Scientific Advisory Board
Eugene Johnson, PhD
Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Pharmacology & Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, Missouri
Dr. Johnson is a recognized authority on the biology of neurotrophic factors. He received his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy and Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Maryland. His research interests are in the mechanisms of neuronal cell death, neurodegenerative diseases, and the biology and pharmacology of neurotrophic factors. He is the co-discoverer of three members of the GDNF family of neurotrophic factors, one of which (Neurturin) is being developed to for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Among his awards are the Decade of the Brain Medal from the American Association of Neurosurgeons and the Carl and Gerti Cori Faculty Achievement Award from Washington University. He serves on the Medical and Scientific Council of the Alzheimer’s Association and the Advisory Council of the National Institute on Aging. He also serves on several editorial boards and is a Section Editor for Experimental Neurology and Neurobiology of Aging.
John Commissiong, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Commissiong is the scientific founder of Amarantus Therapeutics. His background is in neurophysiology and more recently molecular neuroscience. He has held positions as Professor: Department of Physiology, McGill University (1079-89); Chief: Unit of Neural Transplantation, NINDS (1989-94); and Head: Neurotrophic Factors Group: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NINDS (1994-97). While at the NIH in the 1990s, he developed the technologies that form the basis of AMARANTUS. In 1994, he received the NINDS Merit Award for research related to the molecular repair of neural tissue after injury.
In 1997, he pioneered the development of phenotype-retentive astrocyte cell line with the purpose to discover neurotrophic factors as drug candidates to treat neurodegenerative diseases, with Parkinson’s disease as the focus. In 2002, his Group discovered MANF, an 18 kDa neurotrophic factor indicated for Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, stroke and cardiac ischemia, and the first such molecule to be discovered since GDNF was announced in 1993. Dr. Commissiong is convinced that increased understanding of homotypic, bidirectional, molecular communication between astrocytes and neurons will lead to the discovery of new classes of drugs to treat clinical depression, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Greg Gerhardt, PhD
Director, Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence at University of Kentucky
Dr. Gerhardt’s laboratory focuses on studies of the dopamine and glutamate neurotransmitter systems in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. For these studies, his lab uses both the 6-hydroxydopamine-treated rat model and the MPTP-treated primate model of Parkinson’s disease. Using his microsensor techniques, Dr. Gerhardt’s lab has investigated the release and uptake of dopamine in the striatum and substantia nigra of the normal and Parkinsonian brain. A major finding from these studies is that there is a severe disruption of dopamine regulation in the Parkinsonian brain. This disruption of the control of dopamine may relate to some of the movement problems seen in this CNS disease. His laboratory is currently investigating the use of growth factors, such as GDNF, to restore function to damaged dopamine neurons. His laboratory has recently shown that GDNF can restore function to damaged dopamine neurons in rats and monkeys. This forms the basis for the Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Center of Excellence.
William Marks, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology, UCSF Medical Center
Director, Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Care Center (PADRECC)
San Francisco Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center
Dr. William Marks, a specialist in epilepsy and movement disorders, has extensive experience in treating Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders with brain stimulators. He earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins University and completed a residency and a fellowship in neurology at UCSF Medical Center. He currently is medical director of the UCSF Center for the Surgical Treatment of Movement Disorders. At the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco, he is director of the Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Center and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center.
Phil Starr, MD, PhD
Associate Professor in Residence of Neurological Surgery, Dolores Cakebread Endowed Chair,
Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF Medical Center
Co-Director, Functional Neurosurgery Program at UCSF Medical Center
Surgical Director, Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Care Center (PADRECC) at San Francisco Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center
Dr. Starr’s particular specialty interests lie in the area of movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, tremor, and dystonia. He has fellowship training in microelectrode-guided surgery of movement disorders, which he completed at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Starr’s research interests include physiology of the basal ganglia, clinical trials of novel surgical therapeutics in movement disorders, and the use of interventional magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) for functional neurosurgery. His primary focus is on research related to the neurophysiology and therapy of movement disorders.
Working together with William Marks MD and Jill Ostrem MD in Neurology in a joint UCSF-San Francisco Veterans Affairs Hospital Medical Center study, Dr. Starr is an investigator for the largest formal clinical trial of deep brain stimulation (DBS) currently taking place in North America: “A Randomized Trial of Best Medical Therapy versus Deep Brain Stimulation of the Globus Pallidus or Subthalamic Nucleus for Parkinson’s Disease.” This is a 6-center trial jointly funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. The technical approach involves magnetic resonance-based stereotaxy and microelectrode recordings to map the borders of the surgical target area. Dr. Starr is also surgical investigator on several Phase I clinical trials of gene transfer approaches for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Starr is one of the most experienced surgeons in North America in the surgical treatment of dystonia using DBS. He conducts NIH-funded research on pallidal physiology in patients with dystonia.
Lawrence M. Schwartz, PhD
Director at the Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research and Scientific Director at Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute
Professor of Biology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Adjunct Faculty in Pathology, BayState Medical Center
Dr. Lawrence M. Schwartz is a Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Massachusetts, as well as the Founding Director of the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute in Springfield MA and the Director of the Center of Excellence in Apoptosis. His laboratory examines the molecular mechanisms that mediate cell death during normal development and in pathology. One avenue of research focuses in Acheron, a novel gene
cloned in the Schwartz laboratory that regulates the differentiation and death of skeletal muscle, and may play a role in the metastatic behaviors of some soft tissue tumors. A second line of investigation examines the role of ubiquiton E3 ligases Parkin and Human Homolog of Ariadne-1 in dopaminergic neuron survival.