In 2000, Dr. Spiro joined the Nature Publishing Group as an editor at Nature Neuroscience, where he was involved in evaluating research findings across the field of neuroscience. In 2004, he joined Nature as a senior editor on the biology team, where he oversaw a group of editors responsible for editorial decisions and peer review of manuscripts across all areas of neuroscience, ranging from molecular development to functional imaging and behavior. In addition, he gained experience in communicating science to both professional scientists and the public through his involvement in commissioning, editing and writing editorials, book reviews and other material for the journal and related web-based resources.

Nora Volkow

Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction.
Dr. Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain. As a research psychiatrist and scientist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects and addictive properties of abusable drugs. Her studies have documented changes in the dopamine system affecting, among others, the functions of frontal brain regions involved with motivation, drive, and pleasure in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.
Dr. Volkow was born in Mexico, attended the Modern American School, and earned her medical degree from the National University of Mexico in Mexico City, where she received the Robins award for best medical student of her generation. Her psychiatric residency was at New York University, where she earned the Laughlin Fellowship Award as one of the 10 Outstanding Psychiatric Residents in the USA. Dr. Volkow spent most of her professional career at the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York, where she held several leadership positions including Director of Nuclear Medicine, Chairman of the Medical Department, and Associate Director for Life Sciences. In addition, Dr. Volkow was a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Associate Dean of the Medical School at the State University of New York (SUNY)-Stony Brook.
Dr. Volkow has published more than 780 peer-reviewed articles and written more than 100 book chapters and non-peer-reviewed manuscripts, and has also edited three books on neuroimaging for mental and addictive disorders. During her professional career, Dr. Volkow has been the recipient of multiple awards. In 2013, she was a Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal (Sammies) finalist; and she was inducted into the Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) Hall of Fame. She was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine in the National Academy of Sciences and received the International Prize from the French Institute of Health and Medical Research for her pioneering work in brain imaging and addiction science. She has been named one of Time magazine’s “Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” “One of the 20 People to Watch” by Newsweek magazine, Washingtonian magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women” and “Innovator of the Year” by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Volkow was the subject of a 2012 profile piece by CBS’s 60 Minutes and was a featured speaker at TEDMED 2014.

Christopher Weber

Christopher Weber, Ph.D., director, Global Science Initiatives, oversees efforts to advance the scientific agenda of the Alzheimer's Association, the world's largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's research. The Association currently has more than $430 million invested in over 1,110 active projects in 56 countries spanning six continents. With over 20 years of clinical research experience, Dr. Weber is responsible for communicating the global research landscape of Alzheimer's and dementia, including the breadth and reach of the Association's research programs and the critical need for increased research funding from the public and private sectors.

Dr. Weber directs Association initiatives that convene leaders from across the field to develop, expand and increase the success rate of Alzheimer's diagnostic tools and drugs to treat and prevent the disease. He manages the Alzheimer's Association Research Roundtable, a platform that enables international scientific, industry and government leaders to overcome shared obstacles in Alzheimer's science and drug development. He also oversees the Global Biomarker Standardization Consortium (GBSC), an initiative that unites key researchers and clinicians with industry, regulatory and government leaders to achieve consensus on the best ways to standardize and validate biomarker tests for use in clinical practices worldwide. In addition, Dr. Weber leads the Alzheimer's Association Business Consortium (AABC), which advances innovation in small- and medium-size biotechnology, diagnostics, medical device and contract organizations through pre-competitive collaborations, knowledge sharing and visibility.

He also manages Association efforts as the convener of the Private Partner Scientific Board (PPSB) for ADNI4, the five-year extension of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) funded by the NIA with the goal of validating biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease in clinical trials.

Gary Wilson

Gary Wilson, Ph.D., joined the Huo Family Foundation in the newly created role of Director of Research in August 2024 to lead an expansion of the scientific research programmes at the Foundation. He brings almost two decades of experience in private philanthropy, having held roles at the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and at Wellcome. He has developed, implemented, and monitored research funding and strategic activities in a range of portfolios and different scientific disciplines.

Gary is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. He is an advisor to CureCLCN4, a charity with the goal of advancing the basic science and research in conditions related to changes in the CLCN4 gene. He previously served on the Steering Board for the UK Technician Commitment, which aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education. Gary holds an BA/MA in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, and a PhD in neuropharmacology from University College London.

