Sergey PaushkinDr. Sergey Paushkin is Director of Research at the Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Foundation. He is responsible for coordinating research efforts of pharmaceutical, biotech, academic, and contract research organizations with the goal of bringing theraeutics to patients with SMA. Dr. Paushkin has more than 20 years of experience in biomedical research related to rare diseases and has been working in the SMA field since 1998. His work on SMA started during postdoctoral training at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (University of Pennsylvania), where he studied molecular mechanisms of the disease, including the organization and function of the SMN complex. Dr. Paushkin continued working on SMA at PTC Therapeutics, where he established the SMA program and led drug discovery efforts, prior to moving to the SMA Foundation. Dr. Paushkin's expertise in SMA extends from molecular mechanisms of disease pathogenesis to drug discovery and development of therapeutics. Dr. Paushkin's work is focused on implementing strategies to overcome translational barriers in preclinical and clinical research by establishing and leading collaborations between industry, academic institutions and CROs, as well as developing strong relationship with the SMA community. Dr. Paushkin received his MD from the Russian State Medical University and PhD in Biochemistry from the Cardiology Research Center, Moscow. His undergraduate research was focused on the molecular basis of prion diseases, including prion protein conversion. Read More Read Less