Clinical Consultants

David Brooks, MD DSc FRCP FMed Sci

Dr. Brooks is Hartnett professor of neurology in the division of neuroscience, faculty of medicine, Imperial College, London.  He is also head of the neurology g group at the Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, London. Additionally, he is chief medical officer of Imanet, GE Healthcare PLC.

He is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease Research, the UK Medical Research Council Neuroscience and Mental Health Board, the Research Advisory Panel of the UK Parkinson’s Disease Society (Chairman 1996-7), and UK Huntington’s Disease Association.  He was Chairman of the Scientific Issues Committee of the Movement Disorder Society 1998-2002 and of the Council of Management of the UK Parkinson’s Disease Society 1997-8.

Dr. Brook’s research involves the use of positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging to diagnose and study the progression of Alzheimers and Parkinsons Disease and their validation of biomarkers therapeutic trials. To date, he has published over 250 reports in peer reviewed journals, including Nature, and his research is currently supported by grants from the UK Medical Research Council, the UK Wellcome Trust, Michael J. Fox Foundation, UK Parkinson’s Disease Society and the pharmaceutical industry.

David Greenwood PhD

Dr. Greenwood is a neuropsychopharmacologist, who specializes in both the discovery and clinical development of drugs, targeting the central nervous system (CNS).  He is a director and co-founder of Marix Drug Development, a United Kingdom-based drug development consultancy and clinical research organization, where he served as chief operations officer between 2001-2004.

From 1995 to 1999, David was director, CNS projects, at Shire Pharmaceuticals, and during the previous 25 years, he held various senior positions in Zeneca and the former ICI Pharmaceuticals, including clinical pharmacology studies manager and  in-house phase I unit operations manager, CNS clinical projects manager and CNS preclinical project leader.

David is an elected fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, the Institute of Biology, the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) and the Royal Society of Medicine. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree (Hons) and doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of St Andrew’s, Scotland.

Peter Jenner, PhD DSc

Professor Jenner is a director of the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Centre and the National Parkinson’s Foundation Centre of Excellence in the UK. He leads a 20-strong internationally-recognized research team that focus on the cause, treatment and cure of Parkinson's disease. In particular, he has contributed significantly to the concept of oxidative stress as a cause of the progression of nigral cell death in Parkinson's disease. In addition, he has been responsible for developing novel compounds for the treatment of Parkinson's disease and the avoidance of dyskinesia through the use of experimental models of the illness.

Until 2004, Professor Jenner was head of the division of pharmacology & therapeutics in the Guy's, King's & St Thomas' School of Biomedical Sciences at King's College London.

He has published more than 400 papers in peer reviewed journals, written in excess of 100 review articles and book chapters and written or edited numerous monographs. He is a member of the Medical Advisory Panel of the Parkinson's disease Society of the United Kingdom and Chief Scientific Officer of Proximagen, a biotechnology company spun out of King’s College London.

Patrick Nef, PhD

Professor Nef brings several years of international experience in CNS preclinical research and business development from the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Recently, he served as chief executive officer of Faust Pharmaceuticals, a CNS start-up biotech company headquartered in Strasbourg, France, with a phase II clinical development program and a G protein-coupled receptor technology platform. Professor Nef also served as chief scientific officer and chief business officer of Xytis Inc, a Swiss CNS start-up with a clinical phase II compound for traumatic brain injury.

Previously, he was vice-president and global director at Roche Pharma Partnering in Switzerland, where he was in charge of the in-licensing and alliance management for research & technology and early clinical compound assessment in certain disease areas.

John Posner, PhD FRCP

Dr. Posner has worked as a consultant for several years with the largest multi-national and small national pharmaceutical and biotech companies on a wide variety of projects.  These include contributing to the strategy of drug development and portfolio analysis, devising and executing early development plans for new molecular entities and designing and overseeing conduct of first in human, pharmacokinetic and proof of principle phase I and II studies. He has also authored numerous clinical overviews and supporting documents for product license applications in the United States, Europe and Australia and advised companies on regulatory strategy at various stages of drug development.

From 1996 to 1999, he served as medical director and subsequently chief executive officer of BIOS (consultancy & contract research). Previously he was international director of clinical study units, at GlaxoWellcome and head of clinical pharmacology at The Wellcome Foundation for 10 years.

Dr. Posner is a board certified physician in internal medicine, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) and of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and is an executive editor of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.