Michael Hutton, PhD
Michael Hutton joined Eli Lilly as Chief Scientific Officer for Neurodegenerative Disease in 2009 and was appointed UK Site Scientific Leader in 2012. He is based at Lilly’s Research Centre in Surrey, England and leads drug discovery for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Fronto-temporal Dementia. Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s program has delivered multiple drug candidates to clinical development including an anti-amyloid antibody (solanezumab) that was recently reported to slow cognitive decline in mild AD in Phase 3, for the first time, and BACE1 inhibitors that block the production of Abeta. The Lilly Alzheimer’s portfolio also includes programs focused on tau and symptomatic therapies.
Prior to joining Lilly, Dr Hutton worked at Merck (2yrs) and at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (11yrs) as Professor of Neuroscience. During his time at Mayo, Dr Hutton’s team played a major role in determining the causes of Fronto-temporal Dementia with the discovery mutations in tau and progranulin and the mechanism by which these lead to neurodegeneration. His team developed key animal models that have underpinned much of the research on the role of tau in Alzheimer’s Disease over the past 10 years and he has published extensively on the mechanism by which tau causes neurodegeneration. Dr Hutton was awarded the Potamkin and Metlife Prizes in 2000 and 2001 respectively for his work on Alzheimer’s Disease and Fronto-temporal Dementia. He has published over 250 papers in peer reviewed journals and is a regular invited speaker at international conferences on Alzheimer’s Disease and related Neurodegenerative conditions.