Governance – GBA1 Canada

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Ziv Gan-Or

MD, PhD

Ziv Gan-Or

MD, PhD

Associate Professor, The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Department of Human Genetics, McGill University

Dr. Gan-Or is a leading geneticist in the field of Parkinson’s disease and spearheads the world’s largest effort on RBD genomics. He is an expert on GBA1, with >50 publications on GBA1 and its genetics, function, and clinical aspects. He has been working with pharmaceutical companies on GBA1 and its modifiers as therapeutic targets for PD. He also serves on several scientific advisory boards to help facilitate precision medicine in PD treatment. At the Neuro, he is the co-director of the Clinical Research Unit (CRU), the director of the Neurodegenerative Disorders Research Group, and leads the Neurogenomics and Precision Medicine lab.

Jason Karamchandani

Scientific Director, C-BIG Repository, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology McGill University

Dr. Jason Karamchandani graduated from Harvard College and attended medical school at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he remained for his residency training in anatomic pathology followed by fellowship training in surgical pathology and neuropathology. Dr. Karamchandani went on to practice neuropathology at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. He is currently an associate professor in the departments of Pathology, Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, where he practices clinical neuropathology, and serves as the Scientific Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute’s Open Science biorepository and patient registry: C-BIG. He is the current president of the Canadian Association of Pathologists.

Jeffrey Coull

PhD

Jeffrey Coull

PhD

Advisor, The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation

Dr. Jeffrey Coull is a neuroscientist and innovation advisor. At present, he advises several Canadian and British foundations on an ongoing basis, including The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation, and serves as a corporate director or advisory committee member for various for-profit and non-profit entities. Previously, he founded and ran several venture-backed biotech companies in Canada. He holds a PhD from McGill University, where he developed a life-long fascination in synaptic plasticity in CNS, and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto for several years, where he taught neurophysiology.

Thomas Durcan

PhD

Thomas Durcan

PhD

Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University. Director of the early drug discovery unit at The Neuro.

Dr. Durcan and his team specialize in generating patient-derived models, including brain organoids, and performing screens of compound libraries using different assays. He is involved in several projects on GBA1 and modifier genes.

Jo Anne Stratton

PhD

Jo Anne Stratton

PhD

Assistant Professor, McGill University

Dr. Jo Anne Stratton is a Killam Scholar and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill. She holds a Junior 1 FRQS Career Award and the Bougie Family Young Investigator Award. She is the co-Lead of the Neuroimmunological Diseases Group at the Neuro, and the co-Director of the Single Cell Neurobiology Initiative at McGill, as well as the Chair of the Tannanbaum Open Science Institute's Grassroots Committee. Dr. Stratton was trained at the University of Melbourne (PhD) and the University of Calgary (postdoctoral fellowship). As an independent researcher, her goal now is to elucidate the complex neuro-immune interactions implicated in nervous system diseases by using single cell technologies, animal modeling, in vitro assays and human samples. She is considered a rising leader in the field of CSF-facing barrier cells, critically understudied cells in the brain, important for maintaining cerebrospinal fluid and brain homeostasis.

Roy Alcalay

MD, MS

Roy Alcalay

MD, MS

Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv & Associate professor, part-time, Columbia University

Dr. Roy Alcalay obtained his medical degree from Tel Aviv University, his neurology training from the Harvard University residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his movement disorders training at Columbia University. He earned a Master’s in biostatistics (patient-oriented research track) from Columbia University. His research focuses on biomarkers and genetics in Parkinson’s disease. His research is supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Parkinson’s Foundation, and the Silverstein Foundation for Parkinson’s with GBA.

Lorna Chebon-Bore

PhD

Lorna Chebon-Bore

PhD

Program manager, GBA1 Canadian initiative

Lorna earned her PhD in Structural Bioinformatics from Rhodes University in South Africa, where her research significantly contributed to drug discovery endeavors. Her work centered on employing computational tools to target the transmembrane electron transfer pathway for Plasmodium falciparum, utilizing natural compounds found in South Africa. Presently, she serves as the program manager for the GBA1 Canadian initiative, a major open science endeavor dedicated to advancing drug discovery for GBA1-associated neurodegenerative disorders.

