Scientific Advisors

William (Bill) DeGrado, Ph.D., focuses on the design of small molecule drugs, peptides, and proteins to address biological and mechanistic questions. Since 2011, Bill has been a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California San Francisco. Prior to UCSF, he was a member of DuPont Central Research and DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company and the Raiziss Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bill received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors.

Sam Gellman, Ph.D., is the co-founder of Longevity Biotech. He is the Ralph F. Hirschmann Professor of Chemistry and a Vilas Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where he has served on the faculty since 1987. Sam has played a pioneering role in the study of "foldamers," synthetic protein-mimetic oligomers that contain unnatural subunits.

Sam received his A.B from Harvard University, his Ph.D. from Columbia University, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. His academic research program has been recognized by many awards. Sam is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Howard E. Gendelman, MD, is the founding chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders, and the head of the Carol Swarts MD Neuroscience Laboratory. Howard has held the position of Margaret R. Larson Professor of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) since 2004. His research intersects the disciplines of neuroimmunology, pharmacology, and infectious diseases, and includes harnessing immune responses for therapeutic gain in HIV/AIDS and Neurodegenerative disease.

Howard is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Society for Neurological Investigation and the International Society of Neuroimmunology among others. He is widely published, is an inventor on multiple patents, and has received numerous awards.

Soumitra Ghosh, Ph.D., is a biotechnology industry professional with extensive experience in drug discovery, development and delivery. He has held R&D leadership positions at Amylin Pharmaceuticals and MitoKor, where he led research programs for the development of small molecule, peptide and protein-based drug candidates for the treatment of metabolic diseases, CNS and musculoskeletal disorders. At Amylin, Soumitra was involved in the development and commercialization of pramlintide (Symlin™), exenatide (Byetta™, Bydureon™) and metreleptin (Myalept™). He is co-founder of Avexegen Therapeutics (GI disorders) and Abvance Therapeutics (diabetes), and also provides consulting services for major pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Soumitra received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at The Rockefeller University.

James G. Morley, M.D., Ph.D., is the Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center and a Staff Neurologist, Philadelphia VA Medical Center. Additionally, he is Associate Director of University of Pennsylvania/PADRECC Movement Disorders Fellowship Program and Co-director of Parkinson's Disease Research, Education and Clinical Center at the Crescenz VA Medical Center.

Jim received his BS from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He received his MD at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Jim’s postgraduate training includes as internship in internal medicine at University of Pennsylvania, residency in Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, and fellowship in Movement Disorders with the University of Pennsylvania.

Chris Rhodes, Ph.D., is a pharmaceutical executive with three decades of experience in drug product development of complex formulations and delivery systems. Chris is founder and CEO of Baywind Bioventures, as well as founder and chief scientist of CASS Pharmaceuticals and Sensulin. He founded the CDMO Drug Delivery Experts in 2014 and sold it to Pace Life Sciences in 2021. Chris played a key role in R&D for Byetta, Lusedra, Bydureon, Myalept, and Afrezza, and was drug development team leader for several pharmaceutical products. Christopher has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCLA, a BS in Chemistry from NYU, and was a Post Doc at Yale University.

Uma Sinha PhD has extensive experience in discovery and development of small molecules involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular, hematologic and inflammatory diseases. Since 2016, she has held the position of Chief Scientific Officer of BridgeBio Pharma. During her career, she has been part of teams that developed eight marketed drugs, including Oxbryta (voxelotor) for sickle cell disease, Bevyxxa (betrixaban) for prevention of venous thrombosis, and Andexxa (coagulation factor Xa [recombinant], inactivated-zhzo) for reversal of specific anticoagulation to prevent uncontrolled bleeding. Her team’s most recent regulatory approval (2024) was for treatment of cardiomyopathy in transthyretin mediated amyloidosis (Attruby, acoramidis).

Malú Gamez Tansey,Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (CTRND) and the Norman and Susan Fixel Chair in Neuroscience and Neurology at the University of Florida.

Her research focuses on multi-disciplinary approaches to investigate the role of inflammation and immune system responses in brain health and the development of neurodegenerative diseases with a particular focus on the gut-brain axis.

Prior to joining the University of Florida faculty, Malú held appointments at the UT Southwestern Medical Center and Emory University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cell Regulation from UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX, followed by post-doctoral work in neuroscience at Washington University Medical School. Malú also holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

James Waschek, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and is an expert in the molecular and cellular biology and physiological actions of neuropeptides. He has served on NIH study sections almost continuously since 2006, and served as an external reviewer for the newly-formed LOWEE Institute on Tumors and Inflammation in Marburg, Germany. Additionally, James has served as a consultant for the Japanese-Israeli Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement in Life Sciences in the topic of Stem Cell Research. Jim received a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1984 from the University of California at San Francisco, after which he took a post doctoral position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

David Weiner, MD, has over 20 years of experience in the discovery and clinical development of novel therapeutics for neurological disease. He has held senior positions at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, EMD Serono, Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc., TYR Pharma, Inc., Lumos Pharma, Amathus Therapeutics, Therini Bio, Inc., and Chemomab Therapeutics. David is also the co-founder of Bend Therapeutics.

Dr. Weiner received his MD from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, SUNY at Buffalo, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda. David trained in clinical neurology at New York Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Cornell Medical Center, and did a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuropharmacology at the University of Vermont. He has authored over 30 scientific publications, holds multiple patents, and serves on a number of clinical and scientific advisory boards, including the scientific advisory board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.