Background:

Dr. Melanie Leitner currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for the ALS Investment Fund (a life sciences VC) and is the Founder of Accelerating NeuroVentures, LLC, a solo consulting practice providing strategic, programmatic, and business development services to investors, biopharma, and non-profit clients interested in funding, initiating, or advancing programs within the neuroscience translational space. She has worked on ALS-related projects with more than 30 non-profit and for-profit organizations over the course of her career.

Significant Contributions and Achievements:
Melanie went to college at Brown University as a National Merit Scholar, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with an Sc.B. in the field of Neuroscience. She was awarded a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellowship and a Lucille P. Markey Fellowship for her Ph.D. work at Washington University working with Dr. Eugene Johnson in the field of neuroscience, and completed post-doctoral work in neuroimaging with Marcus Raichle before being awarded a Congressional Science and Technology Policy Fellowship from the AAAS. She served as a Legislative Fellow in the office of US Senator Dick Durbin and was responsible for organizing the first Senate hearings on the dietary supplement and stimulant ephedra, which Senator Durbin was eventually successful in getting banned.

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Education:

Prior to launching Accelerating NeuroVentures, LLC and assuming the position of CSO at the ALS Investment Fund, Melanie was a part of Biogen’s ALS Innovation Hub (ALS iHub), where she was a member of the Program Team responsible for the development of Qalsody (ALS antisense therapy for SOD1-ALS). Prior to Biogen, Dr. Leitner spent 7 years as Chief Scientific Officer for the ALS non-profit Prize4Life where she spearheaded the creation of the PRO-ACT database, the ALS Research Forum in collaboration with Alzforum, Working with ALS Mice Guidelines for Preclinical Testing and Colony Management in collaboration with Cat Lutz from The Jackson Laboratory, and pioneered the use of the incentive prize model to accelerate treatments for ALS. Over the course of her career, she has worked with most of the US national ALS foundations, multiple companies, and key governmental organizations in a variety of capacities to ensure that the best potential therapies for ALS advance along the R&D pipeline. She currently sits on the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Venture Philanthropy Committee, the Common Data Elements Steering Committee for NINDS, the Therapy Evaluation Committee for the Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS, and the Scientific Advisory Boards for Gatehouse Bio, NRG, and the Carney Institute for Brain Sciences at Brown University. She represents the ALS Investment Fund as an observer on the Boards of Bloom Sciences, ProJenX, QurAlis, VectorY, and Verge Genomics. She has authored more than 20 scientific and lay articles and book chapters, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for multiple international scientific research grant-making organizations. She is a proud co-recipient of the 2021 Healey Center International Prize for Innovation in ALS awarded for the creation of the PRO-ACT Database.

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