OUR TEAM
Swapna Sasidharan
Founder, CEO & Chair
Swapna is a business growth strategist in the healthcare industry with over 15 years of experience in operations and technology. She received her Masters in Information Technology Management and is certified in Drug Discovery & Development from Harvard Medical School.
Elizabeth Berry-Kravis MD, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board
Elizabeth Berry-Kravis MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Neurological Sciences and
Director of the RUSH Pediatric Neurosciences F.A.S.T. Center for Translational Research
at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She established the Fragile X Clinic and
Research Program at Rush University Medical Center in 1992 and has provided care to over
800 patients with fragile X syndrome (FXS). She conducts research on FXS, including
genotype-phenotype, molecular, biomarker, outcome measure, and natural history studies, and clinical trials. She has expanded this clinical and translational work to other neurogenetic
diseases in the past 10 years, including work on PMS, NPC, Angelman syndrome, Rett
syndrome, Batten’s disease, PKAN, and creatine transport deficiency. She has led the effort to
develop new targeted treatments for FXS and other genetic neurological diseases, including
antisense oligonucleotides and gene therapy, and has implemented novel trial designs,
including N-of-1 trials.
Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board
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Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou is a neuroscientist in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She received her BA from Harvard College and her PhD from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). During her postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSF she began to study the function of several genes linked to autism and intellectual disability, including POGZ. Her laboratory at Cornell University uses mouse models and human iPSC-derived neurons to understand the function of mutations in POGZ and how they affect neuronal development and function.
Terence R. Flotte, MD
Scientific Advisory Board
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Terence R. Flotte, MD has been the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, Dean of the School of Medicine and Provost and Executive Deputy Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School(UMMS) for the past 17 years. He is professor of Pediatrics and the Horae Gene Therapy Center. An internationally known pioneer in human gene therapy, Dr. Flotte’s research has been continuously
NIH funded for 31 years, and has resulted in over 250 peer-reviewed publications, which have been cited over 18,000 times. His focus is the development of recombinant viral vectors to deliver therapeutic genes and miRNA to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) fatty acid oxidation disorders,
and alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency. In 1995, he was Principal Investigator (PI) of the first human use of rAAV, a (CF) clinical trial, the first gene therapy trial for AAT deficiency, and the first gene therapy trial for Tay-Sachs disease.
His awards include the 2005 Society for Pediatric Research’s E. Mead Johnson Award for Outstanding Scientific Contributions and induction into the johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2013. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Human Gene Therapy family of journals, and is currently serving as
president-elect of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).
Takanobu Nakazawa, Ph D
Scientific Advisory Board
Takanobu Nakazawa PhD is a Professor of life Sciences at Tokyo University of
Agriculture. He received his PhD in Medical Science from University of Tokyo, where
he studied the molecular and cellular mechanisms of higher brain function, including the role of tyrosine phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor in learning and memory.Then, he became an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University, starting to focus on the modeling psychiatric conditions using iPSC technology. In 2020, he moved to Tokyo University of Agriculture, where he has developed patients’-derived iPSCs and the relevant disease model mice to study the molecular and cellular pathogenesis of psychiatric conditions, including the pathological effects of POGZ mutations in autism spectrum disorders. He concurrently serves as a visiting Professor at Osaka University.
Dr. Brett Abrahams
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Abrahams is a neuroscientist, geneticist, and drug hunter with experience developing
therapeutics and building startups. He is the founder and President of Heppinn Biosciences, a consultancy practice launched to provide scientific and strategic support venture investors,foundations, and biotech companies. He’s also an Advisory Board Member for Autism Speaks,
CureShank (Phelan McDermid Syndrome), FAST (Angelman Syndrome), and Accelerator LifeScience Partners. Prior to launching Heppinn, Dr. Abrahams served as Executive VicePresident of Research and Development of Magnolia Neurosciences. The company wasfounded to develop novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders and built out around a $51M investment from Arch, Pfizer Ventures, Eli Lilly, CPRIT, and others. Dr. Abrahams joined Magnolia from Ovid Therapeutics, where he was part of the team that showed clinical benefit of Soticlestat (TAK935) in Dravet Syndrome. Prior to this, Dr. Abrahams was faculty at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine. His research, published in numerous high impact journals
including Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, and Science Translational Medicine,has been cited more than 14,000 times.
Sandeep Kottarath
Treasurer
Sandeep Kottarath is a seasoned commercial, technology and R & D leader in the Label & Packaging industry. He is a graduate of University Of Cincinnati and Purdue School of Calumet.
Sandeep Menon
Vice President
Sandeep Menon is an Artificial Intelligence, data and Imaging expert with more than 10 years of experience in high tech industry. He received his Masters from University of Illinois.
Archana Muralidharan
Secratery
Archana Menon is a seasoned business and financial planning professional. She has also spent a few years working for a major banking company as a cyber security professional. She is a graduate of Wayne State University of Michigan.