Marco Baptista, Ph.D., Reeve Foundation’s new Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Baptista brings his experience in neuroscience and combinatorial therapies to lead the Foundation’s research endeavors

Today, I am honored to announce the appointment of Marco Baptista, Ph.D., as the Reeve Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer. Spinal cord injury research has evolved into an exciting field primed to cross the critical threshold of laboratory science to real-world therapies for the community. With Dr. Baptista leading the helm of our research program, he will help the Foundation amplify its efforts to advance research that translates into widely available treatments for paralysis — sooner rather than later.
In this role, Dr. Baptista will help lead the Foundation’s mission to advance cures for spinal cord injury (SCI) and paralysis and provide scientific and innovative oversight of our research portfolio and collaborative approach to accelerating the field toward meaningful treatments.

The Reeve Foundation has been a driving force behind some of the earliest discoveries in the field and has invested over $140 million in labs worldwide. Dr. Baptista joins us at a pivotal time as we restructure our approach to research to be more assertive in bringing the latest scientific discoveries to our community.

Dr. Baptista joins the Reeve Foundation from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where he served as Vice President of Research Programs. In his decade with the Fox Foundation, he led priority research around LRRK2, a major genetic mutation that can increase the chances of developing Parkinson’s disease – an area of study that had also been the focus of his efforts in the pharmaceutical industry, where he spent five years working at Schering-Plough, and then Merck when it acquired the company in 2009. He was trained as a Neuroscientist at the University of Toronto and McMaster University, Canada, where he received his Ph.D.

What stood out most about Dr. Baptista is his unique blend of neuroscience acumen, nonprofit and industry relationships, and passion for connecting with a community of people living with or caring for someone with paralysis. His priorities for Reeve include managing high-profile research endeavors, identifying opportunities and gaps for funding collaborative science from the bench to the bedside, and accelerating the progress toward commercialized and broadly available treatments.

We look forward to sharing more information on our new direction for research. In the meantime, please join us in welcoming Dr. Baptista to the Reeve Foundation community. Learn more about Dr. Baptista here.

Maggie Goldberg
President and CEO
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation