Katerina
Akassoglou

Dr. Katerina Akassoglou is a Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and a Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, where she directs the Gladstone-UCSF Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology. She discovered how blood proteins, particularly fibrinogen, drive neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration by interacting with the brain’s immune cells. Based on this discovery, Dr. Akassoglou invented the first-in-class fibrin-targeting immunotherapy that neutralizes fibrin’s toxic effects in the brain without affecting its normal role in blood clotting currently in clinical trials. Dr. Akassoglou earned her BSc in biology and PhD in neurobiology from the University of Athens, with additional training in neuropathology at the University of Vienna. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Rockefeller University, and New York University. She is the scientific founder of Therini Bio and was named by the San Francisco Business Times among the 2021 Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business. Her contributions to science have been recognized with numerous accolades, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology, and election as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.