Michael J Fox Foundation adviser joins NRG Therapeutics
His appointment follows a number of other senior hires on the back of NRG’s £50 million Series B financing bringing the team to 12 including the three founders.
The new funds provide runway for completion of a Phase 2 clinical proof of concept study of NRG5051 in ALS MND, while also generating meaningful clinical data in Parkinson’s patients through a Phase 1b study. NRG is headquartered at Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst.
Thompson is an adviser for the Michael J Fox Foundation on its Targets to Translation programs and continues to advise neurology start-up companies in the UK. He holds an MBiochem from the University of Oxford and a PhD from UCL.
In his role at NRG, he will be project lead for NRG5051 which is on track to start first-in-human studies in early 2026. NRG5051 is an oral, CNS-penetrant small molecule inhibitor of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) acting via a novel mechanism of action (MoA).
Inhibition of the mPTP has been shown to be profoundly neuroprotective and significantly reduces neuroinflammation in pre-clinical models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/motor neuron disease (MND), and Parkinson’s. Paul will also take responsibility for all non-clinical development functions within NRG.
Thompson has more than 25 years’ experience in translational research, early clinical development and pharma R & D, with a focus predominantly on neurology. Most recently he was CSO at Mission Therapeutics for five years, responsible for delivery of clinical candidate USP30 inhibitors for renal and CNS disorders.
He led the MTX325 USP30 inhibitor project into Phase 1 for Parkinson’s, part funded by the Michael J Fox Foundation and co-authored two manuscripts on mitochondrial dysfunction and Parkinson’s in Nature journals.
Prior to Mission, he was Clinical Science Director at ONO Pharma UK, leading clinical development of multiple early phase assets across a variety of indications, and his earlier career in pharma was spent at GSK, where he transitioned from laboratory biomarker research, through experimental medicine study leadership, to leading global project teams as Director of Neurology Discovery Medicine.