Asha Therapeutics www.ashatherapeutics.com announced today that it has appointed Dr. Craig Blackstone, Chief of the Movement Disorders Division at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, as Chair of its Scientific Advisory Board.
Asha Therapeutics is a neuro-centric biotechnology company designing novel compounds targeting biologically relevant pathways for treatment of diseases with high unmet medical need in neurology and neuro-oncology. Asha leverages cutting edge expertise in computational chemistry to develop therapeutics that enable the re-engineering and restoration of neurological and muscular function in disease indications including Parkinson’s Disease, ALS, Ischemic Stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, ME/CFS and Long COVID.
Dr. Blackstone received B.S./M.S. degrees from the University of Chicago and M.D./Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins. After neurology residency in the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Program, Dr. Blackstone pursued clinical fellowship training in movement disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral research training in neurobiology with Dr. Morgan Sheng at Harvard Medical School and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2001, Dr. Blackstone joined the NINDS, rising to Senior Investigator and Cell Biology Section Chief. His group investigated the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying hereditary movement disorders.
Dr. Blackstone is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and Association of American Physicians (AAP) as well as an elected Fellow and former Vice President of the American Neurological Association (ANA). He has held numerous other leadership positions in the ANA, including on its Executive Council, Education Innovation Committee, Nominations Committee, and Professional Development Committee, as well as Director of its Translational and Clinical Research Course and Chair of its Web Governance Committee. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Journal of Neuromuscular Diseases. He received the NIH Director’s Ruth L. Kirschstein Mentoring Award in 2012 and the NINDS Director’s Diversity Achievement Award in 2018.
Sam Shrivastava, Asha Therapeutics’ Founder, Chairman and CEO noted,
“Asha Therapeutics is thrilled to welcome Dr. Craig Blackstone as Chair of our SAB. His excellence, leadership, and commitment to cutting edge research transforming patient outcomes have earned Dr. Blackstone recognition as one of the preeminent medical researchers in the area of neuro-muscular diseases.
Dr. Blackstone’s contribution will be invaluable as Asha progresses its lead assets demonstrating pre-clinical efficacy in lead indications of Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, Ischemic Stroke, ME/CFS and Long COVID into clinic, and continues the successful design of novel and custom built compounds through its PRISM™ platform.”