Stevin Zorn

Dr. Zorn has more than 27 years drug discovery, drug development experience across a broad range of neuro and psychiatric disorders and across the whole value chain for drug discovery and development. Dr. Zorn has a successful track record of leading a global therapeutic area and site business units of diverse, innovative scientists to conceive of, rigorously advance and enthusiastically prosecute a pipeline of novel druggable ideas through each phase of discovery and also through clinical development.

In conjunction with his responsibilities as President and CEO of MindImmune Therapeutics, Inc., Dr. Zorn is a Ryan Research Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island.

Most recently, Dr. Zorn was Executive Vice President and head of Neuroscience Research for Lundbeck’s Research Site in the USA, Lundbeck Research USA, board member for Lundbeck Research USA and Executive Scientist in Residence at Lundbeck LLC, Deerfield, IL. He has been a member of Lundbeck’s Global Research Committee, Development Committee, R&D Management group, the R&D Executive Committee and US Management Group. He conceived of and built one of the first Neuroinflammation Disease Biology Units in the industry. There he established a talented group of scientists that brought together disciplines of Immunology, Inflammation and Neuroscience to capitalize on the recently growing knowledge base showing the relationship between Neuroinflammation and CNS diseases to advance new approaches for the treatment of mental illness. This became Lundbeck USA’s primary area of focus.

Prior to Lundbeck, Dr. Zorn was with Pfizer Global Research and Development for nearly 20 years. He held positions including head of General Pharmacology, Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Development Team Leader, Head of Psychotherapeutics Biology, Head of Neuroscience Therapeutics, Co-Chair of the Global Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Leadership Team including accountability for R&D as well as commercialization, and was Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head for Central Nervous System Disorders Research at Pfizer including chair of the Global Research Therapeutic Area Leadership Team. Zorn became Pfizer’s first global head of Neuroscience Research, was co-architect of what became the company’s overall Neuroscience area strategy, and co-led the 2nd largest and among the most productive therapeutic areas at Pfizer. As member of the Discovery Research Management Team of the Ann Arbor Pfizer site, Dr. Zorn was also jointly accountable for site deliverables from 5 therapeutic areas: Neuroscience, Cardiovascular, Inflammation, Dermatology and Infectious Diseases. Across his industry career, Zorn shepherded, led or contributed to research generating dozens of drug candidates from Lundbeck and Pfizer in clinical development for multiple indications; many have progressed to phase II/III or have been marketed (e.g. Geodon, Lyrica, Trintellix).

Dr. Zorn received a BS degree in Chemistry from Lafayette College, Easton, PA, and MS and Ph.D. Biomedical Science degrees in Neurotoxicology and Neuropharmacology, respectively, from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX. Subsequent postdoctoral research studies centered on basic research of brain and intracellular neuronal signaling mechanisms at the Rockefeller University, New York, NY, in Paul Greengard’s, (Nobel Laureate) laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. He has been a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, The NIMH Biomarker Consortium and PHRMA’s Biomedical Advisory Committee.