About ALS.Network

Dr. David Andrews is Director of and Senior Scientist in Biological Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute, Professor of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics at University of Toronto and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Membrane Biogenesis. His research areas include: regulation of apoptosis at mitochondria, high throughput and image-based high-content screening using automated imaging and analysis of cells in monolayer and 3D cultures, gene knockdown and screening of libraries of small molecules. Dr. Andrews participated in the start-up of MBI Fermentas and Isogenica and his group performs collaborative and contract research for a variety of biotech companies. He holds licensed patents in regulation of translation and in vitro evolution.

Dr. Skerlj has 25 years of experience leading the discovery and development of small molecule drugs to treat rare diseases, cancer, infection and neurodegenerative diseases, and deep scientific expertise in the research and development of innovative, genetically-targeted treatments. Currently, he is President and CEO of Expansion Therapeutics since October 2020. He was most recently Senior Vice President of Research and Development at X4 Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA, and previously held drug discovery and development leadership roles at Cambridge-based Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to that, he was interim Head of Small Molecule Discovery at Genzyme, and was part of the executive team at AnorMED, a publicly-traded company that was acquired by Genzyme in 2006. Dr. Skerlj is an inventor of both plerixafor, a stem cell mobilizer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008, and ertapenem, an anti-bacterial approved by the FDA in 2001, and has been responsible for delivering multiple drug candidates into early clinical research. He has authored 65 publications and holds 50 patents. Dr. Skerlj received his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oxford and Ohio State University.

Dr. Frank Gertler is a Professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Biology Department. Dr. Gertler received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985. During his post-graduate thesis work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Gertler discovered the Enabled (Ena) gene in a search for functional downstream targets of signaling by the Drosophila homolog of the c-Abl proto-oncogene. He proceeded to demonstrate that Abl and Ena function were key components of the machinery required to establish normal connections during development of the nervous system. After receiving his Ph.D. in Oncology and Genetics in 1992, Dr. Gertler trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Philippe Soriano at the Fred Hutchinson Center for Cancer Research from 1993 through 1997. During this time, he cloned Mena, the mammalian homolog of Drosophila Ena, and discovered a family of related molecules, the "Ena/VASP" proteins. In 1997, Dr. Gertler joined the Biology Department at the MIT. His laboratory continued to work on Mena and the related Ena/VASP proteins and described pivotal roles for these proteins in controlling cell movement, shape and adhesion during fetal development. In 2005, Dr. Gertler moved to the MIT Center for Cancer Research and began to work on the role of Mena in metastatic progression and launched other efforts geared at understanding how the control of cell motility is dysregulated during metastatic diseases.