South San Francisco, California, United States
Biographical Highlights • Neuroscientist and KOL who has conducted research for over three decades on neurophysiology, CNS structure, and the CNS barriers in order to identify how best to deliver proteins, oligonucleotides, and gene therapy vectors to the brain • Leader with a strong history bringing vision and passion to projects in the private sector (numerous with Denali Therapeutics), at non-profits (President, International Brain Barriers Society, 2023-2025), and within academia • Teacher who has led in-person, laboratory, and virtual courses and delivered guest lectures at the University of Washington, New York University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Minnesota (current) and Stanford University • Award-winning instructor while a Professor at UW-Madison: Teacher of the Year, 2016 PharmD program; Keynote Address, White Coat Ceremony, 2011 • Past experience as primary Faculty mentor for over 15 trainees and an opponent or Ph.D. thesis committee member for over 20 additional doctoral candidates • Reviewer with recurring advisory/grant review roles for the NIH, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Lundbeck Foundation, and several Parkinson’s Disease Foundations (MJFF, PDF) • Leader, organizer, and SAB member for multiple major international initiatives involving the CNS barriers and drug delivery to the brain over the past 15+ years • Joined Denali Therapeutics as a Denali Fellow in 2018 after over 10 years on the full-time faculty at NYU School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison • Responsible for heading and setting the vision for Denali Therapeutics' Postdoctoral Program and STEM outreach program; Acting Vice President for Denali's SACNAS Chapter, the third such professional chapter in the United States • Affiliate Faculty / Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota from 2025-present; Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota from 2019-2025 • Served as the Vice President of the International Brain Barriers Society (IBBS) from 2017-2023, President from 2023-2025, and Past-President from 2025-present • Several additional leadership roles over the past 10-15 years, including chair (2016) and vice-chair (2014) of the ‘Barriers of the CNS’ Gordon Research Conference, SAB/organizing committee member for six different International Conferences on Cerebral Vascular Biology, co-chair of an AAPS-IBBS Workshop on CNS drug delivery (2019), and principal organizer for the inaugural ‘Drug Delivery to the Brain’ Keystone Symposium (2023) See Feature Article by Alison Abbott in: Nature 641:1086-1088, 29 May 2025
Assistant Professor, Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences Trainer, Neuroscience Training Program & the Center for Neuroscience Trainer, Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Training Program Trainer, Clinical Neuroengineering Training Program Faculty Member, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, & Past-Chair, Graduate Program in Clinical Investigation Executive Committee Work: CNS barriers and physiologic determinants of biodistribution in different fluid and tissue compartments of the brain and spinal cord | intraparenchymal, intrathecal, intraventricular, and intranasal routes of central drug administration | blood-brain and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barriers | antibody trafficking and distribution determinants | protein, antisense, siRNA, and AAV gene therapies for neurological disorders
Department of Physiology & Neuroscience | Laboratory of Charles Nicholson Work: Pre-clinical studies of protein, dextran, and nanoparticle transport in brain extracellular space
Department of Physiology & Neuroscience Work: Macromolecule transport in brain tissue | Teaching: Neuroscience, Physiology & Human Neuroanatomy