Driving the next generation of disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson’s and other complex neurodegenerative disorders.
Brenig Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering the development of innovative small-molecule therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Leveraging decades of drug development expertise and cutting-edge research enhanced by AI and machine learning, we are committed to delivering disease-modifying treatments that target the root causes of debilitating neurological conditions.
Pipeline
BT-267: Targeting LRRK2-Driven Lysosomal Pathology
BT-267 is a selective, brain-penetrant small-molecule inhibitor of leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2)—a key protein implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease. Designed to maximize CNS exposure while minimizing peripheral activity, BT-267 offers a differentiated profile aimed at reducing off-target and systemic side effects.
Engineered for optimal selectivity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, BT-267 has demonstrated best-in-class potential in preclinical and clinical studies, showing high brain penetration, minimal peripheral exposure, and a favorable safety and tolerability profile.
Mutations in LRRK2 represent one of the most common genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease, and dysregulated LRRK2 activity is associated with lysosomal and mitochondrial dysfunction. By precisely targeting this pathway, BT-267 may offer a disease-modifying approach to slowing—or potentially halting—the progression of Parkinson’s and related neurodegenerative conditions.
BT-409: Targeting NLRP3-Driven Neuroinflammation
BT-409 is a highly selective, CNS-penetrant small-molecule inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome, developed as a potential best-in-class therapy for Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Designed to deliver effective brain-specific NLRP3 inhibition while minimizing on- and off-target effects, BT-409 has demonstrated a promising safety and pharmacokinetic profile in preclinical neuroinflammation models.
In addition to Parkinson’s, BT-409 may have broad therapeutic potential across a range of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative conditions that share overlapping pathways and therapeutic opportunities.
The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a critical role in innate immunity by clearing pathogens and damaged cells. However, chronic activation leads to sustained release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, triggering neuroinflammation that contributes to neuronal damage and disease progression. Elevated NLRP3 activity has been observed in patients with Parkinson’s disease and correlates with disease severity, making it a compelling target for disease-modifying intervention.
About Us
Brenig Therapeutics was co-founded in 2021 by OrbiMed, Torrey Pines, and BGV to design and develop breakthrough medicines for neurodegenerative disorders. Brenig’s mission is to build a robust portfolio of first- and best-in-class therapies targeting a broad spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases, starting with Parkinson’s disease.
Our lead program is a potential best in class LRRK2 inhibitor developed using advanced AI-driven drug discovery models. This pioneering approach enabled the creation of a highly selective, brain-penetrant molecule that has rapidly progressed from discovery into clinical development.
Our NLRP3 inhibitor follows closely in development. Also engineered for high potency and selectivity, BT-409 achieves high concentration in the brain.
Team
Megan McGill, MD, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
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Megan McGill, MD, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Megan McGill brings over a decade of experience spanning clinical medicine, neuroscience research, management consulting, and drug development. She holds dual MD and PhD degrees from New York University, where her doctoral work focused on neuroimaging and MRI physics, and she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Megan earned her BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in neuroscience and chemistry. She trained as a radiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and has held key roles at McKinsey & Company in the firm’s healthcare practice, as well as in leading biotechnology organizations including Regenxbio and BridgeBio.
Prior to joining Brenig Therapeutics, Megan served as Chief Executive Officer of Epitor Therapeutics, an epigenetic editing company, and HitchBio, a developer of red blood cell–based drug delivery technologies. She brings a unique combination of scientific depth, clinical insight, and strategic leadership to drive Brenig’s mission forward.
Iain Dukes, D. Phil.
Chief Business Officer
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Iain Dukes, D. Phil.
Chief Business Officer
Iain Dukes, PhD is biopharmaceutical professional with substantial experience in senior leadership roles in venture capital, business development and licensing, as well as drug discovery and development. He is a Venture Partner of OrbiMed Advisors, LLC. Previously, Dr. Dukes served as Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development and Licensing for Merck Research Laboratories. Before joining Merck, Dr. Dukes held senior leadership roles in Business Development and Research and Development at Amgen, GlaxoSmithkline, and Glaxo Wellcome.
