James O. McNamara, M.D.
James O. McNamara, M.D., (Chairman) has been a faculty member for over 30 years in the Duke University School of Medicine where he holds the positions of Duke School of Medicine Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Center for Translational Neuroscience. Dr. McNamara is a highly regarded leader in neurology and neurobiology and is one of the scientific founders of NeurOp. His research focuses on the process by which a normal brain becomes epileptic. Dr. McNamara is a past president of the American Epilepsy Society, and he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2005, a component of the National Academy of Sciences, and has received two Javits Neuroscience Investigator Awards from the NIH, as well as a Freedom to Discover Award from Bristol-Myers Squibb. He serves on the editorial boards of Molecular Pharmacology and Neuron. He is also a contributor to Goodman & Gilman’s Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics and Neuroscience, the leading textbook in the field. He is the author of some 300 publications and abstracts. Dr. McNamara received his M.D. degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Raymond J. Dingledine, Ph.D.
Raymond J. Dingledine, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine and one of NeurOp’s founders. Prior to joining Emory in 1992, he was a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts in the field of neuropharmacology, and his current research primarily focuses on the role of inflammation in disease indications involving seizures. He has published more than 200 research papers during his career and served as editor of Molecular Pharmacology. Dr. Dingledine was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2010 and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 2018. He is the recipient of numerous other scientific honors and awards, including a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH, the Epilepsy Research Award from the American Epilepsy Society, two Bristol-Myers Squibb Neuroscience Awards, the PhRMA Career Excellence Award, and the Robert Ruffolo Career Achievement Award. He is past treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) and served on the scientific council of NINDS. He currently chairs the SfN Investment Committee. Dr. Dingledine received his Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from Stanford University.
Dennis C. Liotta, Ph.D.
Dennis Liotta, Ph.D., has helped to transform HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic infection in which patients are able to live active, near normal lives. The Emory University Office of Technology Transfer estimates that greater than 90 percent of all of the HIV-infected persons in the U.S. take (or have taken) one of the drugs he invented. Over the past two and a half decades, Dr. Liotta’s research has focused on the discovery and development of novel antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents. He is one of the leaders of the Emory team that discovered the antiviral drug, Emtriva® (emtricitabine), which was approved for treating HIV in July 2003. Emtriva is a component of the ground breaking, once-a-day, triple-combination therapy, Atripla®, which is now universally accepted as the drug combination of choice for treating HIV-infected patients. In addition, he is the inventor of record for several clinically important antivirals, including lamivudine, Reverset®, Racivir® and elvucitabine. He is also the lead inventor of Q-122, a safe, orally available clinical agent for controlling hot flashes in post-menopausal women. Dr. Liotta received his Ph.D. from CUNY and is a Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Chemistry at Emory University where he has been for 40 years. He has received numerous awards during his tenure including Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and the Emory Williams Award. He has been inducted into the National Academy of Inventors for his contributions to drug discovery and development, as well as to the ACS (American Chemical Society) Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.
Robert R. Bonczek, J.D.
Mr. Bonczek is Chief Financial Officer and a director of Cellective BioTherapy, Inc. He also serves as Chief Administrative Officer at Istari Oncology, Inc. and President and Chief Financial Officer of MedBlue Incubator, Inc. Mr. Bonczek has served as a director and President, CFO and General Counsel of b3 bio, Inc.; CFO, General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Trimeris, Inc.; and Chief Counsel and Global Director of Safety, Health and Environment, Dupont. Mr. Bonczek is founding partner, director and President of Aspen Tree Capital. In addition to NeurOp, Inc., he also serves on the boards of several life science-related companies including Senex Biotechnology, Upstream Therapeutics, Inc., Deep Blue Medical Advances, Inc., Track X Technology, and Istari Oncology, Inc. He is a member of the advisory boards for several companies, including Valence Advantage Life Sciences Fund and Centre Partners. Mr. Bonczek received an AB in chemistry and a JD degree from the University of North Carolina. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.