Samsara Therapeutics Establishes Scientific Advisory Board
Oxford, UK, and Boston, MA – Samsara Therapeutics Inc. (Samsara), a discovery-stage biotech with a world-leading screening platform for inducers of autophagy and a growing pipeline of small molecule neurodegeneration and rare disease therapeutics, today announced the formation of its scientific advisory board (SAB) with the appointment of four distinguished leaders in the areas of neurodegeneration, rare genetic disease, and protein sciences. Dr Michael Schlossmacher, Prof Susan Perlman, Prof Ed Tate and Prof Christian Behl will help the Company advance several series of novel compounds into development for Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and certain rare genetic conditions.
The new SAB members will join Guido Kroemer MD, PhD, Scientific co-founder of Samsara Therapeutics, a highly cited and well-renowned leader in cell biology and the process of autophagy.
Michael Schlossmacher MD is a Professor in Neurology at the University of Ottawa in Canada. After his medical education in Vienna and postgraduate studies on Alzheimer’s disease at Harvard University, he pursued clinical training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Since 2000, he has focused his research activities on Parkinson’s disease, first at the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Since 2006, he has been based at the University of Ottawa, where he co-directs the Parkinson’s Research Consortium. In 2012, he was named the Bhargava Research Chair in Neurodegeneration at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; in 2015, he was appointed director of its Neuroscience Program.
Susan Perlman MD, PhD is Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Director of the Ataxia and Neurogenetics Clinical Trials Programs. Prof Perlman is a well-known neuro-geneticist and clinical pioneer in ataxia who sits on the Medical-Research Advisory Board of the National Ataxia Foundation. Perlman received her BS in Biochemistry from Cornell University and MD from SUNY, Stony Brook. She did her Residency in Neurology at UCLA, followed by a Muscular Dystrophy Association Fellowship in Neurology also at UCLA. In 2008, she received the Sherman M Mellinkoff Faculty Award, considered the highest faculty distinction at the David Geffen School of Medicine.
Ed Tate PhD is Professor of Chemical Biology, Imperial College London and Satellite Group Leader, The Francis Crick Institute. Prof Tate is a leader in chemical biology and target identification techniques and his group has made numerous contributions to the understanding of molecular interactions. Following his PhD at the University of Cambridge he worked at Ecole Polytechnique and the Pasteur Institute (Paris), before moving to Imperial College London where he was appointed Professor of Chemical Biology in 2014. He has received multiple awards, most recently the 2020 RSC Corday Morgan Prize and 2019 Sir David Cooksey Translation Prize, and sits on the editorial advisory boards of several prestigious chemical biology journals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Chemistry and Biology, and Director of the Imperial Centre for Drug Discovery Science.
Christian Behl PhD obtained his PhD in Neurobiology from the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg. Following post-doctoral research at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, he became the Head of the Pathobiochemistry Department of the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz. He has chaired the Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, and the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Neurosciences (IFZN). Since 2010, he has been the Director of the Institute of Pathobiochemistry of the University Medical Centre (of the JGU) Mainz. Among other honours, he received the Binder Innovation Award of the German Society for Cell Biology (DGZ). Prof Behl’s research interests are in the study of aging cells, neurodegeneration, protein homeostasis and autophagy.
Jens Eckstein PhD, Chairman, Samsara Therapeutics and Managing Partner, Apollo Health Ventures, commented:
“The assembly of this distinguished group of key opinion leaders will allow Samsara to develop its clinical strategy for an emerging pipeline of novel therapeutics in currently intractable diseases. Their expertise and knowledge in the field of neurodegeneration, rare genetic disease, and protein science will be vital in driving the development of pioneering compounds to target key disease areas.”
Peter Hamley PhD, MBA, Chief Scientific Officer, Samsara Therapeutics, said:
“We look forward to working closely with the talented members of our new SAB to drive the clinical development of our promising pipeline while ensuring that we build on the early success of our technology platform. Together with this exceptional team of experts, we will continue to advance the discovery of neurodegeneration and rare genetic disease therapeutics.”
For more information about Samsara’s SAB, please visit: www.samsaratherapeutics.com
