January 2010
In this Issue:
- New MRF Chief Scientific Officer
- Suggest Us to Charity Navigator
- Write for the MRF
This month the Myelin Repair Foundation is gearing up for our 6th Annual Research Plan Review Meeting. By reviewing and revising our research plan each year, we can ensure that each project or experiment we fund continues to drive us toward getting a myelin repair treatment to market.
We are also excited to share with you a recent addition to our management team.
Senior pharmaceutical industry veteran Dr. Mike Gresser, Ph.D. is joining the MRF as Chief Scientific Officer. His expertise in academic and industry research and development makes him ideally suited to guide the MRF through the commercial development of our myelin repair discoveries.
Dr. Gresser holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. His career includes eight years on the faculty at Simon Fraser University in Burnby, British Columbia and 12 years in senior staff positions at the Merck Frost Center for Therapeutic Research.
In 2000, Dr. Gresser joined Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California, as Vice President Research for Inflammation, where he remained until April, 2006. For two years Dr. Gresser served as Head of Neuroscience Research as well as Inflammation Research. His team at Amgen worked on many molecular targets, introducing numerous small molecules, human antibodies, and other proteins into development. The work of Dr. Gresser and his team has led to three drugs coming to market.
Dr. Gresser has been a member of the MRF’s Drug Discovery Advisory Board (DDAG) since January 2009. The DDAG was formed to assist MRF management and Principal Investigators in prioritizing MRF's drug targets and developing industry-standard data packages for presentation to commercial partners for further drug development and clinical trials.
With our focus on a patient treatment outcome, it makes sense to have someone with Dr. Gresser’s outstanding credentials as a “drug maker” leading our scientific effort at this time. I am delighted that our work has developed to the point where we could attract someone with Dr. Gresser’s stature to join our team.
What a great start to 2010 -- I look forward to another productive and prosperous year for the Myelin Repair Foundation.
Scott Johnson
President & Founder
Myelin Repair Foundation
Help Us Get Listed on Charity Navigator
When donors research nonprofits to give to they often reference Guidestar or Charity Navigator to see how closely each organization follows its mission and how and where they spend their funds.
The Myelin Repair Foundation is listed on Guidestar, but in order to be listed on Charity Navigator we need our supporters to suggest us as a charity.
We reviewed the Charity Navigator website and spoke with a representative. Because there is no charge for their evaluation services and because there are thousands of charities that could potentially be reviewed, they rely on supporters like you to suggest charities that they should review. Apparently, the more requests they get for a particular charity, the greater the likelihood that they will review it.
So please visit their site, register, log-on and suggest the Myelin Repair Foundation to be reviewed.
In the mean time, if you, your family members or your friends are looking for another third-party validation of the MRF from a "giving" point of view, see our blog post on the FasterCures Philanthropy Advisory Service.
Calling for Writers and Topics
Would you be interested in writing for our blog? Do you have a topic for a blog post that you want covered?
Email us at info@myelinrepair.org to discuss this opportunity or to voice your opinion on what we should write about.
If you have expertise in the medical research enterprise, we’re looking for articles that will discuss the funding issues, basic science collaboration, peer-review process, clinical trials or anything that pertains to speeding up the entire drug development process.
Video: Watch Scott Johnson’s Presentation on our "Not Top Down" Solution at BIL:PIL in San Diego
Breaking through to Cures
Plug into our Blog
Read more and comment at our blog:
- Our Animal Models for Multiple Sclerosis Research
- Which MS Research Organization Spends The Highest Share on Research?
- Super Supporter-Fundraiser: Dennis Smith ran 100 miles for myelin repair.
- Inspirational story & music video: Darla’s Message to MS: “To live with fear is a life half-lived”
In the News
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Join the Myelin Repair Foundation on Twitter and Facebook.