Dr Damian O’ Connell, Chair of Molecular Medicine Ireland, is delighted to announce the appointment of Marina Zvartau-Hind, MD, PhD, BC ABPN to the Board of Directors. She replaces Dr Jackie Hunter, Senior Vice-President of GlaxoSmithKline, who recently stepped down after serving more than 2 years on the Board. “We welcome GSK’s continued commitment to the mission of Molecular Medicine Ireland which is to build a sustainable national system to coordinate, support and promote translational and clinical research”, Dr O’ Connell said.

Dr Zvartau-Hind is the Director of GSK’s Neurosciences Medicines Development Centre and Clinical Leader of their Alzheimer disease projects. She is a neurologist by profession who specialises in neuroimmunology.

In 2002, Dr Zvartau-Hind was appointed Head of the Neurodegeneration Group at GSK, providing clinical leadership to multiple studies conducted in areas such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, stroke, pain and translational medicine. Previously, she gained extensive experience as a clinical investigator on a number of clinical trials including Multiple Sclerosis, Devic’s disease, transverse myelitis, cognition and fatigue.

Dr Zvartau-Hind held the prestigious title of Sylvia Lawry Physician of the Multiple Sclerosis Society from 2001 to 2002 and is a member of both the Scientific Panel of Les Entreprises du Médicament (LEEM) Recherché/Inserm in France with involvement in translational research into Alzheimer disease, and of the International Alzheimer’s Disease Task Force. Furthermore, she is a reviewer for the Neurodegeneration Development Programmes of the Medical Research Council in the UK and is author of a variety of publications in the field of neurosciences.