Christopher Wheeler
For more than 20 years, Dr. Christopher Wheeler has served as a professor and research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. One of the country’s top researchers and scientists in the area of brain tumor immunology, immunotherapy and neurological diseases, Dr. Wheeler was inspired by his mother’s early-onset AD to start a series of experiments that ultimately led to his technology that forms the basis for the science behind TNeuroPharma. Dr. Wheeler serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, bringing his decades of scientific research in this complex area and his research into the role of T-cells in neurodegenerative diseases to TNeuroPharma. Dr. Wheeler has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, including being featured on multiple journal covers throughout the years, and has received numerous honors for his scientific research and findings. He has received grants from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and NIH, several private foundations and donors (Milken, Mashouf, Jos. Drown, Uncle Kory, Precision Medicine). He received his BA in Biological Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, his PhD. in Immunology at the University of California, Berkeley and his postdoc in Immunology from Stanford University.
Keerthy Sunder
Keerthy Sunder, MD, is a leading double-board certified psychiatrist and the Chief Medical Officer of Karma Doctors & Associates, which has locations in Palm Desert and the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He has over 20 years of experience and is committed to providing you with the most innovative and comprehensive treatment available. Dr. Sunder’s exciting approach to integrated psychiatry seeks to forge an empowering and collaborative patient experience rooted in advanced, scientifically proven modalities. He and the dedicated and caring team of practitioners at Karma Doctors & Associates work with you to customize a tailor-made plan that will specifically address your personalized goals and needs. They believe it’s time for a paradigm shift in psychiatry. Simply being “not depressed” or “not anxious” is no longer a high enough standard to shoot for. They can do better. Happiness, fulfillment, and thriving through everyday life should be the goal. Integrative psychiatry addresses the power of the mind and the chemistry of the brain to deliver powerful and optimized results.
Amin Kassam
Over the past two decades, Dr. Kassam has been the Chairman or led four Neurosurgery programs; pioneered and globally taught novel surgical procedures; founded or held leadership roles in several technology start-up companies; and, has held executive health care administration leadership roles needed to translate these innovations through Integrated Service Line delivery models. He is the Founder and CEO of Neeka Enterprises and recently served as the Chief Scientific Strategist, VP Neurosciences, and Chairman of Neurological Surgery for AdvocateAurora Health Care. Grounded on a unique active clinical practice, Dr. Kassam has developed an exceptional experience in minimally invasive Neurosurgery. Having led teams that performed many of the first-in-man procedures, he remains a global destination surgeon. Dr. Kassam has published over 320 peer-reviewed articles, 3 textbooks, 80 book chapters, given over 250 lectures globally and served as a distinguished guest for multiple international meetings and societies. He has an H-index of 70, RG-impact score of 47 (98th percentile), and his work has been cited over 18,000 times. He authored the 1st and 3rd most cited article in his field over the past decade and published a sentinel atlas of the human subcortical network: “The White Matter Chassis” which was placed on the 2017 Pantheon list. Over the past year, Dr. Kassam has focused on completing a Neuro-oncology textbook and on his role as the Chief Medical Officer for the National Hockey League Alumni Association. His team will be launching a trial examining Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and quality of life of the Alumni via a purpose-built digital wellness platform to enhance self-efficacy and peer-to-peer connectivity. This represents one of the largest decentralized multinational virtual trials in this cohort. The machine learning enhanced platforms from this trial will be foundational for more generalized trials anticipated over the years in broader populations, such as Veterans and other vulnerable cohorts subject to health equity disparities. Additionally, with the emergence of the pandemic, Dr. Kassam has focused on resource optimization. Dr. Kassam’s team of data science engineers created and published AI-infused tools including web-based multi-parametric predictive COVID modeling that anticipate surges, hospital bed capacity and inform strategic planning. The team has further built a responsive four step econometric algorithm and a series of integrated tools at the DRG level that focus on strategic pandemic institutional recovery plans and quality-metric based performance measurements. Dr. Kassam has developed a broad network, including being appointed as the National Hockey League Alumni Association CMO, econometrics and optics consultant for Stryker Corporation, as well as, recently partnering with JLL Property Investments to create the next generation life sciences ecosystem. This broad and deep range combined with a track record of implementing purpose-built patient-centric Integrated Service Lines across diverse ecosystems, positions him to not only provide direct patient care, but also, be uniquely capable of providing data-driven, predictive clinical and economic insights to optimize resources during a time of unprecedented need both for patient care and academic pursuit. Dr. Kassam has emerged as a strategic thinker that can work across multiple disciplines and bring people together to make meaningful change in the service of patients.
Marcos Wagner de Souza Porto
Giulio Maria Passineti
He is currently the Program Director of the NIH funded Mount Sinai Center for Molecular Integrative Neuroresilience and the Chief of the Brain Institute Center of Excellence for Novel Approaches to Neurodiagnostics and Neurotherapeutics. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry, of Neuroscience, and of Geriatrics and Adult Development. Dr. Pasinetti is the recipient of several academic awards including the prestigious Zenith and Temple awards from the Alzheimer’s Association. Most recently, Dr. Pasinetti was awarded ”The Faculty Council Award” for academic excellence at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and “The Charles Dana Alliance for Brain Research Award” from Dana Foundation, recognizing productivity and worldwide leadership in his field of expertise, which further emphasizes his standing as an academic role model. Neurology, PROFESSOR | Psychiatry, PROFESSOR | Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, PROFESSOR | NeuroscienceResearch Topics Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Epigenetics, Genetics, Genomics, Inflammation, Memory, Microglia, Molecular Biology, Neuro-degeneration/protection, Neurobiology, Neurology, Neuroscience, Obesity, Oxidative Stress, Parkinson’s Disease, Psychiatry, Transcriptional Activation and Repression, Transgenic Mice
Melissa King
Melissa was previously Executive Director of Americans for Cures, where, for the three years leading up to November 2020 she led the effort to lay the groundwork for Prop 14 and build the patient advocacy coalition needed to get the state ballot initiative passed. In 2020, she was Head of Field Operations for California’s Proposition 14 campaign, which secured an additional $5.5 Billion in funds for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Long before her work on Prop 14, Melissa served as a senior member of the successful 2004 campaign for California’s Proposition 71, which created the CIRM and the California stem cell program. She hired the first several key employees at CIRM to become the very first pioneers of the new state funding agency. Melissa played a central role in the formation and building of CIRM, the unique $3 billion research funding agency created by Prop 71. During the first seven years of CIRM’s operation, she worked hand-in-hand with agency Chair and its founding 29-member governing Board responsible for setting the strategic vision for the agency, as well as developing the processes and policies by which CIRM stil operates. Melissa guided CIRM’s Board through its first 1500+ hours of public meetings, the sale of the first bonds to fund the agency, as well as the development and awarding of the first billion dollars in grants, which included the Facilities Grant Program that leveraged $271 million of CIRM’s funds to attract $880 million in other support which directly contributed to $1 billion in scientific research facilities in California. Having worked on both campaigns to create and obtain funds for CIRM, Melissa is now focused on the vision of improved healthspan for all. She works to support the continued success of the research, ensuring that access and affordability of treatments is fully addressed, and the need for more diversity in science, medical research and clinical trials. She serves as a volunteer mentor for SHE CAN, mentoring a young woman scholar from Libera now attending college in the US. She is a board member at Summit for Stem Cell Foundation, serves as Chair of Regions for Wellesley College Friends of Art and is a member and past Chair of the Wellesley Business Leadership Council. Melissa has a B.A. from Wellesley College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.