Team
We are scientists, clinicians, innovators, and entrepreneurs redefining the treatment landscape for individuals with devastating neurodegenerative diseases.
Researchers
Professor Lars M Ittner
MD
Founder / Head of Research
Professor Lars Ittner
MD
Founder
Director, Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University. Prof Ittner has over two decades of experience in neuroscience research with a focus on fundamental disease mechanisms and drug development in Alzheimer’s disease and brain conditions with neuronal hyper-excitation. He brings a deep understanding of the scientific field to the Celosia Therapeutics team. Prof Ittner trained in medicine in Germany and Switzerland followed by postgraduate training in biochemistry and biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Professor Roger Chung
PHD
Founder / Chief Scientific Officer
Professor Roger Chung
PHD
Founder / Chief Scientific Officer
Professor of Neurobiology & Neurochemistry, and Deputy Dean (Research & Innovation), Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. Has led research programs for nearly 20 years that have developed peptide therapeutics for neuroprotection and nerve regeneration (licensed to an ASX listed company), and more recently a novel gene therapy for ALS (licensed to Celosia Therapeutics). His research program has broad expertise across biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, proteomics and animal models of disease. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tasmania.
Company
Su Ming Wong
Director / Chair
Su-Ming Wong
Chairman
Chair of Access Macquarie Ltd, Chief Executive Officer of CHAMP Ventures and Professor of Practice at the UNSW Business School, UNSW. Mr Wong has over 30 years’ direct investment, international corporate advisory and merchant banking experience and has been a chairman/director on over twenty investee companies. He was previously a council member of the Australian Venture Capital Association and a member of the South Australian Government’s Venture Capital Board. He holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Professor Dan Johnson
PhD MBA
Director
Professor Dan Johnson
PhD MBA
Director
Pro-Vice Chancellor Research Innovation & Enterprise at Macquarie University, Managing Director of Access Macquarie Ltd and former Managing Director at the Wine Research Institute (Adelaide). Prof Johnson has been involved in research leadership and innovation for nearly 20 years. He has expertise across a range of scientific disciplines and experience in managing research institutes, technology transfer programs and start-up companies. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from Flinders University and an MBA from The University of Adelaide, and has undertaken executive education at Harvard University, Oxford University, IESE Business School and INSEAD Business School.
Dr Kathryn Sunn
PhD
CEO
Dr Kathryn Sunn
PhD
CEO
Dr. Kathryn Sunn serves as the Director of Commercialisation at Macquarie University. She is a seasoned executive with a distinguished career spanning over two decades in research, intellectual property, and commercialisation.
Dr. Sunn is renowned for her dynamic leadership and strategic vision in fostering technology collaborations and expanding commercial opportunities within the Australian research and early enterprise sectors. With extensive experience in intellectual property management, strategy, and business development, Dr. Sunn has held roles in two of Australia’s leading patent firms and has spearheaded the technology transfer units at the Australia’s largest universities. Her expertise lies in forging impactful strategic partnerships and delivering commercially focused advice to transform innovations into valuable assets.
Dr. Sunn holds a PhD in Medical Science with a specialisation in genetics from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. She is a trained patent and trademark attorney in Australia and New Zealand. Her governance experience includes serving on the Board of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA), the premier body for research commercialisation in Australasia, as well as on the boards of several Macquarie University startup companies.
ALS Advisory Panel
Our advisory panel consists of individuals from around the world that are internationally recognised in the field of neurodegenerative disease (in particular Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) with significant research, clinical expertise and links to global clinical trial networks. This stellar panel will provide Celosia Therapeutics with guidance during the pre-clinical and clinical development phases, ongoing research and regulatory approval processes.
Professor Merit Cudkowicz
ALS Advisory Panel Chair
Professor Merit Cudkowicz
ALS Advisory Panel Chair
Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS, Chief of Neurology at Mass General, Director and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and past Co-Chairs of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 134 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative clinical trials and research in ALS. Dr. Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology 2009 Sheila Essay ALS award, the 2017 Forbes Norris Award from the International MND Alliance, the 2017 Pinnacle Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the 2019 Ray Adams American Neurological Association Award. Dr. Cudkowicz completed her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained a medical degree in the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard Medical School. She served her internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York and her neurology residency and fellowship at MGH. She also obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Professor Dominic Rowe
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Dominic Rowe
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Rowe is the Foundation Professor of Neurology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University. For ten years he was Chairman of the MND Research Institute of Australia and he is the current chairman of Macquarie Neurology, and Consultant Neurologist at Macquarie University Hospital. He has published on clinical, genetic and biological aspects of Parkinson’s Disease and Motor Neurone Disease as well as other fields of adult neurology. Professor Rowe was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honour List for services to Medicine and Neurology, particularly Motor Neurone Disease and Parkinson’s. Professor Rowe is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists; International Movement Disorder Society and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He is a Chairman of Neurology at Macquarie University Hospital and the founder of Macquarie Neurology; an adult neurology practice that performs more than 10,000 patient episodes per year. Macquarie Neurology manages the care of more than 200 patients with MND, 600 patients with Parkinson’s and 100 patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Professor Rowe has a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, University of Sydney, 1989. Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians 1996.
Professor Glenda Halliday
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Glenda Halliday
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Halliday is an Australian career neuroscientist and research neuropathologist specialising in neurodegeneration and has been a Research Fellow in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC) systems since 1988, attesting to the quality of my research ideas and ability to prosecute them. Professor Halliday appointed Professor of Medicine (2003) then of Neuroscience (2008), then NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow (2010) at the University of New South Wales, and is now a NHMRC Leadership Fellow located at the University of Sydney until 2025. Professor Halliday has successfully worked with many Australian and international researchers on important scientific questions on Parkinson’s disease, alcohol toxicity, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementias and motor neurodegenerative diseases. Professor Halliday has a BSc from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and went on to subsequently graduate with a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the UNSW.