Nikolaos Tezapsidis, PhD
Dr. Tezapsidis founded Neurotez in 2004 and is serving as Neurotez's president and chief executive officer since its formation and Chairman of Neurotez's newly formed Board of Directors. Having held several positions at a number of prominent academic institutions, Dr. Tezapsidis has more than 18 years of international biomedical research experience. Prior to forming Neurotez, Dr. Tezapsidis served as a scientific consultant to biotechnology investors, providing highly regarded expertise and establishing a business network.
Throughout his career, he has directed the planning and development of a number of innovative research programs that hold exceptional promise for commercialization. From 2001 to 2004 he led a research group at Columbia University. Before joining Columbia University Dr. Tezapsidis held faculty positions at New York University Medical School (2000-2001) and at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), New York (1997-1998) and was Laboratory Director at the Institute for Basic Research, New York (1998-2000). He also conducted mentored research at MSSM (1994-1997), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda (1992-1994) and at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, UK (1990-1992).
Among his career honors he received two awards from the Alzheimer's Association, USA and fellowships from the Wellcome Trust and the Science and Engineering Council, UK.
Dr. Tezapsidis received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the Aristotle University, Greece and completed his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry at the University of Sussex, UK.
Mark A. Smith, PhD
Dr. Smith became the chief scientific officer at Neurotez in 2006. He is a Professor of Pathology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). His research expertise includes: Aging, Alzheimer disease, Cell cycle control, Cytoskeletal organization, Neurodegeneration and Oxidative stress. Prior to joining CWRU in 1992, he worked for Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company, Austria and he obtained his PhD from Nottingham University, UK. Dr. Smith has been consultant to a number of corporations, including Voyager Pharmaceuticals (with a candidate drug for AD in phase III clinical trials), Panacea Pharmaceuticals and CombiMatrix and serves or has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Legendary Pharmaceuticals, Adlyfe, and BrainWatchers. Dr. Smith has authored nearly 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters over the past decade and serves on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He is the recipient of several awards including the Ruth Salta Junior Investigator Achievement Award from the American Health Assistance Foundation, Young Scientist Lectureship Award from the International Society for Neurochemistry, the Nathan Shock New Investigator Award from The Gerontological Society of America, the Zenith Award from the Alzheimer's Association, the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society of Neurochemistry, and the Hermann-Esterbauer Award from the HNE Society.
Jane M. Johnston, PhD
Dr. Johnston is the executive director of Research and Development at Neurotez and has held this position since the company was incorporated in 2005. Dr Johnston is regarded an expert in neural repair and imaging with 15 years of research experience in cellular neuroscience.
Prior to joining Neurotez, she was a consultant for Johnson & Johnson. She has held a number of research positions including principal investigator at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York and was a Visiting Fellow at the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, at the NIH. She has authored numerous scientific publications and developed educational materials for the biomedical sciences.
Dr. Johnston obtained her Ph.D. from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London.
Eugene J. Oliva, MBA
Mr. Eugene Oliva is acting chief financial officer of Neurotez since 2006. He was chief financial officer of Neurotez from 2005 to 2006. Mr. Oliva has 20 years experience in business financing. His expertise include Senior Secured Lending, Mergers and Acquisition, Mezzanine and Equity Sponsors, Due Diligence and Credit Approval, Syndicated Participations, Profit and Loss Management.
Prior to joining Neurotez, Mr. Oliva held positions at Fortis Capital Corporation as the Senior Vice President - Global Corporate Group of between 2001 and 2002 and Vice President - Acquisition & Leveraged Finance between 1996 and 2001.
Before joining Fortis, Mr. Oliva was at Merril Lynch & Company, Inc between 1985 and 1995 where he developed a data management system for the Winthrop H. Smith Memorial Foundation.
Mr. Oliva received an MBA –Executive program from Columbia University.
James F. Lynch, PhD, MBA
Dr. James Lynch became the chief business officer of Neurotez in 2007. Dr. Lynch has spent over 20-years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of entrepreneurial and operational roles within start-up, large pharma and consulting arenas. Dr. Lynch’s expertise spans specialty pharma start-up; business development and licensing; new product commercialization; corporate strategy planning; organizational planning & growth.
Previously, Dr. Lynch was Vice President, Global Business Development at Savient Pharmaceuticals, and in 2000, Dr. Lynch was a founding member of Reliant Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Reliant, Dr. Lynch was Associate Director of Business Development and Strategic Planning at Hoffmann-La Roche. From 1995 to 1998, Dr. Lynch was a Managing Consultant within the pharmaceutical practice of PA Consulting Group, a UK-based technology consulting firm, where he directed global projects for pharmaceutical clients focusing on portfolio planning, drug development, capacity/capabilities assessment and outsourcing. From 1986 to 1995, Dr. Lynch was at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corporation (now Novartis) where he held a variety of operational & strategic roles of increasing responsibility in R&D, new products, licensing, and project management.
Dr. Lynch is on the Scientific Advisory Board at PhytoMedical Technologies and is an Advisor to the Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF), Rutgers University. Dr. Lynch is a member of Licensing Executives Society, Venture Association of New Jersey, Biotechnology Council of New Jersey and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.
Dr. Lynch received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Siena College, and completed Masters and Doctoral degrees in Inorganic Chemistry at Seton Hall University, and a Masters in Business Administration at Columbia University.
J. Wesson Ashford, MD, PhD
Dr. Wes Ashford became the chief medical officer of Neurotez in 2007. Dr. Ashford is Senior Research Scientist at the Stanford / VA Alzheimer Center. He is involved in the coordination of several clinical trials sponsored by the NIH and corporations. He previously served as the Lead Investigator in the PET scan project and the first double-blind study of a cholinesterase inhibitor to treat Alzheimer's Disease among others. Dr. Ashford is leading an international group of scientists to advocate for wide-spread screening for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. He has been developing dementia measurement tools and screening tests that can be used for early detection of this prevalent condition and applied to the rapid and precise assessment of the efficacy of experimental treatments. Prior to joining Stanford/ VA in 2003, he served as faculty at Southern Illinois University, the University of California, Davis, and the University of Kentucky, reaching the rank of tenured Associate Professor. He also directed the Geriatric Psychiatry Clinic at UCLA between 1980 and 1985 and the Lexington VAMC Memory Disorders Clinic.
His seminal work includes application of the basic physical principle of Relative-Time to dementia severity measurement, extended to the fields of Alzheimer’s disease and genetics. In addition, he originally proposed the now widely accepted theory of neuroplasticity as the vulnerable factor in Alzheimer’s disease. In 1989 he conceived the first application of Modern Test Theory in the field of Medicine using Item Characteristic Curve analysis to explain the properties of a cognitive test that has been popular for measuring dementia severity. Earlier, his PhD dissertation was a finalist for the Donald B. Lindsley Prize of the Society for Neuroscience, as the first to show physiologically how the brain uses massive parallel distributed processing to analyze information.
Dr. Ashford attended UCLA attaining an M.D. degree, a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and finishing his psychiatry residency. He obtained his BA from the University of California, Berkeley.
