Our Team

Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, is a trained psychiatrist, neuroscientist and has been on the Stanford faculty since 2010. As a tenured Professor, he became an international leader in the neuroscience of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. In recognition of the influence of his ideas and work, Amit received the Director’s Pioneer Award; the most competitive and prestigious NIH grant and the first one given in clinical psychiatry. He has also consistently ranked in the top 0.1% of researchers by citations.  

Amit brings broad-based scientific and programmatic leadership and a compelling vision for connecting scientific discoveries to pragmatic clinical and business goals. He has a proven track record of success, with publications in high-impact journals, raising extensive public and private funding, and managing a large and diverse team of scientists, clinicians, and engineers towards a shared scientific vision. He received his MD/PhD at Columbia University with Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, completed his psychiatry residency and concurrent postdoc at Stanford University with Alan Schatzberg.  

Dan Segal brings over 25 years of wide-ranging science and global commercialization experience to the team. Previously, he was a co-founder of the neuroscience company Brain Resource (now renamed Total Brain), where he served as COO, CFO and Board member overseeing growth from start-up to post public listing. During his tenure, Brain Resource built one of the largest personalized medicine-focused brain databases and helped create the market for brain health SaaS solutions, selling services to Fortune 500 companies. Notably, he was instrumental in the origination and implementation of the landmark iSPOT-Depression and iSPOT-ADHD treatment prediction studies. Prior to Brain Resource, he was a highly ranked analyst and a Director in Equities Research at Citigroup. Dan has a BComm and MSc (physics) from the University of New South Wales.

Adam Savitz, MD, PhD, joined Alto Neuroscience after 10 years at Janssen R&D. At Janssen in Neurosciences, Adam led the paliperidone schizophrenia team to the approval of the 3-month long acting injectable in multiple markets as well as the pediatric indication in Europe. He then led the clinical development of an antidepressant with a novel mechanism of action from phase 2 into phase 3 focused on an FDA supported unique indication. ​​He was also the clinical strategic leader across the Mood Disorder pipeline, focusing on the transition of medications from early to late development. He led the Janssen Neurosciences’ efforts in two public-private precision psychiatry consortia (IMI’s EU-PEARL and fNIH’s AMP-Sz) and collaborated with internal and external groups on a variety of projects including genetics, scale assessment, and in vitro diagnostics, resulting in multiple publications.

Prior to Janssen, Adam was on the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College where he continues on the voluntary faculty. At Weill Cornell, he led the Second Chance Program, a specialized inpatient psychiatric program for chronically institutionalized patients with psychotic disorders and was Director of Clinical Schizophrenia Research. He completed his psychiatry training and served on the staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and his MD/PhD (molecular biology) at UCLA.

Wei Wu, PhD, is a biomedical engineer, former Professor at South China University of Technology, and former Instructor at Stanford who has deep expertise in electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing and artificial intelligence (AI). He is the inventor of the AI methods that have provided breakthrough insights into treatment-relevant brain biomarker signatures, as part of his long-standing Stanford collaboration with Amit Etkin. He has built out Alto’s AI infrastructure and drives its algorithm development. Wei received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University and was a researcher with the Neuroscience Statistics Lab in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is on the editorial board of IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, and a member of the IEEE Biomedical Signal Processing Technical Committee.

Nick Smith joined Alto with more than 10 years of experience within central nervous system (CNS)-focused biopharmaceutical companies. Nick brings a broad set of expertise across business development, capital raising, commercial and portfolio strategy, and corporate finance. Most recently, Nick was Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Aptinyx, where he was involved in raising more than $300 million across private and public financings and played a key role in the company's IPO. Prior to Aptinyx, Nick worked for Lundbeck serving in roles of increasing responsibility across business development, forecasting, commercial assessment, new product planning, market research, and financial planning and analysis. He received a BA, ACCPA, in accounting and finance from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.

