Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Stanford University, Stanford, CA	BS	1997	Biological Sciences
UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA	MD	2002	Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA		2003	Internship, Internal Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA		2006	Residency, Neurology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA		2007	Fellowship, Movement Disorders
Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA	MMSc	2010	Clinical Investigation

My academic career focuses on innovation in clinical assessment of and novel neurotherapeutics for people with essential tremor (ET) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). I started the multidisciplinary Deep Brain Stimulation Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which was the first hospital in New England to offer this therapy and one of the first centers to have established standardized assessments pre- and post-surgery.

Because of my experience treating people with ET long-term with DBS, I developed a particular interest in the diagnosis, clinical management of and novel therapies for essential tremor. I made the clinical observation that patients treated long-term with DBS start to develop a decline in benefit, the reasons for which have implications for questions concerning the pathology and natural history of ET. I started tremor surveillance in the Framingham Heart Study, the longest-running NIH-funded epidemiologic cohort, and started the Essential Tremor Biomarkers Cohort at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. I also led the development and validation of a patient-reported clinical outcome assessment for ET, The Essential Tremor Rating and Assessment Scale Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (TETRAS PRO), based upon the international gold standard for rating severity of tremor. I serve on eligibility adjudication committees for global ET clinical trials, serve on the Medical Advisory Board for the International Essential Tremor Foundation.

In order to gain further experience in neurotherapeutics, I worked in research and development in the biotech industry from 2017-2020, implementing digital outcome assessments alongside traditional clinical and biomarker endpoints in clinical trials for movement disorders. I developed an antisense oligonucleotide drug development program for LRRK2-associated PD and spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA1, SCA2 and SCA3). I oversaw a global phase 2 study of an alpha-synuclein monoclonal antibody for PD (cinpanemab), including the evaluation and selection of biomarkers and both traditional and digital outcome assessments to monitor disease progression. I designed a phase 1/2 clinical study and successfully submitted the Investigational New Drug Application to the FDA for an antisense oligonucleotide therapy targeting the LRRK2 gene.

In light of my expertise in these areas, I have served as grant reviewer at NIH and other granting foundations on applications related to PD, ET, gait disorders, or neuromodulation. I continue to consult for biotech, pharmaceutical, medical technology, and device companies in the early phases of their scientific and product development, serving on clinical trials steering committees and scientific advisory boards, particularly with respect to ET and disease-modification drugs for PD. I am the Co-Chair of the Scientific Program Committee and the President-Elect for the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT).

My clinical practice consists of evaluation and ongoing treatment of a broad array of movement disorders including tremor disorders, Parkinson's disease, and dystonia, with expertise in the use of deep brain stimulation as therapy for these disorders.

• Essential Tremor
• Parkinson's disease
• Clinical Trials as Topic
• Clinical Outcome Assessments