LEADERSHIP

We are led by a team with deep, relevant experience for developing novel therapeutics that address large unmet needs for people with neurological disorders.

Joe Blanchard, MBA

President & Chief Executive Officer

Michel Baudry, PhD

Chief Scientific Advisor
.

Francesco Salituro, PhD

Preclinical Drug Development

Shujaath Mehdi, PhD

Biochemical Pharmacology

Kathryn Blanchard, CPA

Finance Director

Philippe Bey, PhD

Chemistry

Kathy Fosnaugh, PhD

Program Management

Scientific & clinical Advisors

Dr. Diaz-Arrastia, MD, PhD

Presidential Professor of Neurology and Director of Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Imad Najm, MD

Director, Epilepsy Center

Cleveland Clinic
.

Barry Jordan, MD, MPH

Chief Medical Officer

Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center

Michael Palfreyman, PhD

Palfreyman BioPharm Advisors, LLC

Mr. Blanchard has co-founded and been a member of the leadership teams that helped build several life science companies. Before joining the NeurAegis team, Mr. Blanchard co-founded and served as President & Chief Executive Officer at Amorsa Therapeutics. Prior to Amorsa, he co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer at Aushon BioSystems (acquired by Quanterix in 2018). Mr. Blanchard was also an early member of the leadership team for Altus Pharmaceuticals (a spin-out of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and 2006 IPO), where he held several senior management positions. Prior to Altus, he was Director of Sales Operations (The Americas) for Genencor International (2000 IPO; now owned by DuPont), where he led a 40-member commercial team generating over $130 million annually. Earlier in his career, he held business unit and sales management positions with Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands and DuPont/Conoco Chemicals. He has an M.B.A and B.S. degree from Miami University.

Dr. Baudry is an internationally renowned neuroscientist with over 400 publications and was recently named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his distinguished contributions in the field of molecular and cellular neuroscience. He is a professor at Western University of Health Sciences and former professor of biological sciences, neurology and biomedical engineering at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Baudry graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and earned a PhD in biochemistry at University of Paris VII under the direction of professors J.C. Schwartz and J.P. Changeux, two of France’s most distinguished neurobiologists.

Francesco G. Salituro, Ph.D., currently the Founder and sole proprietor of Salituro MedChem Solutions, LLC, has been a scientific leader in pharmaceutical industry for over 34 years and has successfully driven drug discovery programs across multiple therapeutic areas. His work has resulted in 20 small molecule clinical candidates, including Zuranolone (SAGE-217), SAGE-718, SAGE-324, SAGE-904, Mitapivat, Neflamopimod, Decernotinib, Pimodivir, and three marketed drugs, Zulresso®, IDHIFA® and TIBSOVO®. Most recently, Francesco held the position of Vice President of Chemistry at Sage Therapeutics, from 2012 through 2020. Prior to Sage, Francesco held leadership positions at Agios Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth Research and Vertex Pharmaceuticals after initially joining Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals in 1986. Francesco’s research has led to over 60 scientific publications and over 80 issued US Patents. Additionally, Francesco has been active within the Gordon Research Conferences, serving as Chairman of the prestigious GRC on Medicinal Chemistry in 2011.

Since September of 2014, Francesco has been serving on the Board of Directors for the Epilepsy Foundation of New England (EFNE). He is also the co-founder of Joseph’s HOPE Scholarship Fund, and more recently the Joseph’s HOPE Emergency Fund, both of which are within the EFNE umbrella. Francesco received his B.S. Degree in Life Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984; he additionally held a postdoctoral position at University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana from 1984-1986.

Outside of career and EFNE, Francesco pursues several passions including cooking, oenology, gardening, art collecting, and music. He has played in several rock bands over the past 18 years, including his current band Almost the Cure, all in support of his Joseph’s HOPE charities. Francesco is also co-owner of AudioArt, a state-of-the-art audio theater store located in Sudbury, MA.

Dr. Mehdi is an expert in enzyme mechanisms and kinetics, in biochemical and molecular aspects of drug design, discovery and development, and in translational medicine. Dr. Mehdi holds a doctorate degree in biochemistry from Yale University. After postdoctoral training at Harvard University, he joined Merrell Dow (a predecessor company of Sanofi) in Discovery Research. Over his career, he held the positions of Lab Head, Project Team Leader, and Group Leader of the Enzyme Chemistry group and was instrumental in the design and characterization of enzyme inhibitors as drugs in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to retirement as a Distinguished Scientist, Dr. Mehdi led a cross-functional Translational Medicine group, whose responsibility was to ensure the success of pre-clinical and clinical projects in the immunoinflammation therapeutic area. After retirement from Sanofi, Dr. Mehdi taught courses on “Drug Discovery through Preclinical Development” and “Ethics for Science and Technology Management” in the Master of Business and Science program at Rutgers University, and has lectured on personalized medicine at Rutgers and at Columbia University. He has authored and co-authored 50 publications and holds 17 US patents as co-inventor.

Kathy brings over three decades of financial accounting experience to her role. After starting her career with Price Waterhouse, her experiences have ranged from managing the audit department of a public company to providing financial advice and accounting services to privately held companies and nonprofits.

She graduated with honors in finance and accounting from Miami University and obtained an MBA from Xavier University.

