Dr. Patzke has been working in the field of neuroscience since 1995. He holds a PhD from Goethe University in Frankfurt/Germany, where he investigated peripheral nervous system development at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research. He then held a post-doctoral position at Harvard Medical School/HHMI in Boston, researching kinase signaling in mouse models of neurodegeneration and cortical development. 

Since 2004 he has held different positions at EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company in Watertown, MA focused on discovering drugs for CNS disorders. At EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, he has led a project team that discovered novel histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and identified a pre-clinical candidate compound. He has guided pre-clinical and clinical development in the HDAC program. 

Dr. Patzke has been awarded several personal research grants, has published original research papers and reviews in peer-reviewed journals and is inventor on patents.