Senior Management
Emer Leahy, Ph.D., M.B.A., President and CEO
Dr. Emer Leahy received her Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from University College Dublin, Ireland, and her MBA from Columbia University. She has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and business development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including extensive knowledge of technology assessment, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning. Prior to her appointment as CEO, she was PsychoGenics’ Vice President of Business Development. In addition to the aforementioned, Dr. Leahy has served as Senior Vice President of Business Development at American Biogenetic Sciences (ABS), where she spearheaded contract negotiations and licensing agreements focusing on Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and other neurodegenerative disorders, and Vice President of Business Development, at AMBI Inc. Dr. Leahy serves on the Emerging Companies Section Governing Board for the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), as well as, the Business Review Board for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.
David A. Lowe, Ph.D., Head of Science & European Business
Dr. David Lowe most recently served as CSO and a member of the Board of Directors at Memory Pharmaceuticals, (acquired by Hoffman-La Roche Inc). Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Fidelity Biosciences and as the President and Chief Executive Officer of EnVivo Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Lowe has held senior Neuroscience R&D positions in three large pharmaceutical companies, including Sandoz Ltd (now Novartis), Bayer AG, and Roche Bioscience, where he served as the Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head, CNS. Dr. Lowe has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery and product development, initiating and implementing collaborations with Pharma, Biotech, and academia, and an established track record of generating diverse clinical candidates.
William C. Fasnacht, CFO/COO
Mr. Bill Fasnacht is a CPA with more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance and operations. Prior to joining PsychoGenics, Mr. Fasnacht served as Vice President of Finance, Worldwide Consumer Medicines and Vice President of Finance, Central and Eastern Europe for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
Mark A. Hofer, M.S., J.D., General Counsel
Mr. Mark Hofer has more than 25 years of experience in intellectual property and technology law. Prior to joining PsychoGenics, he was a partner at Brown, Rudnick, Berlack & Israels, where he initiated creation of the Intellectual Property Group. Mr. Hofer also served as General Counsel and Chief Patent Counsel for Genzyme Corporation and patent counsel for Johnson & Johnson. He is a member of the NY, NJ, MA and US Patent Bars.
Daniela Brunner, Ph.D., Sr. V.P., Behavioral Research and Development
Dr. Daniela Brunner received a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Cambridge University, England. She is affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University and possesses more than 20 years of behavioral research experience, including many years devoted to the development of mathematical models of behavior and information processing in animals. She has been involved in the development of behavioral tests for psychiatry, neurodegeneration and developmental disorders and in all behavioral high-throughput platforms at PsychoGenics.
Taleen Hanania, Ph.D., V.P., Behavioral Pharmacology
Dr. Hanania received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. She completed her post doctoral training and was a faculty member of Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Hanania has extensive pharmacology and behavior experience in all neuropsychiatric areas and has been instrumental in establishing and validating many of PsychoGenics’ behavioral tests.
Vadim Alexandrov, Ph.D., Ph.D., V.P., Informatics and IT
Dr. Vadim Alexandrov received his Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry from the University of Arizona and a subsequent Ph.D. in BioInformatics from Yale University. He has more than 15 years of experience developing analytical and machine learning models in academic and industrial settings. Dr. Alexandrov previously worked as a Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at Curagen Corporation and as a Senior Informatics Consultant at Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
Sylvie Ramboz, Ph.D., V.P., Neurodegenerative Disorders
Dr. Sylvie Ramboz received her Ph.D. in Neuropharamacology at the Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology, Strasbourg, France. Dr. Ramboz has extensive experience in the biotechnology industry, first at Memory Pharmaceuticals, then at Xenogen Biosciences Corporation before joining PsychoGenics. While at Xenogen, she was responsible for creating and phenotyping more than 70 transgenic mouse models of CNS and sexual function disorders.
Afshin Ghavami, Ph.D., V.P., Research Operations
Dr. Ghavami obtained his Ph.D. in Neuroscience, from Universite de Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, in conjugation with Columbia University. After receiving his Ph.D., he joined Memory Pharmaceuticals as Research Scientist. In May 2000, Afshin joined Wyeth’s CNS subdivision where he led, evaluated and set up assays for several drug discovery programs including PDE4, RGS, and various GPCR receptors.
Christina Leahy, M.S., Sr. Director, Quality Assurance
Ms. Christina Leahy has more than 20 years of laboratory experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, including extensive knowledge of AAALAC and IACUC procedures and Federal regulatory and compliancy requirements. Prior to joining PsychoGenics, Ms. Leahy served as Quality Assurance Auditor for Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) GLP toxicology lab. At Bristol-Myers Squibb, she worked on in vivo testing for CNS drug discovery.
