HNF is excited to announce that Dr. Lucia Notterpek will Take the Reins as HNF’s New Chief Scientific Officer.
Dr. Lucia Notterpek is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from UCLA and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Neurobiology at Stanford University. Dr. Notterpek has spent more than two decades on Charcot-Marie- Tooth (CMT) research, and has been intimately involved as a Scientific Advisory Board Member with HNF for the past five years. In fact, Lucia was the first scientist to establish a relationship with HNF back in 2001.
Dr. Notterpek’s primary research on hereditary neuropathies dates back to the mid 90’s when under the direction of Dr. Eric Shooter at Stanford University she studied the PMP22 protein, which causes CMT1A. Dr. Shooter was one of the key scientists in elucidatingthe linkage of PMP22 to a host of hereditary neuropathies. Dr. Notterpek’s laboratory at the University of Florida continues to investigate the normal function of PMP22 in peripheral nerves. Another major effort of her work is to facilitate the development of effective therapies for demyelinating hereditary neuropathies, including CMT1A, HNPP and congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy, also known as Dejerine-Sottas syndrome (DSS). Dr. Notterpek’s therapeutic approaches for CMT include small molecule enhancers of protein degradation and protein folding, and miRNAmediated gene suppression. Her laboratory is also interested in understanding the influence of total caloric intake and dietary lipids on peripheral nerve function and neuropathy progression.
Dr. Notterpek will oversee HNF’s Therapeutic Research in Accelerated Discovery (TRIAD) program and will work closely with HNF’s CEO, Allison Moore, on existing and new industry stakeholder partnerships. Dr. Notterpek has been instrumental in connecting HNF to the University of Florida and the designation of University of Florida as an HNF Center of Excellence in 2016, as well as bringing the first CMT clinical trial (Pharnext pivotal PXT3003 Phase 3) to the University.
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