Dr, Dukes has served on the board of numerous public and private biopharma organizations. He is currently the Chairman of the board of directors of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IOVA) and Executive Chairman of Angiex Inc. He also serves as a director or founding executive on other public and private boards including Ikena Oncology (Nasdaq: IKNA), ENYO Pharma SA, Kartos Therapeutics, Inc., NeRRe Therapeutics, Rathlin Therapeutics Limited, and Telios Pharma, Inc. Dr. Dukes holds an MA in Jurisprudence and D Phil from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Cardiovascular Studies from the University of Leeds, and a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bath.
Nikolay Savchuk, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
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Nikolay Savchuk, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Nikolay Savchuk, PhD is a serial entrepreneur and experienced international investor in the healthcare and IT industries for 30years. Dr. Savchuk is the co-founder and Managing Partner at San Diego-based Torrey Pines Investment LLC, Chairman of the Board of Viriom Inc.
The scope of main interest of Dr. Savchuk is life sciences including rational drug design, AI and expert systems design control science, drug discovery and digital health technologies. Dr. Savchuk led and continues to manage successful investments in pharmaceutical and drug development companies. He is an inventor and author of over 100 patents and research publications.
Tien Dam, MD
Chief Medical Officer
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Tien Dam, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Tien Dam, MD is the CMO of Brenig Therapeutics. Tien brings over two decades of extensive clinical research experience to her current role. Throughout her career, she has been pivotal in drug development, within both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations.
Before leading Brenig Therapeutics, Tien was the Vice President of Clinical Development at Neumora Therapeutics. She was responsible for strategy and execution of all clinical programs across neuropsychiatry and neurodegeneration, including Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Agitation Associated with Dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and ALS.
Prior to Neumora Therapeutics, Tien was the Head of Movement Disorders at Biogen, where she led disease area strategy and business development for the Therapeutic Area. She oversaw the development of multiple programs in Parkinson’s disease, atypical Parkinsonism, Essential tremor, Huntington’s disease, and ataxia. She supported multiple targets including tau, alpha-synuclein, LRRK2, GBA, ataxin, and GABA with small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, anti-sense oligonucleotides, and gene therapy. Tien is an advisor and industry representative for non-profit organizations and patient advocacy groups. Prior to Biogen, Tien worked at Merck and supported programs in Alzheimer’s disease, insomnia, and anesthesia.
Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Tien was in academia with research, teaching, and clinical responsibilities during her tenure in the Departments of Medicine at Columbia University and University of California, San Diego. She was the Principal Investigator of multiple grants from the NIH and Foundations and has 60+ peer-reviewed publications.
Tien holds a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from University of California, Riverside, an M.D. from University of California, Los Angeles. She completed an Internal Medicine residency and Geriatrics fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.
Idean Marvasty
Chief Financial Officer
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Idean Marvasty
Chief Financial Officer
Bio will be updated soon
Alexei Pushechnikov
Head of MedChem, CMC
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Alexei Pushechnikov
Head of MedChem, CMC
Dr. Alexei Pushechnikov has over 25 years of experience in medicinal chemistry and biomedical research with emphasis on early drug discovery. Throughout his career he successfully led integrated discovery programs as well as being a prolific academic researcher exploiting RNA molecules and epitranscriptomic regulators as drug targets for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. His achievements related to various aspects of the drug discovery process are reflected in over 40 peer-reviewed publications and patents. His key area of expertise in medicinal chemistry is an application of computational methods, i.e. chemoinformatic, bioinformatic, big/large data mining, machine learning & AI, QSAR, ligand- and structure-based CADD for the de novo design of small molecules.
Ruben Karapetian
Head of Discovery Biology
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Ruben Karapetian
Head of Discovery Biology
Dr. Ruben Karapetian is a leading expert in non-clinical development, safety assessment, and animal pharmacology.
Before joining Brenig, he served as a research professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and held leadership roles in clinical pharmacology and non-clinical development at several contract research organizations (CROs).
Throughout his 25 years career in life sciences, Ruben has contributed to the development of five marketed pharmaceuticals, supporting programs from early discovery through non-clinical development and clinical pharmacology.
