Roger Nitsch, MD
Roger M. Nitsch, MD is the President and a founder of Neurimmune, a bio-pharmaceutical company focussing on the development of antibody-based treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. The most advanced drug candidate Aducanumab is being developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in collaboration with Biogen (Cambridge, MA) in two large phase 3 clinical trials since July 2015. Neurimmune’s antibody targeting alpha-synuclein (BIIB054) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, acquird by Biogen, is in phase 1 clinical trials. Roger M. Nitsch is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, and Director at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine (IREM). He also serves as Director at the Hospital for Psychogeriatric Medicine at the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich.
A neuroscientist with a background in medicine, he is recognized as a pioneer of disease-modifying therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases with more than 30 years of experience in Alzheimer’s disease research. His main research focus is the immunotherapy of neuro-degenerative diseases. He spearheaded the development of Aducanumab, a human antibody for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to his position at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, Roger M. Nitsch held research positions at M.I.T. (Cambridge, MA) and MGH / Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA), and was a Group Leader at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at University of Hamburg, Germany. He was a fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, received an M.D. from University of Heidelberg Medical School followed by Habilitation in Neurobiochemistry at University of Heidelberg. Roger M. Nitsch serves as an Executive Organizer of the International Conferences on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, the AD/PD meetings, and is the Editor-in-Chief for Neurodegenerative Diseases (Karger, Basel). He is an elected member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, received the Potamkin Award for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases, as well as the Chairman’s Award of Excellence from the American Federation for Aging Research.