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Ziv Gan-Or

MD, PhD

Ziv Gan-Or

MD, PhD

Associate Professor, The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Department of Human Genetics, McGill University

Dimitri Krainc

MD, PhD

Dimitri Krainc

MD, PhD

Aaron Montgomery Ward Professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Dimitri Krainc, currently serves as the Ward Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Center for Neurogenetics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. He has dedicated his scientific career to studying molecular pathways in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration. Informed by genetic causes of disease, his work has uncovered key mechanisms across different neurodegenerative disorders that have led to development of targeted therapies. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors. He is the principal founding scientist of two biotech companies and serves as Venture Partner at OrbiMed. Krainc is President-elect of the American Neurological Association. Chair, Davee Department of Neurology, Neurologist-In-Chief, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Director, Simpson Querrey Center for Neurogenetics.

Sonja W. Scholz

MD PhD

Sonja W. Scholz

MD PhD

Investigator, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Sonja Scholz is a physician-scientist specializing in neurodegeneration. She received her MD from the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria and her PhD in Neurogenomics from the University College London, UK. After completing an adult neurology residency training at Johns Hopkins University, she joined the National Institutes of Health. She is currently a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and chief of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Unit. Her primary area of research is the genetic characterization of parkinsonism syndromes, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, and other diseases. She specializes in applying modern genomic techniques and data-driven approaches to assess the molecular genetic mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders and to identify targets that are suitable for disease-modifying therapeutic interventions.

Michael G. Schlossmacher

M.D.

Michael G. Schlossmacher

M.D.

Director, Neuroscience Program, Bhargava Research Chair in Neurodegeneration, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa

Michael obtained his M.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria and underwent scientific training under Dr. Dennis Selkoe in Boston, MA., working on the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. There, he discovered that amyloid-beta peptide is generated by physiological cleavage from its precursor protein, which helped usher in the search for anti-amyloid-beta therapies. Following completion of clinical training in Boston, Michael’s focus has been on parkinsonian disorders. In 2005, together with colleagues he launched the Harvard PD Biomarker cohort, the development of a-synuclein assays and patent applications on the GBA1-a-synuclein link. In 2007, he opened a new lab in Canada to investigate the pathogenesis of different forms of parkinsonism and develop a model for Parkinson’s risk (PREDIGT Score).

Anthony Schapira

MD, DSc, FRCP, FMedSci

Anthony Schapira

MD, DSc, FRCP, FMedSci

Professor Tony Schapira is Chair of the Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology.

Professor Tony Schapira’s clinical and research interests are in movement disorders and Parkinson disease in particular. His research group focuses on the molecular genetic pathogenesis of Parkinson’s including the mechanisms related to the association with GBA1 gene variants. Investigations include the clinical and biomarker profile of GBA-PD penetration, including the role of the microbiota, and on the translation of research to treatments to slow progression. He is Chief Investigator of the phase III study on ambroxol in Parkinson disease. He is a non-executive director of Oxford University Hospitals and a member of the NHS reconfiguration panel.

Jodi Maple-Grødem

PhD

Jodi Maple-Grødem

PhD

Associate Professor, Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, and Department of Chemistry, Bioscience and Environmental Engineering, University of Stavanger.

Jodi Maple-Grødem trained as a molecular biologist at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leicester in the UK and now works at the Centre for Movement Disorders in Norway. She leads collaborative projects, working with population-based studies of incident Parkinson's disease (PD) to identify clinical and biological markers. Her focus is on the implications of glucocerebrosidase (GCase) dysfunction and mutations in the GCase gene (GBA1) on disease risk and progression. Additionally, Jodi leads the ProLBD study, a 10-year prospective longitudinal cohort investigation aimed at early detection, prognosis, and biomarker identification for prodromal Lewy Body Diseases, and is a member of the ANeED clinical trials team, which assess Ambroxol's tolerability, safety, and effects in Dementia with Lewy body patients.

S. Pablo Sardi

PhD

S. Pablo Sardi

PhD

Global Head of Rare and Neurologic Diseases Therapeutic Area

Dr. Pablo Sardi is the Global Head of Rare and Neurologic Diseases Therapeutic Area at Sanofi. He leads early exploratory and discovery activities, overseeing a team focused on transformative medicines for patients with rare and neurologic diseases (including rare metabolic, lysosomal, renal, hematologic, skeletal, muscular, and neurologic diseases: multiple sclerosis, ALS/FTD, Parkinson’s disease, and dementias). Dr. Sardi holds a PharmD, an MS in Biochemistry, and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Buenos Aires. His research focuses on genetic neurological diseases, leading to discoveries of therapeutic targets and biomarkers, enabling clinical development of therapies. Dr. Sardi has authored multiple publications and patents, and serves on scientific committees and advisory boards, demonstrating a commitment to advancing neuroscience.