Vasily Kazey
Head of Pharmacology
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Vasily Kazey
Head of Pharmacology
Dr. Vasily Kazey earned his PhD in neuroscience from Moscow State University in 2002. Following this, he gained international experience as a visiting scientist at Justus Liebig University in Germany. In 2004, he transitioned to drug discovery, joining ChemDiv in San Diego, USA, before establishing and managing the Lead Discovery Department at Chemical Diversity Research Institute in Moscow. Dr. Kazey’s leadership led to successful collaborations with pharmaceutical giants like Eli Lilly and MerckSerono. He later co-founded Exacte Labs, a bioanalytical laboratory, which now operates independently.
Pierluigi Nicotera, MD, PhD
SAB Chairman
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Pierluigi Nicotera, MD, PhD
SAB Chairman
Prof. Pierluigi Nicotera obtained his PhD at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where he worked as Research Assistant Professor/Senior University Lecturer from 1986 to 1994. In 1995, he became Professor and Chairman of Molecular Toxicology at the University of Konstanz. In 2002, he was recruited as Director of the British Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit and Honorary Professor of Neuroscience (Dept. of Cell Physiology & Pharmacology), University of Leicester. Since 2009, he is the Scientific and Executive Director of DZNE (Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen), Bonn, Germany.
Michael
Pafreyman, PhD, DSc
Member
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Michael Pafreyman, PhD, DSc
Member
Dr. Michael Palfreyman is a highly accomplished pharmaceutical executive with over four decades of experience in drug discovery and development.
Previously, Michael held leadership roles at companies including EnVivo Pharmaceuticals (now Forum Pharmaceuticals) and Scriptgen Pharmaceuticals (now Anadys Pharmaceuticals). He also served in executive positions at Marion Merrell Dow (now Sanofi) and Beecham Pharmaceuticals (now GlaxoSmithKline). Palfreyman’s educational background includes degrees from the University of Nottingham, and he has co-invented numerous patents and authored over 150 scientific articles and book chapters.
Michael oversees research and development diligence at Torrey Pines Investment Ventures.
Thomas Gasser, MD, PhD
Member
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Thomas Gasser, MD, PhD
Member
Thomas Gasser is a Professor of Neurology and Director of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Center of Neurology at the University of Tübingen and Speaker of the German Center for Neurodegenerative diseases in Tübingen. Prof. Gasser studied medicine at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and at Yale University Medical School, New Haven, Connecticut. He received his professional training in psychiatry at the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, and in neurology at the Department of Neurology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD
Member
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Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD
Member
Dimitri Krainc, a physician-scientist who is the Ward Professor and Chairman of the Davee Department of Neurology and Director of the Feinberg Neuroscience Institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Zagreb he spent over 20 years at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he completed his clinical and research training and served on neurology faculty. His research focuses on genetic causes of neurodegenerative diseases, earning him prestigious awards and recognitions including membership in the National Academy of Medicine. He is involved in entrepreneurship, serving as the founding scientist of two biotech companies and as a Venture Partner at OrbiMed. Krainc is President of the American Neurological Association.
Dana Hilt, MD
Member
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Dana Hilt, MD
Member
Dr. Dana C. Hilt, MD, boasts over 25 years of expertise in CNS drug development across all phases. He held key roles, including Chief Medical Officer, at various pharmaceutical companies like Frequency Therapeutics, Lysosomal Therapeutics, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, Ascend Pharmaceuticals, and Critical Therapeutics. With a medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and training in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he’s also contributed significantly in academia, conducting research and teaching. Noteworthy is his establishment of a Clinical Neuroscience Group at Amgen, focusing on neurotrophic factors’ therapeutic potential in diseases like Parkinson’s. His vast experience underscores his prowess in advancing treatments for complex neurological conditions.
Iain Dukes, D. Phil.
Chairman of the Board
OrbiMed
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Iain Dukes, D. Phil.
Chairman of the Board
OrbiMed
Iain Dukes, PhD is biopharmaceutical professional with substantial experience in senior leadership roles in venture capital, business development and licensing, as well as drug discovery and development. He is a Venture Partner of OrbiMed Advisors, LLC. Previously, Dr. Dukes served as Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development and Licensing for Merck Research Laboratories. Before joining Merck, Dr. Dukes held senior leadership roles in Business Development and Research and Development at Amgen, GlaxoSmithkline, and Glaxo Wellcome.
