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SCIEnTIFIC ADvISoRy BoARD
JEFFERy W. kELLy, PHD
Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry
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Department of Chemistry
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology
The Scripps Research Institute
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Dr. Jeffery Kelly discovered the first regulatory-agency-approved drug (tafamidis vyndaqel; Pfizer) that slows the progression of the neurodegenerative disease familial amyloid polyneuropathy and the cardiac disease senile systemic amyloidosis, both caused by the aggregation of the protein transthyretin.
Currently his lab is focused on the discovery of first-in-class drugs that would slow the progression of multiple neurodegenerative diseases by modulating organismal protein homeostasis (e.g. autophagy) and/or neuroinflammation. Dr. Kelly has published over 350 scientific papers and has placed 45 trainees in tenured or tenure-track academic positions and 60 former coworkers in biotechnology and pharmaceutical positions.
BLAIR R. LEAvITT, MDCM, FRCPC
Senior Scientist
Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics Professor
Department of Medical Genetics
University of British Columbia
Dr. Blair Leavitt, a neurologist, is a long-standing member and former Co-Chair of the Huntington Study Group, an established Huntington’s disease clinical trial investigator, and the Director of Research at the UBC Centre for HD in Vancouver. He has an ongoing clinical research program in neurogenetics with a focus on HD. A laboratory scientist as well as a practicing neurologist, his laboratory is dedicated to developing and testing new treatments for genetic diseases of the brain and spinal cord. Using genetically-modified mouse models of human disease as his primary tool, Dr. Leavitt’s research focuses on developing new therapies for devastating neurodegenerative diseases such as HD, frontotemporal dementia and ALS. His work includes research programs searching for clinical biomarkers in HD and identifying new genetic causes of ataxia, epilepsy, neurodevelopmental disorders, and autism.
Dr. Leavitt is the co-founder and CEO of Incisive Genetics Inc., a biotech company developing lipid nanoparticle delivery systems for gene editing applications. He is a founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Huntington’s Disease