Peter T. Lansbury

Jr., PhD

Peter T. Lansbury

Jr., PhD

Professor, Harvard Medical School

Peter Lansbury was born in 1958 and grew up in Buffalo, NY. He received his AB (cum laude) in chemistry from Princeton University in 1980 and subsequently received his PhD in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 1985 under the direction of Nobel laureate E. J. Corey. His postdoctoral fellowship was spent at the Rockefeller University, working with the late Tom Kaiser. In 1988, he accepted a position as assistant professor of chemistry at MIT, and was promoted to associate professor in 1993. He moved to his current position at the Center of Neurologic Diseases in 1996, and was promoted to Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in 2004. During this time, he founded to Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration and the Morris K. Udall NIH Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which he directed for ten years. He was the founder of Link Medicine, and served as its Chief Scientific Officer from 2005 until its sale to AstraZeneca in 2012. At Link, he and his team advanced a small molecule through phase 1b study in Alzheimer’s disease. He served as Chief Scientific Officer of Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. from it’s founding in 2013 until its sale in 2021 to Bial Pharma. During this time, he and his team developed a brain-penetrant, safe, and well-tolerated glucocerebrosidase allosteric activator for the treatment of GBA1-PD, a genetic subtype of Parkinson’s disease. This compound is currently in clinical trials for modification of GBA-PD progression. Peter currently serves on the Scientific Advisory boards of Aliada Therapeutics, Lucy Therapeutics, and Vincere.

Joseph R. Mazzulli

PhD

Joseph R. Mazzulli

PhD

Associate Professor of Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Neurology

Joseph R. Mazzulli, PhD, received his BS in neuroscience and biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and in 2007 completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. During his doctoral training, Dr. Mazzulli studied the effects of dopamine on the aggregation of protein alpha-synuclein using cellular and pre-clinical models. He then undertook postdoctoral training in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. There, Dr. Mazzulli examined the role of lysosomes in neurodegenerative diseases. He is currently an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. His laboratory is focused on determining how the misfolding and aggregation of alpha-synuclein cause neurodegeneration. In his research, Dr. Mazzulli uses cultures of human dopamine-producing cells and pre-clinical models with features of neurodegeneration.

Andrew Singleton

PhD

Andrew Singleton

PhD

NIH Distinguished Investigator, Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias, National Institutes of Health

Andrew received his B.Sc. from the University of Sunderland, UK and his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His research initially focused on genetic determinants of dementia. After postdoctoral work at the Mayo Clinic Andrew moved to the National Institute on Aging. He is the Director of the NIH Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias. His group works on the genetic basis of neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dystonia, ataxia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The goal of this research is to identify genetic variability that causes or contributes to disease and to use this knowledge to understand the molecular processes underlying disease. Andrew serves on several advisory and editorial boards. He has received the Annemarie Opprecht Award for Parkinson’s disease research, the Jay van Andel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Parkinson’s Disease Research, the American Academy of Neurology Movement Disorders Award, the Robert A Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson’s Disease, and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sunderland. He is a winner of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize.

Gregory A. Grabowski

Professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (UCCM), Department of Pediatrics, Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, Division of Human Genetics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Research Foundation (CCHRF) Cincinnati, OH

At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Grabowski received his MD, and training in Pediatrics, and Clinical, Biochemical, and Molecular Genetics. At Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC, he developed basic research in and a large clinic for Gaucher disease and other lysosomal diseases. In 1992, he became the A. Graeme Mitchell Chair and Director of Human Genetics at CCHRF. He also was Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology at the UCCM. In 2014, he joined Synageva BioPharma as CSO and from 2015-2019, he was CSO at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals. He is a consultant and/or SAB member for several biotech companies. His continuing passion is to discover and develop specific treatments for inherited diseases.

