Breakthroughs in Brain Health and the Race to Stop Alzheimer’s Disease: A Conversation with ProMIS
Watch the NosTerra community in a conversation with Gail Farfel, Ph.d. - Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Neil Cashman - Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder, and Dr. Larry Altstiel - Chief Medical Officer of ProMIS Neurosciences for a discussion about about recent breakthroughs in brain health and the race to stop Alzheimer’s disease.
Big data applied to neuroscience is opening new frontiers in our understanding of the aging process and the brain. New technologies and approaches like ProMIS offer hope and opportunity for the record number of baby boomers who are entering their senior years and worried about brain health. ProMIS will share the science and opportunities on the horizon.
Gail Farfel, Ph.D., was appointed Chief Executive Officer of ProMIS Neurosciences in September 2022. She is an accomplished neuropsychiatric drug development executive with more than 25 years of experience spanning clinical development, interactions with regulatory agencies worldwide, and notable regulatory approvals for products in neurology and psychiatry in the US, Europe, and other regions. Throughout Gail’s career, she has also played leadership roles in strategic planning and commercial positioning for partnership and launch, IPO preparation, fundraising for public and private companies, and licensing and asset integration. Most recently, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Zogenix, Inc., a rare disease company, where she led successful Phase 3 development programs in Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, as well as FDA and European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval for Fintepla in Dravet syndrome. Prior to Zogenix, Gail was Chief Clinical and Regulatory Officer at Marinus Pharmaceuticals, establishing and overseeing clinical and regulatory strategies for adult and pediatric seizure disorders. Previously, she was Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head for neuroscience clinical development and medical affairs at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, where she oversaw a portfolio of products for multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, and depression. Gail began her career in biopharmaceutical drug development at Pfizer, Inc. Gail currently serves on the Board of Directors of DURECT Corporation (Nasdaq: DRRX) and AvroBio Inc. (AVRO) and is a Director on the Board of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics. She holds a Ph.D. in neuropsychopharmacology from the University of Chicago, where she is also a member of the Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Board, and a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of Virginia.
Dr. Neil Cashman, M.D. is a physician and scientist focused on neurodegenerative diseases. His first academic posting was at Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of McGill University. From 1998 to 2005, he was the Diener Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Toronto. In 2005, Professor Cashman moved to the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases and serves as the Director of the UBC ALS Centre. He has procured over $50 million in research grant funding from the CIHR, CRC, NCE, NIH, and various corporations for his work involving protein misfolding and prion technologies. He was awarded the Jonas Salk Prize for biomedical research in 2000 and was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2008. He is recognized worldwide as one of the leading research scientists pioneering the emerging fields of prion biology and protein misfolding diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Larry Altstiel, M.D., Ph.D. brings decades of medical expertise in neurodegenerative diseases and experience in the pharmaceutical industry. At Pfizer, as vice president and head of neuroscience clinical research, Larry led the selection of drug candidates, development and oversight of multiple preclinical studies and clinical studies from Phase 1 through Phase 3. He is currently part time Chief Medical Officer at Pinteon Therapeutics. He received his Ph.D. in cell biology, virology, and physical chemistry from The Rockefeller University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at Harvard University and received an M.D. from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. He also completed a residency in Neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.