Dr. Blain is the head of biology at Arkuda Therapeutics. He received his PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and has over 20 years of experience in the fields of neurodegenerative diseases and drug discovery in both academia and pharma/biotech. His primary focus is the development of drugs to help treat neurodegenerative diseases with high unmet needs like Parkinson’s disease (PD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

At Arkuda, Dr. Blain initially worked on the development of molecules to increase progranulin, a protein depleted in FTD. This research led to the discovery that these molecules also enhanced glucocerebrosidase (GCase) activity, opening their use for treating PD. Throughout his career, Dr. Blain has been involved at every stage of drug discovery spanning target validation to early clinical development. He is an author of more than 15 peer reviewed articles, four book chapters and reviews, and three patents.