About Ruxton - Management

Richard E. Chipkin, PhD
President and C.E.O.

Dr. Chipkin has more than 20 years experience at both biotech and big pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, he was President and CEO of Psychiatric Genomics, a private, venture-backed company. While there, he raised two rounds of venture capital financing, re-organized the company, and negotiated multiple academic licenses.

Prior to that, he worked at Schering-Plough Corporation in the Global Business Development Group, where he was responsible for licensing and acquisition in multiple therapeutic areas. In this capacity, Dr. Chipkin negotiated several multi-million dollar research & development and development/marketing deals, including the license for INTEGRILIN®, currently a $250M/year product. In addition, he was responsible for maintaining all business development relationships with Japanese pharmaceutical companies and concluded a deal with Chugai for a dermatology product. Earlier in his career at Schering-Plough, he held positions in both preclinical and clinical neuropharmacology research. Among his accomplishments in the research arena were the discovery of novel analgesic and antipsychotic drugs, including the identification and human testing of ecopipam -- the world's first selective D1/D5 antagonist.

Dr. Chipkin received his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany and his PhD in Pharmacology from the Medical College of Virginia. He did post-doctoral work at the University of Colorado Medical Center.

Jeffrey D. Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific founder

Dr. Rothstein is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, a member of the Program for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Director of the Packard Center for ALS Research, and Vice Chairman for Research in the Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rothstein is an internationally recognized expert on neurodegenerative disease, with a specialty in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He is a recognized leader in the field of glutamate excitotoxicity and glutamate transporter biology. His research on transporter systems has established a clear role for these proteins in various aspects of neurological diseases. He currently directs over $10 million in grants from the NIH, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and private philanthropy, employing 25 post docs, junior faculty and graduate students to investigate the pathogenesis of ALS, novel therapies, and the basic synaptic biology of glutamate transporters.

Dr. Rothstein also directs the Packard Center for ALS Research, the first multi-investigator, multi-institutional, international collaborative research Center for aggressively targeting ALS pathogenesis and novel therapeutics for ALS. He directly oversees the distribution of ALS Center research and $2 million in annual grants distributed by the Center. He has successfully carried out “bench-to-bedside” research with ALS relevant drugs identified in his lab and carried forward into clinical trials. He has been the Principal Investigator in a dozen national and international clinical trials. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Rothstein graduated from Colgate University (BA), the University of Chicago (MA), and the University of Illinois (MD, PhD). He completed his internship at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, followed by a neurology residency at Johns Hopkins where he has remained since 1986.

Rita Sattler, Ph.D.
Lead scientist

Dr. Sattler is a Research Associate in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. Her scientific interests are focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of glutamate-mediated neuronal signaling under physiological and pathological conditions. Dr. Sattler’s research on glutamate receptor activation during neurodegeneration led to the discovery of a receptor-specific pathological pathway for a neuronal excitotoxic insult. Her work opened up the possibility of a new way of thinking about how brain cells degenerate and offered new targets for therapeutic intervention.

Dr. Sattler has received a number of awards and fellowships, including the Governor General’s Gold Medal for highest academic standing at the graduate level at the University of Toronto. She has been invited to write numerous review articles on molecular mechanisms of excitotoxicity by peer reviewed international and national journals. Dr. Sattler acts as a reviewer for a number of scientific journals (Science, The Journal of Neuroscience, The Journal of Neurochemistry, The Journal of Cell Biology, Epilepsy).

Dr. Sattler graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim, Germany (B. Sc.) and the University of Toronto (M.Sc. and Ph.D.). She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Neuroscience.