Kajsa Atterling Brolin

PhD

Kajsa Atterling Brolin

PhD

Postdoctoral research fellow, Lund University

Dr. Kajsa Atterling Brolin is a postdoctoral fellow at the Translational Neurogenetics Unit at Lund University, Sweden, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Preventive Neurology, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Dr. Atterling Brolin obtained her PhD in Medical Science, Neuroscience from Lund University in 2023. Her work focuses on genetic and non-genetic risk factors in PD and she is currently working as the junior co-lead of the prodromal effort in the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2).

Roy Alcalay

MD, MS

Roy Alcalay

MD, MS

Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv & Associate professor, part-time, Columbia University

Shalini Padmanabhan

PhD

Shalini Padmanabhan

PhD

Vice President, Discovery & Translational Research, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

Shalini Padmanabhan is Vice President of Discovery and Translational Research at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. At the Foundation, she oversees a team of 8 other scientists and over 400 active projects focusing on the biological understanding of Parkinson’s disease, target validation efforts, therapeutic and biomarker development efforts. Shalini earned an undergraduate degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from U.I.C.T, India and a PhD in Neuroscience from the Medical College of Georgia. Prior to joining the Foundation, Shalini trained as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University where she worked on validating novel targets to treat Parkinson’s disease using a gene therapy approach.

Simon Stott

PhD

Simon Stott

PhD

Director of Research at Cure Parkinson's

Following PhD training in Lund (Sweden) and postdoctoral positions in London and Cambridge (UK), Dr. Stott joined the medical research charity ‘Cure Parkinson's’ in 2018, becoming Director of Research in 2022. Simon has over 20 years of experience in the field of Parkinson's research - in both academia and industry – and he has been involved in lab-based research as well as clinical studies.

Angelica Asis

MSc

Angelica Asis

MSc

Vice president, Research, Parkinson Canada

Angelica Asis joined Parkinson Canada in November 2022 as the Vice President of Research. Prior to joining the organization, Angelica worked in various roles in the health charity, public health, and research communications spaces. While at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, she helped shape the research program by implementing new ways of making research accessible to public audiences, implementing strategies that advanced research from laboratory to drug commercialization, and supporting the creation of research-informed policies that impact people affected by MS. Angelica has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from McMaster University.

Rich and Pola Sussman

GBA1-PD Patient & Patient representative

Rich and Pola Sussman

GBA1-PD Patient & Patient representative

Pola was diagnosed with PD in 2017 and, in 2018, was found to have the gba1 variant n370s. Since being diagnosed, Pola and her husband Rich, have been active in the Parkinson's community by advocating for PD, participating on patient advisory committees, speaking to researchers and participating in multiple research studies.

PROGRAM MANAGER

Lorna Chebon-Bore

PhD

Lorna Chebon-Bore

PhD

Program manager, GBA1 Canadian initiative

SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIC ASSOCIATE

Priyabrata Halder

PhD

Priyabrata Halder

PhD

Scientific Academic associate, GBA1 Canadian initiative

Dr. Priyabrata Halder is a researcher with over 13 years of experience in neurobiology, specifically focusing on sensory neurobiology, pain, and neurodegenerative disorders. With a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the National Brain Research Centre, Gurugram, India, his thesis explored the plasticity of the somatosensory pathway following spinal cord injuries in macaque monkeys. His postdoctoral work at the Université de Montréal and the University of Pittsburgh further honed his expertise in neurodegenerative disorders and pain neurobiology, respectively. Dr. Halder's interests include mesencephalic dopaminergic system and its relevance to Parkinson's disease. His skill set encompasses a range of techniques, including whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology, fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, and in-vivo extracellular recordings.

G-Can Governance

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Ziv Gan-Or

Jason Karamchandani

Jeffrey Coull

Thomas Durcan

Jo Anne Stratton

Roy Alcalay

Lorna Chebon-Bore

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

Ziv Gan-Or

Dimitri Krainc

Sonja W. Scholz

Michael G. Schlossmacher

Anthony Schapira

Jodi Maple-Grødem

S. Pablo Sardi

Peter T. Lansbury

Joseph R. Mazzulli

Andrew Singleton

Gregory A. Grabowski

Kajsa Atterling Brolin

Roy Alcalay

Shalini Padmanabhan

Simon Stott

Angelica Asis

Rich and Pola Sussman

PROGRAM MANAGER

Lorna Chebon-Bore

SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIC ASSOCIATE

Priyabrata Halder

FUNDING PARTNERS