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Speakers 
 Dr Antony Altar,
Director of the Biomarkers Consortium,
Foundation for the NIH
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Dr Anne Bruinvels,
Chief Executive Officer,
Curidium
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 Dr Aaron Chuang,
Drug Discovery Stem Cell Coordinator and Manager of Cellular Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration Research Department,
Glaxosmithkline
Following PhD training in Neuroendocrinology at St. Thomas's Hospital
Medical School in London, Aaron studied the molecular regulation of gene expression in the pituitary gland at INSERM in Paris. This led to research on G
Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinases at the Mario Negri Institute in Italy, where
his work shed light on the disease implications of these kinases. Subsequently Aaron joined GlaxoWellcome in 1996 to apply this expertise towards drug discovery in respiratory diseases. After the formation of GlaxoSmithKline in 2001, Aaron moved into drug discovery for CNS diseases, and has led programmes in early and late preclinical stages for Alzheimer’s Disease. During the same period he initiated a stem cell research programme for neurodegenerative diseases. Aaron is also involved in international business development opportunities, and serves on the editorial board for Regenerative Medicine.
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Dr Michael Courtney,
Group Leader, Molecular Signalling Laboratory, Department of Neurobiology,
University of Kuopio
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Dr Ronan Depoortere,
Head of Behavioral Pharmacology, Neurobiology 2 Division,
Pierre Fabre
Ronan Depoortère obtained his PhD from the University Louis Pasteur Strasbourg, France in 1990. He subsequently carried out post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. M. Emmett-Oglesby (Fort Worth, Texas, USA). Having joined Synthelabo Recherche in 1993, he became a Group Leader, and was responsible for the “antipsychotic” program in the department of
psychopharmacology. He supervised the psychopharmacological studies of SSR181507 (D2 antagonist / 5-HT1A agonist), and the biological characterization of «GlyT1 inhibitors» (two compounds in development: SSR504734 and SSR103800). Ronan was also a member of target selection committees. In 2005, he took the position of Laboratory Head in the Neurobiology 2 division of Pierre Fabre Laboratories (Castres, France). Ronan is currently responsible for running the behavioural pharmacology
characterization of compounds issued from the “antipsychotic” and
“anxiolytic/antidepressant” programs in the department of CNS research.
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Yona Geffen,
Senior Drug Development Manager,
BioLineRx Ltd
Dr. Yona Geffen has over 10 years of experience in the field of Drug Development in biopharmaceutical companies. She has a M.SC in Business management.
Dr. Geffen received her Ph.d from Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel.
Dr. Geffen is the Drug Development Manager for BL- 1020, first in class, orally available, GABA-enhanced antipsychotic for the treatment of schizophrenia.
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 Dr Anders Haegerstrand,
Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer,
NeuroNova
Dr Haegerstrand joined NeuroNova in 2000. In addition to the general responsibilites as CSO, Dr Haegerstrand has been responsible for the preclinical development and initial clinical study plans for NeuroNova’s projects heading for clinical trials during 2007-2008. Dr Haegerstrand was formerly Global Manager of the discovery research portfolio and external collaborations within CNS and Pain Control Discovery at AstraZeneca plc (1999-2000). Prior to this, Dr Haegerstrand was Project Manager (1995-1997) and Vice President of Discovery Research (1996-1999) at the former company Astra Pain Control AB. Dr Haegerstrand co-managed product development of encapsulated cell therapy, including FDA regulated clinical phase I/II trials.
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 Dr Russell Hagan,
Head of Research and Development,
BTG International Ltd
Russell joined BTG in 2002 and heads up its research and development team. Russell has 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in a variety of roles spanning the value chain from new target discovery to phase IV marketing. A neuropharmacologist by training he has led numerous drug discovery and development programmes in a number of therapeutic areas including schizophrenia, epilepsy and sleep disorders. He gained experience in pharmaceutical commercialization strategies and business development in Glaxo Wellcome’s Neurology and Psychiatry Commercial Development team in North Carolina, USA. Most recently he was Director of Strategy for one of GlaxoSmithKline’s Centres of Excellence in Drug Discovery (CEDD) based in Italy.
