WALTHAM, Mass.– Lucy Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotech company developing proprietary mitochondrial-based small molecule therapies and biomarkers for neurological diseases, today announced the appointment of Christopher J. Winrow, Ph.D., a neuroscience and translational medicine expert, as Chief Scientific Officer. For more than 20 years, Dr. Winrow’s career in cross-functional drug discovery and development has spanned preclinical research through launch of new medicines at a range of biotech startups and global companies.
At Lucy Therapeutics, Dr. Winrow will direct drug discovery and development strategy to advance the company’s promising pipeline, particularly its proprietary preclinical compounds in Parkinson’s disease, Rett syndrome, as well as other diseases of mitochondrial dysfunction. He also will lead the development of scientific collaborations and partnerships to expand and optimize Lucy Therapeutics’ portfolio.
“Chris is a strong addition to the Lucy Therapeutics leadership team, and he is integral to our future drug development success,” said Amy Ripka, Ph.D., CEO and founder of Lucy Therapeutics, “His deep industry experience in neuroscience and translational medicine brings high-performance knowledge and skills that enhance our team and vision as we relentlessly pursue new therapeutic options for patients with mitochondrial dysfunctions.”
Dr. Winrow’s therapeutic expertise includes rare, central nervous system (CNS), and other diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, insomnia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, autism, schizophrenia, oncology and mitochondrial disorders. He has led discovery and clinical development teams for neurodegenerative, psychiatric and insomnia indications, and his advancement of compounds through target identification, lead optimization and clinical development has resulted in the launch of first-in-class CNS therapeutics. He has also served as the scientific leader for the post-launch and commercial development of drugs.
Before joining Lucy Therapeutics, Dr. Winrow was Vice President and Head of translational medicine at Cyclerion Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on drug development for serious CNS diseases. He also served as Cyclerion’s Senior Director of clinical development and neuroscience lead. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Principal Investigator at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and had extensive successes at the global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc.
“I am thrilled to join the exceptional and passionate Lucy Therapeutics team, with the critical objective to drive development of new therapies and halt CNS diseases,” said Dr. Winrow.
Dr. Winrow authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles in such journals as Nature Genetics, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Neuropharmacology, Neuroscience and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Winrow is also responsible for more than 20 external collaborations with top national and international research institutions and clinical research organizations, which lead to more than 30 publications and presentations.
Dr. Winrow completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neurodegeneration research at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies after earning a Ph.D. in cell biology and anatomy from the University of Alberta and a B.Sc. (Honors) in molecular biology and biotechnology from McMaster University.
