Dr. Maurizio Fava, MD

Dr. Fava is a world leader in the field of depression. He has edited eight books and authored or co-authored more than 900 original articles published in medical journals with international circulation, articles which have been cited more than 85,000 times in the literature and with an h index of over 140. Dr. Fava founded and was director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program from 1990 until 2014. Under Dr. Fava’s direction, the Depression Clinical and Research Program became one of the most highly regarded depression programs in the country, a model for academic programs that link, in a bi-directional fashion, clinical and research work. In 2007, he also founded and is now the executive director of the MGH Psychiatry Clinical Trials Network and Institute, the first academic CRO specialized in the coordination of multi-center clinical trials in psychiatry. Dr. Fava has been successful in obtaining funding as principal or co-principal investigator from both the National Institutes of Health and other sources for a total of more than $120 million. Dr. Fava’s prominence in the field is reflected in his role as the co-principal investigator of STAR*D, the largest research study ever conducted in the area of depression, and of the RAPID Network, the NIMH-funded series of studies of novel, rapidly-acting antidepressant therapies. Dr. Fava has also developed with Dr. David Schoenfeld a novel design (with over five patents), the sequential parallel comparison design (SPCD), to address the problem of excessive placebo response in drug trials and to markedly reduce sample size requirements for these trials. He is also the former President of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Professor Ryan Donnelly, PhD, MBA
​Scientific and Technical Advisor

Professor Ryan Donnelly is the Chair of Pharmaceutical Technology at QUB. He is a leading expert and researcher in the field of transdermal delivery with a primary focus on microneedle drug delivery and its applications on improving therapeutic outcomes for patients. He has authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications, including several granted patents, 5 textbooks and approximately 250 full papers. His work has attracted numerous awards, including the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences Innovative Science Award in 2020, the Controlled Release Society Young Investigator Award in 2016, BBSRC Innovator of the Year in 2013, the GSK Emerging Scientist Award in 2012 and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Science Award in 2011. He graduated with a B.Sc. degree in pharmacy (1999) and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutics (2003) from QUB

Dr. Robert Hauser, MD, MBA
​Scientific and Clinical Advisor (Parkinson's disease)

Dr. Robert Hauser is Professor of Neurology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, in Tampa, Florida. He serves as Director of the USF Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center, a Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence. Dr. Hauser earned a medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed neurology training at the Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine, in Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Hauser completed a fellowship in Movement Disorders at the University of South Florida and became Center Director in 1994. Dr. Hauser has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and is one of the world's most cited Parkinson's Disease investigators. He is Past Chairman of the Interventional Neurology Section of the American Academy of Neurology, has served on the executive committee of the Parkinson Study Group, and was a member of the steering committee for the NIH sponsored Neuroprotective Exploratory Trials in Parkinson's Disease program (NET-PD). Dr. Hauser lectures frequently at scientific meetings and served as Chairman of the 2009 World Federation of Neurology International Congress on Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. He has extensive expertise in clinical trial design and execution. Outcome measures that he developed have become the gold standard for use in clinical trials.

Dr. Alberto Espay, MD
Scientific and Clinical Advisor (Parkinson's disease)

Dr. Alberto Espay, MD, is professor and endowed chair of the University of Cincinnati James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders. He trained in neurology at Indiana University as well as in clinical and electrophysiology of movement disorders at the University of Toronto, where he obtained a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and healthcare research. A prolific researcher and author, Dr. Espay has published more than 250 peer-reviewed research articles, 25 book chapters and seven books. His most recent is the first targeting the general public, Brain Fables.  Dr. Espay has served as chair of the Movement Disorders Section of the American Academy of Neurology; associate editor of Movement Disorders, the official journal of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society (MDS); and in the executive committee of the Parkinson Study Group. He currently serves as chair of MDS Technology Task Force and as secretary of the Pan-American Section of the MDS. Dr. Espay is also an honorary member of the Mexican Academy of Neurology.