Irene Griswold-Prenner, PHD

Irene Griswold-Prenner, PhD, is Founder and CEO/CSO of Nitrome Biosciences. Nitrome Biosciences is a platform company developing drugs against a newly identified class of enzymes, initially targeting Parkinson’s disease. The therapies that Nitrome is developing will target these enzymes and potentially help slow or halt the progression of diseases such as Parkinson’s. While the initial focus is on Parkinson's disease, the company aims to expand its proprietary platform to include other disease indications. She was previously a Cofounder and the CSO of Imago Pharmaceuticals. Imago, a privately held pharmaceutical company, engaged in development of drug candidates directed against JNK for fibrosis and neurodegenerative disease treatment. Imago acquired Elan Pharmaceuticals’ preclinical assets, including JNK, from which all assets were developed and partnered or sold to biotech or pharmaceuticals to continue their development. She led iPierian’s research efforts when value creation was realized for up to $725 million from the BMS acquisition of iPierian for IPN007, the first tau therapeutic antibody to begin human testing. IPN007 was purchased by Biogen for up to $1.4 billion and is testing in Phase 2 studies for PSP and AD. IPN007 is also the first drug candidate into clinical trials where the discovery originated from an iPSC approach. Irene worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals, contributed to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis Programs. She received her BA from Colorado University in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and PhD from University of Chicago in Physiology and Cellular Pharmacology.