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 Dr Trevor Howe,
Head of Molecular Informatics,
Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development
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 Dr Shaun Jordan,
Associate Director, Neuroscience Research,
Otsuka Maryland Medicinal Labs, Inc.
Research included in NDA submission for the antipsychotic Abilify® (aripiprazole)
Lead inventor on awarded US patent (#7,053,092) relating to Abilify® at serotonin 5-HT1A receptors
2003 Fuji Memorial Prize awarded for contributions to discovery of a novel protein target for psychiatric disease.
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Dr John Kemp,
Chief Executive Officer,
Evotec Neurosciences
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 Dr Henrik Klitgaard,
Vice President of CNS Research,
UCB Pharma SA
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Prof Stafford Lightman,
Head, Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrative Neurosciences and Endocrinology (LINE),
University Of Bristol
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Dr Michael McDonald,
Chief Medical Officer,
Oxford BioMedica
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 Dr Klaus Mendla,
Head of CNS Therapeutic Advisory Team, Department of Research and Development Licensing and Information Management,
Boehringer Ingelheim
*Studied Biochemistry at the University of Muenster
*Received PhD in 1984
*Posdoc at the Institute of Pathochemistry and General Neurochemistry, University of Heidelberg
*Joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 1985
*Worked as laboratory and group leader in CNS Research (focus: Alzheimer's disease)
*Currently Head of the CNS Advisory Team, responsible for Global Licensing CNS.
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 Dr Nicholas Moore,
Associate Director, Behavioural Pharmacology,
Lundbeck Research USA Inc.
Dr. Moore is an internationally recognized expert in the field of drug discovery and has contributed to the successful identification of numerous clinical candidates for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Dr. Moore is currently Associate Director responsible for behavioural pharmacology at Lundbeck Research USA Inc. Prior to this Dr. Moore spent over 23 years at Eli Lilly & Co. in the neuroscience discovery group, in the UK and was an original member of the team that discovered Zyprexa®. In 1999, he received the prestigious ‘Society for Medicines Research Award for Drug Discovery’ for his contributions to discovery and development of Zyprexa®.
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 John Mordock,
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Neurologix, Inc.
Mr. Mordock was appointed as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company on July 17, 2006. Mr. Mordock has been a director of the Corporation since November 14, 2005. Mr. Mordock was a Partner of Red Bird Capital, LLC, a private equity firm focusing on early stage medical technology companies, from 2001 until July 2006. From 1996 to 2001, Mr. Mordock was President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Teleflex Instruments & Surgical Services. Mr. Mordock was also President, Chief Operating Officer and a director of Cabot Medical Corporation from 1981 to 1996. Mr. Mordock holds a B.S. and an MBA from La Salle University and an E.P.S.M. from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
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Dr Michael F O'Neill,
Managing Director,
Eolas Biosciences Ltd
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 Michael J O'Neill,
Research Advisor, Neurodegeneration Drug Team,
Eli Lilly
Dr. O’Neill received his doctorate in pharmacology for University College Galway, Ireland. After some post-doc work he joined Eli Lilly & Co. Ltd at their Neuroscience research facility “Erl Wood Manor” in Surrey where he has worked for over 12 years. Dr. O’Neill has led several projects on ischaemia and Parkinson’s disease at Lilly. In the mid 1990’s he worked primarily on rodent models of cerebral ischaemia, with a focus on functional and histological protection with glutamate receptor ligands. He is now focused on developing new models, evaluating new drug-based interventions and discovering new targets that slow the progression or enhance recovery of Parkinson’s disease. His lab have characterised many model and completed a large series of studies with range of pharmacological interventions in 6-OHDA and MPTP models of Parkinson’s disease.
