Cognosci, Inc. -- About Cognosci

About Us Management Advisors Grants Contact Us

APOE and Human Disease APOE and Inflammation Cognosci APOE Compounds Publications

Multiple Sclerosis Traumatic Brain Injury Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Rheumatoid Arthritis Ischemic Stroke Sepsis Alzheimer’s Disease Parkinson’s Disease

Multiple Sclerosis Alzheimer’s Disease Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

About Us

Cognosci Inc. was founded in May 2000 to develop anti-inflammatory compounds for treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's Disease, and Traumatic Brain Injuries. Each of these disorders has a pharmacogenomic linkage to the apolipoprotein E (APOE) protein and people with the ε4 allele typically suffer worse outcomes. brain Based on these findings, scientists from Duke University created novel APOE-based compounds that have potent anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities.

Cognosci has purchased all rights to these compounds from Duke and has performed extensive lead optimization and preclinical development programs and is now poised to enter human clinical trials. Optimized compounds have been shown to be efficacious in predictive animal models of Multiple Sclerosis, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Cognosci is currently seeking $12-15 million in Series A venture funding in order to complete final preclinical toxicology studies, Phase I clinical trials, and to initiate Phase II proof of principle trials.

Management Team

Mike Vitek, Ph.D. - Founder, Director, President, and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Vitek is an Associate Professor at Duke University Medical Center, Department of Neurobiology and the Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology. He previously worked at Glaxo-Wellcome (originally at Burroughs-Wellcome), Lederle Laboratories, and Hoffmann-LaRoche. Dr. Vitek received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Dartmouth Medical School and specializes in Alzheimer's disease research and mechanisms of neurodegeneration with over 80 published research articles and several patents.

Dale Christensen Ph.D. - Director, Vice President of Research and Business Development
Dr. Christensen has 10 years of research experience at the interface of chemistry and biology, with senior positions at Affinergy Inc., Aryzun Pharmaceuticals, and KaroBio USA, formerly Novalon Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Christensen received his B.S. in Chemistry from Utah State University, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Utah. He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at Texas A&M University. He has published many papers and is a named inventor on numerous patents and patent applications in drug discovery.

Advisors

Bruce Trapp, Ph.D. - Multiple Sclerosis Mechanism Consultant
Dr. Bruce D. Trapp is Chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Professor of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University and The Ohio State University. Dr. Trapp received his Ph.D. in anatomy from Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Neuropathology and Neuroanatomical Sciences and the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. He was also Assistant Professor, and subsequently Associate Professor, of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and 25 book chapters.

Dr. Trapp holds numerous multiyear grants from various funding institutions. His research involves the pathobiology of neurological disability in multiple sclerosis patients and the cellular and molecular biology of myelination in the central and peripheral nervous systems. He is the recipient of the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society of Neurochemistry, The Weil Award from the American Association of Neuropathologists, a Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), the Jacob Javits Award in Neuroscience from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the John Dystel Prize for MS Research from the American Academy of Neurology and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Paul O'Connor, M.D.- Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Trial Design and Performance
Dr. O'Connor is a neurologist who heads up the MS Clinic at St. Michael's Hospital as well as the MS Program in the Division of Neurology at the University of Toronto. He is also Neurology Division Chief at St. Michael's Hospital. His chief research interest is in the discovery and development of new treatments for MS, including pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical approaches. He is a world-authority on the design and implementation of clinical trials in MS and currently serves as lead-investigator or on the steering committee of several new agents for MS treatment including natalizumab and teriflunomide.

Dr. O'Connor has a vast experience with the clinical aspects of MS and directs one of the largest and most clinically active MS centers in the world. Along with providing leadership to the clinic service and research staff, he runs a very busy MS practice and evoked potential diagnostic facility. He received his MD and MSc degree from the University of Toronto and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Neurology in 1985.

Bruce K. Burnett, Ph.D., RAC - Quality Control and Regulatory Affairs Consultant
Dr. Bruce Burnett has over 15 years of pharmaceutical experience. He is currently the VP at AlphaVax. He has held several positions at Biogen-Idec, including the regulatory lead for a recently approved MS drug. He also held a management position in Quality Control at Genetics Institute (now Wyeth). Dr. Burnett received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego, his doctoral degree in chemistry from MIT, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Genetics at Harvard University. Dr. Burnett also has Regulatory Affairs Certification in both US and EU regulations.

Daniel T. Laskowitz, M.D. - Neurotrauma Critical Care Consultant
Dr. Laskowitz is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Neurology), with cross-appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology, Anesthesiology, and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Laskowitz is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine (1991) and Brown University (1987), where he majored in Neuroscience. After completing his Neurology Residency at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, he returned to Duke to complete fellowship training in Neurocritical Care and Stroke. He has remained active in both laboratory-based and clinical research, and completed his Masters of Health Science in Clinical Research in 2003.

Dr. Laskowitz is an attending Physician on the Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit that treats patients with life-threatening neurological diseases such as stroke, trauma, and intracranial hemorrhage. Dr. Laskowitz also heads a laboratory that uses molecular biology, cell culture, and animal modeling techniques to examine the CNS response to acute injury. These results are translated to clinically relevant small animal models with the ultimate goal of exploring new therapeutic interventions in the clinical setting of stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and closed head injury.

Grants

To date, Cognosci has funded all research activities using Small Business Innovation Resource (SBIR grants from the National Institutes of Health). These grants have funded optimization of lead compounds and preclinical efficacy testing using $7.5+ million in Phase I and Phase II grants as follows:

ACTIVE

Grant Number

Type

Project Title

2R44NS048689-02

Phase II SBIR

Enhancing Peptide Delivery to the Brain

2R44AG020473-02A1

Phase II SBIR

Neuroprotective Apolipoprotein-E Analogs

1R43AI072864-01

Phase I SBIR