Maria Maccecchini received her PhD in biochemistry from Rockefeller University and was a postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at California Institute of Technology. She worked for a large, and then a small, company before starting Symphony Pharmaceuticals in the early 1990s, which was acquired by Transgenomic. Dr. Maccecchini then joined two angel groups – Robin Hood Ventures and Mid-Atlantic Angel Group.

In 2008, Dr. Maccecchini started her second company, QR Pharma, with clinical stage technology licensed from NIH/Torrey Pines. The company is developing two therapeutics for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease: one targets early stage AD and PK and may stop the disease; whereas, the second one targets late stage AD and may stabilize the decline. Posiphen, the lead compound successfully completed its 3rd phase I study that showed that it enters the brain and inhibits the major pathway leading to cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. The second compound is ready to enter first in man safety.