Neurgain Technologies, Inc., was founded in 2013 by Martin Marsala, Professor of Anesthesiology, UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Michael Krupp, CEO—a proven leader with a track record in large pharma companies and leading several startups including Xfibra, Inc., to develop the technologies arising from Dr. Marsala’s.
Dr. Marsala’s work has focused on the treatment of spinal cord trauma-induced neuropathic pain, including neuropathic pain, and has produced numerous scientific publications and several patents.
Team Members
Dr. Krupp is currently the CEO of two startup companies, Neurgain Technologies and Xfibra, Inc., that are based on UC San Diego technologies. In addition, He also is a Business and Technology Adviser the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering focused on the Life Sciences area. Previously Dr. Krupp was Sr. V.P. of Business Development and Chief Business Officer of Chugai Pharma USA, LLC (CPUSA) in San Diego. Dr. Krupp was responsible for identifying and acquiring products and technology to complement and expand CPUSA’s project pipeline. He was responsible for the market research and strategic marketing efforts for Chugai drug candidates outside of Japan including the anti-IL-6 receptor antibody, Actemira, a novel agent for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He was also responsible for general business operations. Prior to Chugai, Dr. Krupp served as Director, Licensing and Development, at Pfizer, Inc. He started his industry career in Pfizer Central Research in the areas of Diabetes drug discovery and General Pharmacology. Dr. Krupp received his B.S. in Chemistry from Hobart College and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine. He completed his Postdoctoral Research at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Professor of Anesthesiology at University of California San Diego
Dr. Marsala, is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Neurgain Technologies, Inc.
He has over 25 years of research experience in the field of Neuroscience. A significant element of Dr. Marsala’s spinal injury investigations is focused on the development of gene-therapy based treatments to modulate spinal excitatory system and to suppress spinal trauma-induced spasticity and chronic pain. Dr. Marsala is the originator of subpial delivery technique in small and large preclinical animal models. He is also the originator of dual gene therapy approach for the treatment of neuropathic pain. He is a current member of the clinical team which conducts a Phase I clinical trial to test the safety of human spinal stem cells after spinal grafting in chronic spinal trauma patients at UCSD.
Dr. Marsala earned his doctoral degree from Safarik’s University of Medical School, Kosice, Slovakia.
Dr. Tadokoro is an experienced research scientist and expert in small and large animal spinal microsurgeries/technique to deliver therapeutic substances into spinal subpial space.
Prior to joining the Neurgain Technologies, Dr. Tadokoro was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego. His work focused on the characterization of pathophysiology and treatment of spinal neurodegenerative disorders including chronic peripheral nerve and spinal cord injury-induced neuropathic pain. Prior to his position at UCSD, Dr. Tadokoro worked as an anesthesiologist at the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa.
Dr. Tadokoro received his medical degree from the University of Tsukuba, Cluster of Medical Sciences in Ibaraki, Japan.
Dr. Silvia Marsala is the operations manager, and the coordinator and administrator for preclinical non-GLP and GLP studies. Prior to joining Neurgain’s leadership team, Dr. S. Marsala held the position of Project Scientist at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego and her research focused on cell-replacement based therapies in small and large preclinical animal models and assessing the therapeutic potential of neural precursor cells in enhancing functional recovery following spinal cord injury.
Dr. Marsala earned her degree from the University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology in Kosice, Slovakia.
Director of Vector Development Lab at the Department of Anesthesiology, UCSD Dr. Miyanohara has a broad background in molecular biology, with extensive experience in the development of retrovirus, lentivirusl, adenovirus and AAV vectors for in vitro and in vivo gene delivery.
Dr. Miyanohara has supervised the Vector Core Laboratory of the University of California San Diego, Program in Human Gene Therapy since its inception in 1995. His primary research focus has been on the development of safe and efficient gene transfer vectors for gene therapy applications, cell reprogramming, and transgenesis. Dr. Miyanohara is one of the principals in the development of the VSV-G pseudotyping and VSV-G virosome techonologies.
Dr. Miyanohara received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan and his
Ph.D. degree in Medical Sciences from the Osaka University, Suita in Japan.
A senior organizational leader in the development and commercialization of human therapeutics, held a leadership positions at several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Formerly he served as a Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Bonti, Inc., Head of Global Regulatory Affairs CMC at Allergan, a Senior Director of Technical Operations at Micromet in Germany, and CMC Specialist, a Global Regulatory Leader at Amgen, California.
He received his degree in Biological Sciences, the University of Southern California, and the Regulatory Science, John Hopkins University.
Satish Menon has many years of industrial experience in research, development and management of projects for development of therapeutics. He is an expert in the development of protein-based therapeutics such as cytokines, monoclonal antibodies neurotoxins gene and cellular therapies. He has had extensive experience in process development, commercial manufacturing and research in the upstream and downstream areas of protein therapeutics development.
Dr. Menon served for 14 years on the Staff at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, At DNAX, he set up and was the head of the recombinant protein laboratory and worked on the Upstream and Downstream development of multiple novel cytokines and chemokines as well as the development of high through put methods of protein production. As Director of Process development at Genitope Corporation, Dr. Menon established the process development group and worked on developing a manufacturing process using disposable production technologies for the clinical and commercial manufacturing of Genitope’s personalized therapeutic vaccine.
As Director of Bioprocess Development at Allergan, Dr. Menon worked on understanding and characterization of the commercial process for Botox. This understanding led to the development of a new and improved process for Botox at a considerably lower scale and cost. Satish was Vice -President of Process Development and Manufacturing at Bonti Inc and successfully developed the manufacturing process for clinical product used in Phase 2 studies in a short time for First in Human studies, Bonti was acquired by Allergan in 2018.
Satish Menon started a consulting company in 2006 and has been responsible for multiple Development projects encompassing protein therapeutics and gene therapies. He has extensive experience in the development of manufacturing processes for therapeutics, including Upstream and Downstream, regulatory aspects of bio-therapeutic development, developing processes that meet current GMP standards.
Satish has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science and joined Harvard Medical School for postdoctoral training in the department of Physiology and Biophysics. Satish has published over 60 papers in international journals.
