Per Svenningsson, MD, PhD
Per Svenningsson, MD, PhD, completed his MD and PhD at the Karolinska Institutet and was then a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Paul Greengard at The Rockefeller University. He is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet and consultant neurologist at the Karolinska University hospital. He has developed a translational research program investigating pathogenic mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using genetic and viral-based animal models. At Karolinska University hospital, he cares for patients with PD in a weekly movement disorders clinic. Dr. Svenningsson also collects biospecimens, including cerebrospinal fluid, and performs clinical trials to slow down PD progression. He is chairman of the Basic Science special interest group of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. He is a member of the Nobel Assembly awarding the annual Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Veena Thomas, PhD
Veena Thomas is the Scientific Program Manager for Team Fraser. She earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF in Brian Shoichet’s lab, where her research focused on structural biology, enzymology, protein stability, and drug resistance. She then did her postdoctoral research in Vijay Pande’s group at Stanford, applying ligand- and structure-based computational approaches to drug repurposing for neglected diseases and to the prediction of drug side effects and toxicity. Most recently, Veena led cross-functional strategy management for the NIH-funded AViDD ASAP Discovery antiviral drug-discovery consortium. Her work now centers on enabling technically rigorous collaboration across disciplines and institutions to accelerate complex drug-discovery programs.
Carmen Carrillo García, PhD
Carmen is a Scientific Project Manager at DZNE. With a background in cell biology, she spent many years in academic research before moving into project management. She enjoys bringing people and projects together and helping research collaborations run smoothly.
Philip Denner, PhD
Philip is Head of the Core Facility for Lab Automation Technologies (CRFS-LAT) and leads the Core Research Facilities and Services (CRFS) at DZNE Bonn, Germany. A biochemist with over 20 years of academic and industry experience, he specializes in high-content screening (HCS) and image-based analysis to quantify cellular phenotypes across disease areas. Philip also develops advanced human cell models to improve the translational impact of preclinical research and drug discovery.
Laura Volpicelli-Daley, PhD
"While working as a senior scientist in the lab of Drs. Virginia Lee and John Trojanowski at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Volpicelli-Daley discovered that fibrils of α-synuclein act as seeds to template the growth of α-synuclein inclusions from endogenously expressed α-synuclein in neurons. These inclusions are remarkably similar morphologically and biochemically to those found in PD. Importantly, she showed the fibrils do not cause phenotypes in neurons lacking endogenous α-synuclein, demonstrating that corruption of normal α-synuclein contributes to neuronal defects. Currently, her lab focuses on the impact of pathologic α-synuclein on synapse architecture and function in the cortex and limbic brain regions. In addition, the lab studies how accumulation of glycosphingolipids in the brain causes neuronal dysfunction, synapse loss, and cognitive decline in PD.
