About Us
Scientific Advisory Board
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Katerina Akassoglou Ph.D.
Chairperson
Clinical Advisory Board
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David M. Weiner, MD
Katerina Akassoglou, Ph.D.
Katerina Akassoglou, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology and Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes, and the scientific founder of Therini Bio. Dr. Akassoglou’s laboratory discovered neurovascular and neuroimmune mechanisms of disease, and in particular the causal role of fibrin in neurological diseases. Dr. Akassoglou leveraged this knowledge to develop fibrin-targeting therapeutics to block its deleterious effects in inflammation and repair. Dr. Akassoglou is a leader in neuroscience and immunology, has published over 100 papers and book chapters and holds 20 issued and pending patents. Dr. Akassoglou is an elected Lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). She received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by the White House, the John J. Abel Award by ASPET and Eli Lilly, the Dana Foundation Award, the Vilcek Prize in Creative Promise honor, The Marilyn Hilton Award for Innovation in MS Research, the NIH R35 Research Program and EUREKA Awards, the ISFP Prize and the Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research, and was named by the San Francisco Business Times in 2021 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.
David M. Weiner, MD
Dr. Weiner has over 25 years of experience in the discovery and clinical development of novel therapeutics for neurological and rare diseases. He started his career at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, where, over a ten–year period, he held a series of discovery research and clinical development roles working on multiple CNS therapeutics, most notably pimavanserin which is approved for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease psychosis. He subsequently joined EMD Serono in a late clinical development role, ultimately leading early clinical development activities in neurology globally. Dr. Weiner has extensive experience in rare disease drug development, serving as chief medical officerand Interim CEO for Proteostasis Therapeutics, and as CMOat aTyrPharma and Lumos Pharma. He most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer at Amathus Therapeutics. He received his M.D. from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, SUNY at Buffalo, was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the NIH in Bethesda, trained in clinical neurology at New York Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Cornell Medical Center, and did a post–doctoral fellowship in neuropharmacology at the University of Vermont. Dr. Weiner has authored over 30 scientific publications and patents and serves on multiple company clinical and scientific advisory boards, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research.