What/when were you at Brown?
Undergraduate. 1986-1990.
What do you do now? Provide a brief description of what you do for a living and what drives you professionally.
I am the Global Head of Neuroscience at Novartis and a former Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University. I direct a team of scientists and clinicians dedicated to making medicines to treat serious diseases of the nervous system. Our team is leading the way in developing treatments for migraine, Alzheimer's disease, addiction, schizophrenia, spinal muscular atrophy and other devastating neurological and psychiatric diseases. Over a decade, we developed the technology to use patient-derived human neurons and brain organoids for disease modeling and drug discovery. I am driven by my deep commitment to developing treatments that will transform the lives of patients and families.
How did your experience at Brown (in the lab, in the classroom, and in the Brown community) prepare you for what you do today?
Brown was one of the only places to offer an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and had young faculty that were committed to undergraduate (and graduate) education. It's unlikely that I would have dedicated my life to neuroscience if I had not attended Brown. Mark Bear, John Donoghue, Jim Anderson, and Barry Connors were my favorite professors and Connie Bowe was my advisor and mentor. They all played a key role in directing me towards a career in basic and translational Neuroscience.