Alumni Spotlight Making the Fortune 40 Under 40 list at age 36 means you’re doing something right...and in Mei Mei Hu’s case, something potentially very, very good for humanity: a vaccine to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Her clinical-stage company, United Neuroscience, is pioneering a new class of medicine to treat and prevent brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s. Her driving theory is that vaccines can be just as effective for chronic diseases as they are for infectious ones. Since Alzheimer’s starts decades before symptoms appear, a vaccine approach has the most power.
Mei Mei Hu ‘97, CEO of United Neuroscience
“We’re really good at developing vaccines for things that are on the outside — to train our body to fight those things. The problem now is that most of us are dying from chronic diseases,” says Hu, “which account for more than 80% of healthcare costs.” United Neuroscience’s synthetic vaccine technology overcomes a body’s natural resistance to fighting itself and teaches it to produce antibodies against the neurotoxic proteins or plaques that accumulate in our brains and cause neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
“I’m a woman under 40 without a PhD trying to solve Alzheimer’s and democratize brain health.” — Mei Mei Hu
If you guessed that Mei Mei’s prior resume includes extensive science study, you would be incorrect. After Green Vale, she attended Phillips Academy Andover, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard Law School, going on to work as a McKinsey Consultant prior to joining the biopharmaceutical company originally founded by her mother, a renowned scientist and biotech entrepreneur in her own right.
The company is based in Dublin and her mother, Dr. Chang Yi Wang, is Chief Scientific Officer. Her husband, Lou Reese, is also an executive. The two met in college and have always inspired one another toward meaningful endeavors like starting a voter registration organization and launching a sustainable farm.
While studying literature at Dartmouth College, Eyre became interested in Sufi poetry, so he proceeded to teach himself Persian. After college, while living in Los Angeles, he continued to build language skills and a love for Iranian culture through the city’s large Iranian expatriate community. Eyre claims his Persian was still far from fluent when he joined the State Department in 1998. Later, Eyre was named the first-ever Persian language spokesperson of the United States Department of State. The post reflected U.S. efforts to communicate better with the Iranian people. Eyre won their respect by quoting Persian proverbs and expressions and building a local following with “Ask Alan,” a YouTube video Q&A. He expanded onto other social media platforms, fielding questions on the nuclear talks, sanctions, visas, and American pop culture. Eyre was even interviewed by Iranian state television, signaling a profound reversal of official attitudes toward America.
Alan Eyre ‘73, Persian Language Expert, US Department of State
As a core member of the negotiating team responsible for the JCPOA nuclear accord with Iran from 2009-2015, Eyre helped craft and deliver U.S. Government messaging to Iranian audiences. Later, Eyre became director of Middle East/Asia within the Bureau of Energy Affairs. Eyre on GVS: “I do remember fondly my French from Fran Sachs and Sheffield Bunker, who were kind enough to put up with my constant fidgeting and talking. I have many memories of my good friend Russell Smith, who was the Ferris Bueller of GVS. And also many memories of some really excellent teachers, like John “Mattie” Matthews, who knew how to reach kids like me having a hard time, and like Peter Zaloom, who pretty much made whatever he was teaching sound cool. And of course the headmaster Mr. Clifton, who even when he was chewing me out for poor academic performance exuded warmth and kindness.”
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