Industry Central Nervous System Specialist Lee Dawson, Ph.D. Joins Cerevance as VP of Neuroscience

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cerevance, a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company focused on central nervous system diseases, today announced the appointment of Lee A. Dawson, Ph.D. as Vice President of Neuroscience.

Dawson brings 25 years of career experience spearheading drug discovery and development across companies based in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. Most recently, he served as Vice President of CNS drug development at Astex Pharmaceuticals, where he established and developed their global neuroscience research strategy.

“I’m eager to help expand the application of Cerevance’s innovative discovery platform to a variety of central nervous system diseases and disorders,” said Dawson. “Cerevance is generating enormous amounts of data by deeply profiling specific cell populations in human brain tissue samples from healthy and diseased donors across eight decades of age. I’m thrilled to join this talented team as they mine these data to reveal much-needed new targets and develop safer and more effective medicines for neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.”

Prior to his time at Astex, Dawson spent six years at Eisai Ltd., where he held numerous roles within the company’s neuroscience innovation unit. Additionally, he led the Open Innovation and External Research Department, responsible for identifying strategic collaborations with small and mid-sized entities, academic research groups and consortia and disease focused charities across the UK, Europe and the U.S. Prior to Astex, Dawson spent seven years as Director of In Vivo Neurobiology at GlaxoSmithKline, focusing on drug discovery and development for schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorders. He received his Ph.D. and Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Leeds, UK.

“Lee’s substantial experience in CNS drug development will be invaluable as we apply our target discovery platform to new diseases and advance our pipeline of therapeutics against novel targets,” said Mark Carlton, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Cerevance. “He will also bring added neuroscience depth to our team as we begin forming large-scale research collaborations with industry partners.”

About Cerevance

Cerevance is a private pharmaceutical company focused on central nervous system diseases. The company’s strengths include its powerful NETSseq target discovery platform, a pipeline of novel discovery-stage and clinical-stage compounds and a team with a proven track record. Its scientists believe that they are well positioned to deliver life-changing therapeutics for patients who have brain-related disorders.

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