Ms. McQuade is an experienced advisor with over 20 years of leadership focused on securities law, corporate governance, executive compensation, M&A and finance. Prior to joining Alto, she served as vice president, legal at Levo Therapeutics, Inc. where she was responsible for advising on all legal matters including IP protections, risk management, and corporate compliance. Previously, she was the deputy general counsel at Assertio Therapeutics, Inc., assistant general counsel and assistant secretary at Mead Johnson Nutrition Company, senior corporate counsel at Hyatt Hotels Corporation and vice president, associate general counsel at SPSS Inc. Ms. McQuade began her career at Latham & Watkins LLP. She earned her juris doctor from Georgetown University Law Center and bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Jessica Powell joined Alto with more than 20 years of neuroscience research experience in the academic and pharmaceutical sectors. Jessica brings a broad set of expertise in the design and execution of clinical trials, building effective teams, developing and implementing innovative clinical strategies, and leading cross-functional teams to develop novel therapeutics. Most recently, Jessica was Vice President, Clinical Operations, at Alkahest, where she was responsible for creating and implementing the clinical operations strategy across the pipeline. Prior to Alkahest, Jessica held project management and leadership roles at Bioclinica, SRI International, Stanford University, UCLA School of Medicine, and UT MD Anderson Cancer Research Center with a strong focus in neuroscience research. Jessica earned a BA in Biology from Texas A&M University.

Fadi Abdel, PhD, brings to the Alto team nearly three decades of industry experience leading global strategy of clinical operations, technology, and innovation, and successfully bringing decentralized and virtual trials to life. Prior to Alto, Fadi was instrumental in leading a team at Janssen R&D within the neuroscience therapeutic area, where he was driven by the mission of designing and transforming the patient experience in clinical trials utilizing human-centered design methodologies, digital health technology and data science. Fadi is also recognized as a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which he sees as critical to insight, innovation, and business success. Before his tenure at Janssen, Fadi held leadership roles at Novartis and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals. Fadi received a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from David Lipscomb University and a PhD in epidemiology from the American Military University while also studying medicine with a focus in urology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Melissa Berman joined Alto with more than 20 years of finance experience in accounting and finance. Melissa brings a broad set of expertise in financial reporting, controls, technical accounting and public company filings. Most recently, Melissa was CFO at Levo Therapeutics where they successfully completed a Series B financing before selling the company to a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. Prior to Levo, Melissa held a variety of roles at Assertio Therapeutics, AveXis Gene Therapy, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and PwC. Melissa earned a BS and MS in Accountancy from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Bruce Morimoto, PhD, brings over 25 years of industry experience in leading project teams in the development of innovative medicines, providing guidance in the design and execution of manufacturing, nonclinical, clinical and regulatory strategies with a therapeutic focus on CNS indications including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementias. Previously, Bruce held leadership roles at Cerecin, Alkahest, Celerion and Allon Therapeutics, and works closely as a scientific advisor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, chairing one of their scientific review panels. Bruce started his career on the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University, where his independent research focused on neuronal signal transduction. Bruce earned his doctorate in biochemistry from UCLA and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.

Tom Insel, MD, is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist. He has served as the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, a component of the National Institutes of Health that is committed to research of mental disorders. Prior to his appointment at the NIMH, Tom was a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Emory University School of Medicine. He also served as Director of the Center for Autism Research and is a member of the scientific advisory board at the Autism Science Foundation. Tom is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards, including honorary degrees in the U.S. and in Europe. Tom is a co-founder of MindstrongHealth and led a team at Verily Life Sciences to develop technology for mental health care.

Madhukar H. Trivedi, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He serves as Chief of the Division of Mood Disorders and is the founding Director of the Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, where he holds the Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health and the Julie K. Hersh Chair for Depression Research and Clinical Care. Madhukar earned his medical degree at Baroda Medical College in India, where he also completed a residency in psychiatry. He also performed a second residency in psychiatry at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and received advanced training in functional brain imaging and psychopharmacology through a research fellowship at UT Southwestern.

Alan Schatzberg, MD is a Director at the Stanford Mood Disorders Center and Professor of psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He was also Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford from 1991 to 2010. Alan previously served as the President of the American College of Neuropsychology, the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and the American Psychiatric Association. He is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Alan has received multiple national and international awards and honors and is a member of the Bio-X and Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. Alan earned his medical degree from Harvard University, before completing his medical training at the New York University School of Medicine. He is board certified psychiatrist and holds a fellowship granted by Harvard Medical School.

Fei-Fei Li, PhD, is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. Fei-Fei is a member of the National Academies of Engineering and of Medicine. She served as the Director of Stanford’s AI Lab from 2013 to 2018. During her sabbatical from Stanford from January 2017 to September 2018, she was Vice President at Google and served as Chief Scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud. Fei-Fei obtained her B.A. degree in physics from Princeton in 1999 with High Honors, and her PhD degree in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2005. She joined Stanford in 2009 as an assistant professor. Prior to that, she was on faculty at Princeton University and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Quentin Huys, PhD, is the Clinical Professor of Computational Psychiatry at University College London (UCL) where he also serves as the deputy director of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research. He completed his undergraduate training at Cambridge University before joining the MB/PhD program at UCL. While obtaining his PhD in computational neuroscience and machine learning the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, he successfully applied computational techniques to the study of mental illness. Dr. Huys completed his residency in psychiatry at the Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Zurich and was a research fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich).

Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, is a trained psychiatrist, neuroscientist and has been on the Stanford faculty since 2010. As a tenured Professor, he became an international leader in the neuroscience of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. In recognition of the influence of his ideas and work, Amit received the Director’s Pioneer Award; the most competitive and prestigious NIH grant and the first one given in clinical psychiatry. He has also consistently ranked in the top 0.1% of researchers by citations.  

Amit brings broad-based scientific and programmatic leadership and a compelling vision for connecting scientific discoveries to pragmatic clinical and business goals. He has a proven track record of success, with publications in high-impact journals, raising extensive public and private funding, and managing a large and diverse team of scientists, clinicians, and engineers towards a shared scientific vision. He received his MD/PhD at Columbia University with Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, completed his psychiatry residency and concurrent postdoc at Stanford University with Alan Schatzberg.  

Dan Segal brings over 25 years of wide-ranging science and global commercialization experience to the team. Previously, he was a co-founder of the neuroscience company Brain Resource (now renamed Total Brain), where he served as COO, CFO and Board member overseeing growth from start-up to post public listing. During his tenure, Brain Resource built one of the largest personalized medicine-focused brain databases and helped create the market for brain health SaaS solutions, selling services to Fortune 500 companies. Notably, he was instrumental in the origination and implementation of the landmark iSPOT-Depression and iSPOT-ADHD treatment prediction studies. Prior to Brain Resource, he was a highly ranked analyst and a Director in Equities Research at Citigroup. Dan has a BComm and MSc (physics) from the University of New South Wales.

Gwill York is Co-founder and Managing Director of Lighthouse Capital Partners. She has led investments in biotech, medical devices and services, information technology, communications equipment, e-commerce, Internet infrastructure, semiconductors, software, and clean tech companies. Gwill served on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association and on Harvard’s Board of Overseers. She also serves on the Boards of Trustees of Mass General Brigham, One Mind, and the Women’s Foundation of Boston. In 2018, she joined the Board of Sofina, a public investment company based in Brussels and Singapore that invests globally in entrepreneurs and family businesses directly and indirectly through leading venture and private equity firms.

Aaron Weaver is a Managing Director at Apeiron Investments focusing on the life sciences sector. He also serves as Senior General Counsel and supports fundraising and investor relations activities at ATAI Life Sciences AG, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of therapeutics for the treatment of mood disorders, addiction and anxiety. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a registered solicitor in the United Kingdom. He previously worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse in London within the Capital Markets Solutions team. During his time at Credit Suisse, he advised on capital structuring and issuances for a full spectrum of corporate issuers ranging from pre-revenue companies to publicly listed companies.

Jeff Chen is a Managing Director and the Head of Healthcare at Alkeon Capital Management, focusing on the healthcare and life science sectors. He has led investments across biotech, pharma, diagnostics, medical devices, tools, contracted research organizations, and contracted development and manufacturing organizations. 

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Jeff previously served as Vice President and Research Analyst covering biotechs at Cowen and Company. He has over a decade of academic research and held research positions at Max Planck Institute in Germany and at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Cellular Molecular Medicine/Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University with seminal work on learning and memory in neurocognitive disorders.

Christopher Nixon Cox is the son of Tricia Nixon Cox and Edward F. Cox, and grandson of President and Mrs. Nixon. Cox is the CEO of the private equity firm, Lightswitch Capital, focused on advancing innovation in the biotechnology sector. Previously, he was a corporate associate at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in New York where he advised major private equity fund clients on acquisitions.

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In 2008, Cox was the Executive Director for New York State in Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He holds a B.A. in politics from Princeton University, a J.D. from the New York University School of Law and a certificate in finance from New York University Stern School.

Chris is Managing Director, Biotechnology Investments (Public & Private) at Alpha Wave Global. He currently serves as a board director for Apnimed, Dunad Therapeutics and Cour Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Chris worked in prominent buy-side portfolio management roles, including at Citadel Investment Group, Millennium Partners and J. Goldman, and prior to that in equity research, including with JP Morgan. Most recently, Chris served as founder and CEO of a biotechnology company focused on the development of oligonucleotides for CNS disorders.

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Chris graduated from John Hopkins University with a M.S. in Biotechnology and from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Finance.

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