Jay Backstrom, M.D., MPH
President & Chief Executive Officer, Scholar Rock
- Joined Scholar Rock in October 2022 as President and Chief Executive Officer.
- Previously served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development at Acceleron Pharma, and Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Celgene.
- Prior to joining the industry, served as staff physician and medical director of the Samuel U. Rogers Community Health Center in Kansas City, MO.
- Holds an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and an M.Ph. from St. Louis University School of Public Health.
Thomas Crawford, M.D.
Co-Director, Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic; Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins Medicine; Lead TOPAZ and SAPPHIRE Principal Investigator
- Member of the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins since 1987.
- Practice involves general child neurology with a principal interest in caring for children with neuromuscular, neuromotor, and ataxic disorders.
- On the Medical and Scientific Advisory Boards of Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy, and the Medical Advisory Committee for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Basil Darras, M.D.
Associate Neurologist-in-Chief, Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; TOPAZ and SAPPHIRE Principal Investigator
- Chief of the division of clinical neurology in the Department of Neurology at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
- Director of Neuromuscular Center and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Program.
- Special focus is in the care of children with neuromuscular conditions originating from inherited or acquired conditions of the motor unit.
Jackie Glascock, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research, Cure SMA
- Joined Cure SMA in 2016, overseeing the organization’s research programs.
- Cure SMA is a non-profit organization which has funded and directed over $85 million for SMA research.
- The organization also advocates for and provides practical support programs.
Jing Marantz, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Scholar Rock
- Joined Scholar Rock in November 2022 as Chief Medical Officer.
- Currently serves on the board of Arcturus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ARCT).
- Previously served as Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at Acceleron Pharma.
- Holds an M.D. from Tongji Medical College, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Medical University of South Carolina and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Laurent Servais, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases, MD UK Oxford Neuromuscular Centre, University of Oxford; Invited Professor of Child Neurology at Liège University; SAPPHIRE Principal Investigator
- Joined MD UK Oxford Neuromuscular Center at the University of Oxford in September 2019 as Director of Neuromuscular Center and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Program.
- Leader of the newborn screening program for SMA in southern Belgium.
- Main research focus expertise covers the development of innovative outcome measures including connective devices for real-life patients' evaluation.