Frank S Walsh

Frank is an accomplished pharmaceutical and biotechnology senior executive with over 20 years of experience. He currently serves as the founding CEO of Ossianix. Frank has had a long-term research interest in ALS, where his work initially focused on developing human neuronal cell culture models and on the role of autoimmunity. His current work is determining the role of the neurotrophin receptor TrkB on motor neuron survival. As head of Discovery Research worldwide at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Collegeville, PA he studied myostatin and neutralizing antibodies in the SOD-1 ALS mouse model. Prior to joining Wyeth, he was SVP at GlaxoSmithKline UK and Head of the Neurology CEDD and VP of Neuroscience Research at Smith Kline Beecham UK. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Frank had a distinguished academic career in Neuroscience as the Sir William Dunn Professor of Experimental Pathology at London’s UMDS, Guy’s Hospital. Frank has served on the research committee of the Motor Neuron Disease Association in the UK and was Chairman of the ALSA Ice Bucket Challenge drug discovery initiative. Currently, he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Target ALS, New York and the Packard Center, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He received his PhD from University College London and has authored over 200 scientific publications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and has honorary degrees from the University of Perugia and Bologna, Italy and Dundee and Strathclyde, UK.