Dr. Neva West has 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience, including as a Global Medical Director at Biogen and as the owner of a medical communications and strategy firm working with many mid-size and startup pharmaceutical companies. She has worked in many therapeutic areas, spanning from rare disease to Alzheimer’s and obesity. After receiving a PhD in neuroscience, Dr. West completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Lurie Children's Hospital, where she patented novel gene therapy vectors for CNS delivery. Combining her scientific research, pharma industry, communications, and patient advocacy experience is what led her to envision how providing a novel funding mechanism for innovative science could transform how clinical research is done in the US.