Dr, Dukes has served on the board of numerous public and private biopharma organizations. He is currently the Chairman of the board of directors of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: IOVA) and Executive Chairman of Angiex Inc. He also serves as a director or founding executive on other public and private boards including Ikena Oncology (Nasdaq: IKNA), ENYO Pharma SA, Kartos Therapeutics, Inc., NeRRe Therapeutics, Rathlin Therapeutics Limited, and Telios Pharma, Inc. Dr. Dukes holds an MA in Jurisprudence and D Phil from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Cardiovascular Studies from the University of Leeds, and a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bath.
Megan McGill, MD, PhD
Board Member
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Megan McGill, MD, PhD
Board Member
Dr. Megan McGill brings over a decade of experience spanning clinical medicine, neuroscience research, management consulting, and drug development. She holds dual MD and PhD degrees from New York University, where her doctoral work focused on neuroimaging and MRI physics, and she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Megan earned her BA, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in neuroscience and chemistry. She trained as a radiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and has held key roles at McKinsey & Company in the firm’s healthcare practice, as well as in leading biotechnology organizations including Regenxbio and BridgeBio.
Prior to joining Brenig Therapeutics, Megan served as Chief Executive Officer of Epitor Therapeutics, an epigenetic editing company, and HitchBio, a developer of red blood cell–based drug delivery technologies. She brings a unique combination of scientific depth, clinical insight, and strategic leadership to drive Brenig’s mission forward.
Keno Gutierrez, PhD, MBA
General Partner
BGV
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Keno Gutierrez, PhD, MBA
General Partner
BGV
Keno Gutierrez, PhD, MBA is as a General Partner at BGV, having joined in 2021. He serves in the Boards of Directors of Brandaris Therapeutics (Chairman), Fibrocor, Fundamental (Chairman), Brenig and Tessellate.
Keno has over 25 years of Biotech experience spanning operations (Founder and CEO of Brandaris Therapeutics), investing (private and public equities at M Ventures and Omega Funds), investment banking (Piper Sandler), management consulting (IQVIA), and medical research (MRC). Prior to joining BGV, Keno was a Vice President at M Ventures responsible for Biotech investments (Biopharma and Life Sciences). While at M Ventures he served as Board Member or Observer to the board of several biotech companies including Xilio, Immunitas, Soteria, DNA Script, Riffyn, Inthera, Galecto, iOnctura, ApoGen and iOmx.
Keno is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, holds a PhD in Genetics from University College in London and an MBA from INSEAD. His research in lipid metabolism has been published in the top scientific journal Nature.
Nikolay Savchuk, PhD
Managing Partner
Torrey Pines Investment
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Nikolay Savchuk, PhD
Managing Partner
Torrey Pines Investment
Nikolay Savchuk, PhD is the co-founder and Managing Member at Torrey Pines Investment LLC, a life-science investment company, since 2002. Dr. Savchuk is also the Managing General Partner of Teal Ventures, LP, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investing in health technology, since October 2018. Prior to joining life science investment and research in the United States, Dr. Savchuk was a fond of and held various business and research management positions in the IT industry with companies in Singapore and Russia. Dr. Savchuk is currently the chairman of the board of directors of Viriom Inc., a company dedicated to advancing a pipeline of effective and affordable treatments for diseases of global interest. Dr. Savchuk obtained his M.S. degree in physics and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Edward Mathers
NEA
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Edward Mathers
NEA
Ed has been at NEA since 2008 and is currently a Partner on the healthcare team focused on biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals investments. Prior to joining NEA, Ed served as EVP of Corporate Development and Venture at MedImmune, where he helped execute the sale of the company to AstraZeneca in 2007. Before joining MedImmune, he was VP of Marketing and Corporate Licensing and Acquisitions at Inhale Therapeutic Systems. Ed also spent 15 years at Glaxo Wellcome (now GSK), where he held sales and marketing positions.
Lulu Xu
Board Observer, NEA
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Lulu Xu
Board Observer, NEA
Lulu joined NEA in 2021 as an investor on the Healthcare team. She focuses on later stage life sciences investments. Before joining NEA, Lulu worked at AbbVie in several roles across R&D and M&A. Most recently, she worked in AbbVie’s Enterprise Strategy group, on the acquisition and integration of strategic companies and assets. Lulu attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she co-founded Nucleate’s Bay Area life sciences venture program. She also holds a BS from Northwestern University in neuroscience.
Our Investors