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 Dr Alan Palmer,
Chairman,
Pharmidex
Alan M. Palmer FIBiol, PhD, MSc, CBiol, BSc is Chairman and co-founder of Pharmidex. He has years of drug discovery experience with a focus on neurodegenerative disorders. Last year he was voted entrepreneur of the year by the London Biotechnology Network, on the basis of co-founding both Pharmidex and Cerebrus, the UK’s first neuroscience start-up company. Prior to Cerebrus, he worked for Wyeth Research and before that he was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh (UP), where he was an active member of the Alzheimer’s disease Research Centre and co-founder of the UP Head Injury Research Centre. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology, Chairman of the Society for Medicines Research and a visiting Professor at the School of Pharmacy in London.
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Dr Eric Parker,
Senior Director, Department of Neurobiology,
Schering-Plough Research Institute
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 Dr Karin Sandager Nielsen,
Head of CNS pharmacology,
NeuroSearch A/S
Currently I’m working at NeuroSearch A/S as department head in CNS pharmacology. My focus area, and area of expertise, is schizophrenia and cognition and the preclinical assessment of drugs directed towards these indications. My responsibilities include continuously developing and improving the technology platform as well as the knowledgebase in these two indication areas in order to support drug discovery projects. I also take active part in generating new projects, and have been starting up, as well as been project manager in two new projects targeting SK channels and GPCRs respectively.
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Dr Alfred Sapse,
President,
Stem Cell Pharma Inc.
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 Dr Lee Schechter,
Therapeutic Area Head/Director, Depression and Anxiety Research, Neuroscience Discovery,
Wyeth Research
Dr. Schechter joined Wyeth in 1993 and is currently the Therapeutic Area Head of Depression and Anxiety Research in Neuroscience Discovery. Among his multiple responsibilities he directs the effort for drug development strategies comprising the portfolio for depression and anxiety as well as further evaluating known approaches to improve current unmet needs of existing therapies. He has successfully led drug discovery programs to the development of three unique clinical candidates. His research interests include the neuropharmacological characterization, regulation and function of serotonin receptors towards the goal of novel psychiatric drug discovery particularly in the areas of depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment, and novel mechanisms of antidepressant and anxiolytic agents. One of the current interests of his research group is the regulation of neurogenesis in stress and antidepressant drug therapy.
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 Dr John Sinden,
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer,
ReNeuron
Dr John Sinden BA MA PhD has been a director of ReNeuron since October 1998. He is a scientific co-founder of ReNeuron. Prior to founding ReNeuron, he was Reader in Neurobiology of Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. He graduated in Psychology from the University of Sydney and completed a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Paris at the College de France. He subsequently held post-doctoral appointments at Oxford University and at the Institute of Psychiatry prior to joining the permanent staff of the Institute in 1987.
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Dr Thomas Steckler,
Therapeutic Area Leader, Psychiatry & Biology Head,
Johnson & Johnson
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 Prof Lars Sundstrom,
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer,
Capsant Neurotechnologies Ltd.
Lars Sundstrom is Chief Scientific Officer and a founder of Capsant Neurotechnologies LTD. Capsant specialises in 3-dimensional tissue culture models of neurological disease with a specific emphasis on restoring function to damaged nerve tissue. Pr. Sundstrom and his colleagues have developed complex in-vitro models of brain tissue damage based on cultured brain slices maintained on an air liquid interface. Most recently his group has been using tissue engineering principles to regenerate embryonic and early postnatal tissues in-vitro for drug testing. Capsant is also actively involved in developing 3D tissues from rodent and human stem cells.
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 Dr Mark Treherne,
Chief Executive,
Senexis
Mark Treherne obtained his PhD in neuropharmacology from Cambridge University and now has over 20 year’s experience in the discovery of novel treatments for diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Mark was formerly at Pfizer, before setting up Cambridge Drug Discovery 1997 as Chief Executive, which he sold to BioFocus in 2001 for £28 million. Mark joined Senexis as Chief Executive in 2002 and has now helped raise over £45 million for various early-stage biotechnology companies.
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 Dr Bengt von Mentzer,
Principal Scientist, Molecular Pharmacology Discovery,
AstraZeneca
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Dr Richard Wise,
fMRI Director,
Cardiff University Brain and Repair Imaging Centre
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