Peter H. Reinhart, PhD, is the founding director of the Institute for Applied Life Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. The institute was created in 2013 to accelerate life science research and advance collaboration with industry.

Dr. Reinhart was previously head of Discovery and New Product Development at Alzheon, Inc., focusing on brain health, memory and aging and development of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. As chief scientific officer at Proteostasis Therapeutics he implemented and directed drug discovery programs for the disease-modifying treatment of protein misfolding, sorting, trafficking and clearance-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and cystic fibrosis.

As head of neurodegeneration at Wyeth/Pfizer, he directed a portfolio of drug development programs in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, neuromuscular diseases and stroke/regeneration, and developed more than a dozen small molecules, antibodies and vaccines. During his leadership, Wyeth Neuroscience was named a “Top 10 Pipeline Company” for four consecutive years by R&D Directions. As head of neurodegeneration at Cogent Neuroscience, Dr. Reinhart initiated research programs in Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and developed a novel neuronal drug screening platform.

Serving as a tenured professor of neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Reinhart investigated the contribution of ion channel dysfunction in neurological and respiratory disorders. He completed postdoctoral training at the University of Tubingen, as a Humboldt fellow, and at Brandeis University, studying ion channel plasticity. Dr. Reinhart received his PhD from the Australian National University, working on intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis and mitochondrial function.