Medical director and division chief of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Center. Carlin and Ellen Wiegner Endowed Professor of Neurology.
Team Category: Scientific Advisory Board
Giovanni Manfredi, MD, PhD, is the Finbar and Marianne Kenny Professor in Clinical and Research Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is also a Professor of Neuroscience and directs the graduate program in Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Manfredi’s lab studies alterations of mitochondrial metabolism in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and primary inherited mitochondrial encephalomyopathies. Dr. Manfredi has authored more than 100 publications focused in areas including neurodegenerative and mitochondrial diseases. Dr. Manfredi received his MD and PhD in anatomy and cell biology from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, where he also completed a residency in neurology.
Marni J. Falk, MD, is Executive Director of the Mitochondrial Medicine Frontier Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Professor in the Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pediatrics at University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Falk also serves as a principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health, pharmaceutical and philanthropic-funded translational laboratory group at CHOP that investigates the causes and global metabolic consequences of mitochondrial disease, as well as targeted therapies. She also directs multiple clinical treatment trials in mitochondrial disease patients. Dr. Falk has authored more than 100 publications in the areas of human genetics and mitochondrial disease. She received her BS in biology and MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Falk completed dual specialty training in the Pediatrics and Clinical Genetics residency program at Case Western Reserve University.
Mark Payne, MD, is a renowned scientist and practicing cardiovascular physician who brings a long-standing scientific focus on protein targeting to mitochondria and a dedication to treating cardiomyopathies of childhood, including Friedreich’s ataxia. He is the inventor of the original therapy for frataxin protein replacement in Friedreich’s ataxia and co-founded Chondrial Therapeutics, which became Larimar Therapeutics, Inc. He holds multiple patents on mitochondrial biology and repair. He is a tenured professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine where he directs multiple NIH-funded training, clinical, and research programs as a principal investigator. Dr. Payne received his BS in natural sciences from Washington & Lee University, and his MD from the University of Texas at Houston. He performed his postdoctoral clinical and research training at Washington University in St. Louis. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Academy of Pediatrics.