Dr. Bey has participated in and led teams responsible for over 30 INDs in many therapeutic areas, including oncology, respiratory diseases, infectious diseases, inflammation, metabolic and central nervous system diseases. He was previously Senior VP of R&D at Thraso Therapeutics. Prior to joining Thrasos, Dr. Bey was the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of R&D at ArQule and also served as U.S. Senior Vice President of R&D at Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR), now Sanofi Aventis. He also served at HMR’s parent companies, Marion Merrell Dow, Merrell Dow and Richardson Merrell, in numerous scientific and management leadership positions, both in Europe and in the U.S. Dr. Bey received his Ph.D. and B.S. in chemistry from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France and did his post-doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology. He has also served as an adjunct professor of medicinal chemistry at the University Louis Pasteur. Dr. Bey has authored 89 publications and 20 book chapters, and holds 63 issued patents.

Dr. Fosnaugh has more than 25 years of experience in biotech research and development including small molecule, RNA therapeutics, and delivery formulation programs. As Director of Program Management at Aminex Therapeutics, she coordinated late preclinical IND-enabling development and Phase 1 clinical trial initiation. Dr. Fosnaugh has held positions of increasing responsibility at Youtell Biochemical, Marina Therapeutics, Sirna Therapeutics, and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. She received her BS in Microbiology from the University of Illinois and her PhD in Microbiology at Cornell University, followed by postdoctoral research in developmental biology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Fosnaugh also completed Certification in Biomedical Regulatory Affairs at the University of Washington.

Dr. Diaz-Arrastia is the Presidential Professor of Neurology and Director of Clinical Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research at Penn Medicine, a position that he assumed in July, 2016. He received his MD and PhD degrees at Baylor College of Medicine in 1988, and after an internship Beth Israel Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, he trained in neurology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He was on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern from 1993 to 2011, where he rose through the ranks from Assistant to Full Professor of Neurology. From 2011 to 2016 he was Professor of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and Director of Clinical Research at the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, a federal intramural research program focused on TBI at USUHS and the National Institutes of Health. His research for the past 25 years has focused on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal injury and neuroregeneration, with the goal of developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. He has been Principal Investigator on multiple local and national clinical studies in TBI, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and HIV-related neurological disorders, although for the past several years his focus has been on TBI. He is the Scientific PI for the Brain Oxygen Optimization in Severe TBI (BOOST) Phase 3 trial, recently funded by NINDS as one of the first clinical trials conducted by SIREN (Strategies to Innovate Emergency Clinical Trials Network). He was contact PI for the BOOST Phase 2 trial, and thus have experience in designing and implementing Phase 2 trials that lead to definitive Phase 3 studies. He is also currently co-PI of TRACK-TBI (Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury), a multi-institutional observational study designed to develop precision medicine tools, including neuroimaging and biomarkers, to improve the design of the next generation of clinical trials in brain injury. He has also served in several national and international committees related to TBI clinical research and practice, convened by the NIH, DoD, and the IOM. He additionally has extensive experience mentoring junior investigators, and over the past 10 years have been primary mentor for four K23 awardees, who have gone on to successful academic careers.

Imad Michel Najm, MD, is Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Epilepsy Center at the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute. Dr. Najm received his medical doctor degree from Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1988. Dr. Najm completed his residency in adult neurology at Cleveland Clinic in 1996, and a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at Cleveland Clinic in 1997. Dr. Najm received his board certification in adult neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1998, with an added qualification in clinical neurophysiology in 1999. Between 2000 and 2003, Dr. Najm served as the director of the Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology Fellowship Program at Cleveland Clinic. In 2003, he became the Head of the Section of Adult Epilepsy within the Department of Neurology at Cleveland Clinic, and in 2006, he assumed his current position as the Director of the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center. Dr. Najm has more than 22 years of experience in clinical and basic mechanisms of epilepsy. This includes conducting numerous research projects dedicated to exploring the topic of mechanisms of epilepsy and malformations of cortical dysplasia.

Barry D. Jordan, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California. He formerly served as the Assistant Medical Director and interim Chief Medical Officer of the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains, New York. He is a board certified neurologist with specialized experience and interests in sports neurology, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Jordan graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in neurophysiology and obtained his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.

He also completed his Masters of Public Health at Columbia University. Dr. Jordan completed an internship in internal medicine at U.C.L.A. Medical Center and performed his neurology residency training at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center.

Dr. Jordan has completed several fellowships, including a fellowship in public health at Cornell University Medical College, a clinical neurology fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, a fellowship in sports neurology at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and a fellowship in behavioral neurology at U.C.L.A. Medical Center.

Dr. Jordan is a team physician for U.S.A. Boxing and for 20 years served as the Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Athletic Commission. Currently, Dr. Jordan serves as an Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultant (UNC) for the NFL and is a member of the NFL Players’ Association Mackey-White Health and Safety Committee.

Dr. Palfreyman is an internationally recognized leader in neurological drug development with a successful scientific and business career spanning 35 years. He brings to NeurAegis a distinguished track record of successful drug development and considerable expertise in CNS pharmacology, pharmacogenomics and rational drug design. Dr. Palfreyman’s broad perspective on drug development derives from his experience as Chief Scientific Officer for Amorsa Therapeutics and President and CSO of Psychiatric Genomics; Senior Scientific Advisor to EnVivo Pharmaceuticals and Vitruvean; co-founder of NOVACE; Senior VP for Research and Development at Anadys (formerly Scriptgen); as well as senior executive and scientific leadership roles at Marion Merrell Dow (Sanofi-Aventis) and Beecham (GlaxoSmithKline). In these roles, he successfully developed and demonstrated clinical efficacy of several candidates across multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Palfreyman holds Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees and is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He continues to be an active scientific contributor with more than 150 publications and 35 issued patents.