Richard P. Woychik

Richard Woychik, PhD, became the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Toxicology Program (NTP) on June 7, 2020. In these roles, Woychik oversees federal funding for biomedical research to discover how the environment influences human health and disease. Woychik and NIEHS/NTP staff receives input from several advisory boards and councils to accomplish this significant task.
Prior to becoming Director and since 2011, Woychik served as Deputy Director of NIEHS. In this role, he assisted the former NIEHS Director, Linda Birnbaum, Ph. D, in the formulation and implementation of plans and policies necessary to carry out the NIEHS missions and the administrative management of NIEHS.
As a mammalian geneticist, Woychik has had a number of noteworthy accomplishments. His laboratory was the first to clone and characterize the gene called agouti, which provided molecular insights into obesity and the satiety response in the brain. Additionally, his laboratory was the first to identify a gene mutation associated with polycystic kidney disease, which provided insights into this molecular biology of this important human disease. Also, his laboratory was the first to determine that a member of the protocadherin family was associated with the hearing loss in a mouse model that was ultimately paved the way to better understanding the molecular basis of Usher syndrome type 1F in humans. More recently his research program has been focused on investigating the molecular mechanisms associated with how environmental agents influence the epigenetic control of gene expression.
Woychik previously served as president and CEO of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and also functioned as the director of the laboratory’s NCI designated Cancer Center. Prior to leading The Jackson Laboratory, Woychik’s professional history also included positions in both academia and industry: chief scientific officer for Lynx Therapeutics, Hayward, CA; head of the Parke-Davis Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Alameda, CA; professor within the Departments of Pediatrics, Genetics and Pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio; and senior research scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Woychik completed his BS and MS at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and earned his PhD in molecular biology at Case Western Reserve University in 1984. He received his postdoctoral training in the Laboratory of Philip Leder at Harvard Medical School with fellowship support from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Stevin H. Zorn

Stevin Zorn, PhD, is currently president and CEO of MindImmune Therapeutics. Zorn is a neuropharmacologist with extensive executive experience throughout the pharmaceutical value chain, and has over 30 years of drug discovery and drug development success across a broad range of neuro and psychiatric disorders. Prior to co-founding MindImmune Therapeutics in 2016, Dr. Zorn was Executive Vice President and Site head for Neuroscience Research for Lundbeck’s USA Research Site, Lundbeck Research USA, and board member for Lundbeck USA. He has been a member of Lundbeck’s Global Research Committee, Development Committee, R&D Management group, the R&D Executive Committee and US R&D Management Group. He conceived of and built one of the first Neuroinflammation Disease Biology Units in the industry. There he established a talented group of scientists that brought together disciplines of immunology, inflammation, and neuroscience to capitalize on the recently growing knowledge base showing the relationship between Neuroinflammation and CNS diseases to advance new approaches for the treatment of mental illness. This became Lundbeck USA’s primary area of focus.
Prior to Lundbeck, Dr. Zorn was with Pfizer Global Research and Development for nearly 20 years. He held positions including head of General Pharmacology, Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Development Team Leader, Head of Psychotherapeutics Biology, Head of Neuroscience Therapeutics, Co-Chair of the Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Leadership Team including accountability for all R&D as well as commercialization, and was Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head for Central Nervous System Disorders Research at Pfizer including chair of the Global Research Therapeutic Area Leadership Team. Dr. Zorn became Pfizer’s first global head of Neuroscience Research, was co-architect of what became the company’s overall Neuroscience area strategy and co-led the second largest and among the most productive therapeutic areas at Pfizer. As member of the Discovery Research Management Team of the Ann Arbor Pfizer site, Dr. Zorn was also jointly accountable for site deliverables from five therapeutic areas: Neuroscience, Cardiovascular, Inflammation, Dermatology, and Infectious Diseases. Across his industry career, Dr. Zorn shepherded or led research generating dozens of drug candidates from Lundbeck and Pfizer in clinical development for multiple indications; many have progressed to phase II/III or have advanced into commercialization.
In conjunction with his responsibilities as President and CEO of MindImmune Therapeutics, Inc., Dr. Zorn is a Ryan Research Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island. Dr. Zorn received a BS degree in Chemistry from Lafayette College, Easton, PA, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Neurotoxicology and Neuropharmacology, respectively, from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX. Subsequent postdoctoral research studies centered on basic research of brain and intracellular neuronal signaling mechanisms at the Rockefeller University, New York, NY, in the laboratory of Paul Greengard (Nobel Laureate).

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