Scientific Advisory Board

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• Dr. Brown is a Professor of Microbiology-Immunology at the Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. 
• Dr. Brown studies mechanisms underlying sex-related differences in autoimmune disease; meningeal inflammation and how it impacts CNS degenerative disease.
• Her laboratory studies how certain classes of innate immune cells, particularly mast cells and innate lymphoid cells, promote Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a CNS demyelinating disease, regulate these aberrant responses. 
•  Current studies are focused on understanding how meningeal mast cells influence these events. In the process, we have established a new paradigm for the mast cell mediated inflammation of the meninges in immunity. 
• Dr. Brown received her  doctorate from the University of Washington (1983) and completed her fellowship at  The National Institutes of Health, Allergy and Immunology (1987)

• Robert H. Brown Jr., D.Phil., MD, the Leo P. and Theresa M. LaChance Chair in Medical Research and director of the Program in Neurotherapeutics at UMass Chan Medical School, is an internationally known researcher and physician leading the quest to cure neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
• Renowned for his groundbreaking basic and clinical research on the inherited and genetic basis of neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, Dr. Brown has a record of significant discoveries in identifying gene defects that elucidate how ALS causes neurons to die. In 1993, a team of researchers led by Dr. Brown discovered the first gene linked to the inherited form of ALS, called SOD1.
• Dr. Brown graduated from Amherst College with a degree in biophysics in 1969. Completed a doctorate of philosophy in neurophysiology at Oxford University and received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1975. 

• Dr. Lawrence Steinman is a professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Pediatrics, and Genetics.  He also served as the Chair of the Stanford University Interdepartmental Program in Immunology from 2003-2011.
• Dr. Steinman's research focuses on what provokes relapses and remission in multiple sclerosis (MS), the nature of the molecules that serve as a brake on the brain inflammation, and the quest for a tolerizing vaccine for autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes and neuromyelitis optica.  He has developed two antigen specific therapies, using DNA vaccines, for MS and type 1 diabetes.  He was senior author on the seminal 1992 Nature article that reported the key role of a particular integrin in brain inflammation.  This research led to the development of the drug Tysabri, which is used to treat patients with MS and Crohn's disease.
• Dr. Steinman received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MD from Harvard University.  He was a post-doctoral fellow in chemical immunology fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.  Dr. Steinman returned to Stanford University Hospital as a resident in pediatric and adult neurology and then joined the faculty at Stanford in 1980.

• Mariana Castells is a Professor of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, Harvard Medical School 
• Director, Adverse Drug Reaction and Desensitization Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Dr. Castells attended medical school at The Universidat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, performed her residency at Kansas University Medical Center, and her fellowship at The Medical College of Virginia
• Dr. Castells is board certified in Internal Medicine and Allergy & Immunology
• Dr. Castels is a world renowned specialist in the innate immune system, and one of the first to recognize mast cell activation syndrome as a stand alone disease with serious ramifications, including life threatening anaphylaxis.

•  Mark Freedman is a Professor of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of Ottawa; Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Unit at the Ottawa Hospital-General Campus.
• Executive Director, MS Research Unit at the Ottawa Hospital
• Lead Investigator, Canadian Bone Marrow Transplant Study in MS
• Director, Canadian Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation in MS Study 
• Co-Director, International Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation in MS Study Group. 
• President elect of the Americas Committee  for the Research and Treatment of MS (ACTRIMS)

• Dr. Greenberg is an Associate Professor and the Cain Denius Scholar in Mobility Disorders in the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics at UT Southwestern Medical Center.  
• Dr. Greenberg is  internationally recognized expert in treating rare autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system. He is the interim Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center and the Director of the Neurosciences Clinical Research Center, Director of the Transverse Myelitis -Neuromyelitis Optica Program and the Pediatric Demyelinating Disease Program at Children’s Medical Center. 
• Dr. Greenberg earned his M.D.  at Baylor College of Medicine, and interned at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago.
• Dr. Greenberg performed his neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, serving as Chief Resident his final year. 

 Dr. Kaplin  is a Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuropsychiatry  at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

• Chief Psychiatric Consultant, Multiple Sclerosis and Transverse Myelitis Clinics, Department of Neurology
• Attending Physician, HIV/AIDS Psychiatry Service,  Department of Psychiatry
• Dr. Kaplin received his Bachelor of Science from Yale University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

• Dr. Riley has been working in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry For over thirty years.
• He has developed multiple drugs approved by the FDA, and more approaching approval. 
• His products are projected to be multi-billion dollar products and have created over $6 billion in market capitalization.
• He has built and led successful teams in pharmaceutical research and development. 
• Therapeutic areas include Rare Diseases, Hemophilia, Pain, Oncology, Antivirals. 
• Dr. Riley is an entrepreneur in residence at Yale University.
• Dr. Riley received his bachelor of science,, and PH.D. in Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry 

• Dr. Jeffrey D. Rothstein is the John W. Griffin Director for the Brain Science Institute (BSi), as well as a Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, and the Founding Director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where his research on ALS pathogenesis that lead to the first successful FDA-approved drug to alter neurodegeneration in ALS. 
• Dr. Rothstein received a BA from Colgate University; a MA in Neurochemistry-Biopsychology and a  PhD in Physiology and Biophysics-Neurochemistry from the University of Chicago; and an MD from The University of Illinois-College of Medicine

• Dr. Schott is a senior executive with the rare combination of technology, leadership and management skills that adds value to organizations by solving critical life science, bioengineering and bioinformatic problems.  
• Dr. Schott has significant experience and expertise including “C” level management; strategic planning; complex data analysis and synthesis; machine learning; precision medicine for the brain: diagnostics (sequencing) and therapeutics (ASO, small molecules); data architecture and integration; patent creation and patent portfolio management; and, managing regulatory relationships with the FDA. 
• Dr. Schott received his undergraduate training in France at The Centrale Supelec, and his Ph.D. from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology