Dr. Roman Urfer has held scientific, operational and executive leadership positions during his 25-year career in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Urfer holds a Master’s degree from ETH Zurich and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He has led drug discovery and development efforts in CNS disorders from target discovery to Phase 2 clinical development. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Selonterra, Inc., a San Francisco Bay Area-based biotechnology company focused on the discovery of novel therapies for complex neurodegenerative disorders with strong genetic links, notably Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Selonterra’s unique innovation is that genetic variants linked to neurodegeneration act at the DNA level by dysregulating the expression of nearby genes. Dr. Urfer is committed to scientific excellence and innovation as a named inventor on 20 issued patents and an author of publications in peer-reviewed journals.