At T-Neuro Pharma, we believe in the power of innovative science.
We believe that there’s always another way to look at a problem to find a solution. We believe that in the complex area of neurodegenerative diseases, an earlier definitive diagnosis could be the root for understanding -- and the key to moving forward.
Most importantly, we believe that effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders are within our reach. And our goal is to assist and support today’s pharmaceutical companies reach the milestone the world has been waiting for when it comes to drug development for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
With T-Neuro Pharma’s technology and patented biomarker kit, pharmaceutical companies can, for the first time, identify patients with confirmed Alzheimer’s disease to study in their clinical trials – two steps ahead of anything that is being used to detect AD so far. By working with confirmed AD patients rather than waiting for a definitive diagnosis upon autopsy, pharmaceutical companies can see if their drug is work in real time -- saving hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of time in the development of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Most importantly, though, the world can have new hope when it comes to overcoming the many challenges presented by this complex disease.
Our Team
Kristina Trujillo, Ph.D.
CEO
Dr. Kristina Trujillo brings a unique combination of experience and insight in both the pharmaceutical industry and academia to her role as CEO of T-Neuro Pharma. For more than 10 years, Dr. Trujillo served as a cancer and metabolism researcher and professor at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center. She made the decision to leave that prestigious position in order to be on the front lines of science. Her goal was to use science to create something from discoveries that can make a difference in people’s lives. With her early experience watching her grandmother suffer from Alzheimer’s disease sparking her interest in finding ways to help Alzheimer’s patients, she joined with nine other scientists with both academic and business experience to pool their research and technologies – using the groundbreaking technology invented by Dr. Chris Wheeler to launch T-Neuro Pharma.
Dr. Trujillo has published 22 peer-reviewed articles and received grants from NIH (R21, R01), American Cancer Society and DOD. She has been involved in consulting for multiple biotech start-up companies, and has completed a sabbatical at Great Point Ventures, a VC firm in San Francisco. Dr. Trujillo began her science career by earning her PhD in Molecular Biology and Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from New Mexico State University.
Christopher Wheeler, Ph.D.
CSO
For more than 20 years, Dr. Christopher Wheeler has served as a professor and research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. One of the country’s top researchers and scientists in the area of brain tumor immunology, immunotherapy and neurological diseases, Dr. Wheeler was inspired by his mother’s early-onset AD to start a series of experiments that ultimately led to his technology that forms the basis for the science behind T-Neuro Pharma. Dr. Wheeler serves as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, bringing his decades of scientific research in this complex area and his research into the role of T cells in neurodegenerative diseases to T-Neuro Pharma.
Dr. Wheeler has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles, including being featured on multiple journal covers throughout the years, and has received numerous honors for his scientific research and findings. He has received grants from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and NIH, several private foundations and donors (Milken, Mashouf, Jos. Drown, Uncle Kory, Precision Medicine). He received his BA in Biological Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, his PhD. in Immunology at the University of California, Berkeley and his postdoc in Immunology from Stanford University.
Wayne Laslie
COO
Wayne brings more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry to T-Neuro Pharma. He has held positions of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, predecessor companies of Sanofi-Aventis, Otsuka, Myriad
Genetics, and Myrexis, serving in positions of clinical development, business development, U.S. and international commercial development, marketing, sales, and chief operating officer. He has had responsibility for the commercialization and product introductions of numerous products in the United States and abroad. He is currently on the board of Zocere, Inc., a biotech company researching stroke therapies, and a board member of NMBio and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. He also has served on the board of the National Pharmaceutical Council and as a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee at the University of Maryland.
John Chavez
CFO
Mr. Chavez currently serves as the Managing Director for the New Mexico Start-Up Factory I, II and III. He was the President of New Mexico Angels for over 12 years and has been an active investor for over 15 years. Under his leadership, the NM Angels had an increase of over 100% funding of investment deals in new companies. The Angels were often leading investment deals, rather than following venture capitals into them. John is also the Managing Partner of Phase One Ventures and a Partner of NMA Ventures, a forward thinking fund that is backed by the New Mexico Catalyst Fund.
John Chavez, MBA, (PD) has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Regulatory Economics from New Mexico State University and has been part of New Mexico’s economic development ecosystem since 2008.
Our Partners
We are currently partnering with the University of Antwerp and University of Groningen. These universities have a substantial biobank of validated blood samples from Alzheimer's patients as well as controls. The biobank is under the direction of Prof. Peter Paul De Deyn, MD, PhD, a leading researcher who has published 725 papers on dementia and memory disorders, including 253 referencing Alzheimer's specifically. Pilot studies are underway to validate the biomarker in Dr. De Deyn's repository samples.
