Richard M. Ransohoff

Richard Ransohoff is a neurologist who has dedicated his career equally to patient care and to researching the role of inflammation across the spectrum of neurological disease, in particular multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition to serving as interim chief medical officer of Abata and venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, he is a collaborating scientist in the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, adjunct professor of pathology, genetics and genome sciences at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and adjunct professor of molecular medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. At Third Rock, Richard is involved in company creation across neurological and immunological indications.

Prior to Third Rock, Richard was vice president of research and early development unit head at Biogen. There, he led a team of 45 scientists and clinicians in finding and prosecuting neuroinflammatory targets for treatment of neurological disease and pain, managing five compounds across the process of entering the clinic, from IND enabling through phase II studies. Before that, Richard was a staff member at Cleveland Clinic for 30 years, where he founded and directed the Neuroinflammation Research Center and served as staff neurologist at the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research.

Richard currently serves on advisory boards for the German Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE), the University of California San Francisco/Gladstone Institute for Neurological Disease and the Keystone Symposia. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and member of the Association of American Physicians.

Richard was named in “Best Doctors” from 1996 to 2014 for his expertise in patient care for MS. He received the John and Samuel Bard Award in Science or Medicine, Bard College (2002), F.E. Bennet American Neurological Association Lectureship (2009), the John J. Dystel Award for MS Research from the National MS Society and American Academy of Neurology (2012) and the Distinguished Alumni Award, CWRU School of Medicine (2018), among other notable awards. He has published more than 425 scientific articles and reviews in PubMed and has trained more than 70 students and postdocs.

Richard holds an M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.