Anne Lesage, PhD

Background

Anne Lesage initiated GrayMatters Consulting to support executives and managers in need of high quality scientific knowledge and advice related to neuroscience drug discovery and early clinical development projects. Anne is a dynamic independent consultant and expert scientific advisor in neuroscience. Anne is trained as biochemist and has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Ghent, Belgium. She started her career in neuroscience in 1989 at Stanford University School of Medicine, in the Child Psychiatry department. In 1992 she joined the neuroscience drug discovery unit at Janssen Pharmaceutica (Johnson&Johnson), where she held different leadership positions in all areas of drug discovery, including coordination of the in vitro team, leading the biology activities for psychiatry, steering the outsourcing and collaboration efforts, and being a key player in the target identification and validation team. Her passion is driving drug discovery projects from concept to clinic.

Primary area of expertise

Anne Lesage, the Scientific Advisor at GrayMatters Consulting, is an expert in pharmacology of the nervous system. She has 18 years experience in neuroscience drug discovery, bringing new molecular entities to the clinic. Anne has in depth knowledge of molecular, cellular, and functional neurobiology as well as behavioral in vivo models, biomarkers and translational research. Anne has published over 40 peer reviewed papers on basic science and novel drug candidates targeted towards GPCRs and ion channels, signal transduction and allosteric modulation of metabotropic and ionotropic glutamate receptors, nicotinic receptors and various other targets. Anne is a scientifically driven, rigorous neuroscience expert, passionate about the development of new medicines for the treatment of pain, psychiatric, neurologic and cognitive disorders.

Download the CV of Anne Lesage in pdf format.

Field of expertise

• Neuropharmacology
• Receptor radioligand binding and signal transduction
• In vitro assay development
• Drug discovery projects, from concept to clinic
• Project flowchart and compound selection criteria
• Target validation
• In vivo mechanistic tests and behavioral animal models
• In vivo target engagement
• Translational research
• Identification of biomarkers
• Therapeutic focus on psychiatry, pain, neurology, and cognitive disorders
• Target-related therapeutic opportunities and CNS-mediated side effects