Melanie Leitner currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for the ALS Investment Fund (a life sciences VC) and is the founder of Accelerating NeuroVentures, LLC, a solo consulting practice providing strategic, programmatic and business development services to investors, biopharma, and nonprofit clients interested in funding, initiating or advancing programs within the neuroscience translational space. Prior to launching Accelerating NeuroVentures, Leitner was Chief Scientific Officer at the ALS nonprofit Prize4Life, and she has also held director positions at Biogen and at the nonprofit organizations FasterCures and the Society for Neuroscience. Earlier in her career she was a member of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s Health staff. Leitner was awarded a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowship and a Lucille P. Markey Fellowship for her Ph.D. work at Washington University, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an Sc.B. from Brown University — all in the field of neuroscience.