ALS Treatment Development Expands to Include Genomic Data
Neuvivo today announced that Michael Snyder, PhD, will join the company’s Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Snyder is one of the world’s leading experts in genetics and is credited with advancing the fields of functional genomics, personalized medicine and proteomics. Since 2009 Dr. Snyder has been the Stanford Ascherman Professor and Chair of Genetics and the Director of the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine. His lab is recognized as the first to perform a large-scale functional genomics project in any organism and he is recognized for combining novel “omics” technologies to perform the first-ever longitudinal integrative personal omics profile (iPOP) of people to assess disease risk and monitor disease states for personalized medicine.
“Michael has been a leader in the understanding and application of genomics to improve both treatments and patient care and we are delighted to welcome him as a member of Neuvivo’s Scientific Advisory Board,” said Ari Azhir, PhD, Founder and CEO, Neuvivo. “We are looking forward to collaborating and applying his significant work in genomics to better understand ALS and the value of treatment candidate NP001 in people who have been diagnosed with this devastating disease.”
Seminal findings from the Snyder laboratory include the discovery that much more of the human genome is transcribed and contains regulatory information than was previously understood, and a high diversity of transcription factor binding occurs both between and within a species. Additional advancements made by Dr. Snyder and his lab include the development of proteome chips, high resolution tiling arrays for the entire human genome, methods for global mapping of transcription factor binding sites, paired end sequencing for mapping of structural variation in eukaryotes, de novo genome sequencing of genomes using high throughput technologies, and RNA-Seq.
“I am looking forward to working with the team at Neuvivo as the company is fully committed to understanding ALS at every level, and to developing a cure for one of the worst imaginable, yet least well-studied diseases,” said Michael Snyder, PhD. “By further applying a range of genomic tools, there are likely to be significant gains in our knowledge base around ALS.”
“We’re excited about Dr. Snyder’s approach to understanding the genes expressed in ALS pathogenesis and the interface with our Phase 2 clinical trial findings. Data showing NP001-mediated slowing of respiratory dysfunction in all trial patients, and arresting ALSFRS-R progression in a subset of patients, may help identify genetic processes that are drug-responsive at an early vs. later stage,” said Michael McGrath, Founder and CSO, Neuvivo.
Dr. Snyder is a cofounder of a number of biotechnology companies, including Protometrix (now part of Life Technologies), Affomix (now part of Illumina), Excelix, Personalis, Qbio, January AI and Mirvie, and he presently serves on the board of a number of companies. He gained his BA, Chemistry and Biology, from University of Rochester, NY and his PhD from the California Institute of Technology. He did Postdoctoral Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine under Dr. Ronald Davis. He was in the Dept of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT prior to his appointment at Stanford. He is the author of “Genomics and Personalized Medicine: What Everyone Needs to Know”.
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