Paul Maruff, PhD

Professor Paul Maruff is one of the founders of Cogstate and served as Chief Science Officer before taking on the role of Chief Innovation Officer. He is a neuropsychologist with expertise in the identification and measurement of subtle behavioural and cognitive dysfunction. Paul’s research integrates conventional and computerized neuropsychological testing with cognitive neuroscientific methods to guide decision making in drug development and in clinical medicine.

He has worked extensively on method to identify subtle neurocognitive impairment, and to assess the efficacy of pharmacological treatment, in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and the HIV dementia complex. He has extended this approach to identify cognitive dysfunction, and monitor treatment efficacy in psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression in adults, attention deficit disorder, developmental dyspraxia and substance abuse in children.

Paul remains an active researcher. He is appointed Professor at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health. He is currently clinical co-chair of the Australian Imaging Biomakers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study. Paul has published over 450 research articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has co-authored 15 book chapters.

Chris Edgar, PhD

Dr. Chris Edgar is an experienced leader in cognitive assessment and clinical endpoint strategy who provides expert guidance to Cogstate’s pharmaceutical customers throughout all stages of trial conduct, from study design and test selection through final analysis.

Prior to joining Cogstate as Senior Vice President, Clinical Science in 2018, Dr. Edgar oversaw clinical endpoint strategy for multiple neuroscience indications in the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research group at Roche. Dr. Edgar has held other key industry positions including Principle Scientist at Roche, Senior Clinical Lead at Bracket/UBC, and Scientific Director at Cognitive Drug Research Ltd. He holds a PhD in psychopharmacology from Northumbria University and has 20 years of pharmaceutical industry experience.

Svenja Wacker, PhD

Svenja Wacker, PhD is a bilingual (German/English), licensed clinical neuropsychologist with expertise in global clinical trial management and consultation, as well as extensive experience in hospital-based rehabilitation neuropsychology, neuropsychological assessment and intervention, program development, and medical staff training. She serves as Science Director on Cogstate’s Business Development team.

Dr. Wacker graduated from George Mason University with a PhD in clinical psychology and a fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at Yale University School of Medicine. She completed a postdoctoral residency at Harvard Medical School in neuropsychological assessment.

Dr. Wacker has supported a diverse research portfolio in international clinical trials. As a cultural-linguistic expert consultant she contributed to the training, certification, and remediation of site raters and data validation protocols. As Associate Director of Clinician Network with Cogstate, she grew a global expert consultant pool of 150 neuropsychologists, and managed all aspects of recruitment, training, certification, performance monitoring, and operational logistics for their work on a broad portfolio of clinical trials.

In her 15 years of clinical practice, Dr. Wacker focused on the assessment of neuropsychological functioning in adult patients. She aimed to guide clients to a place of personal resilience and empowerment through an array of brain-based therapeutic techniques.

Eric Siemers, MD

Dr. Siemers’ experience in clinical trials of neurodegenerative disease spans over 25 years, with a research focus on the use of biomarkers in investigational drug research, the development of trial designs that fully characterize the effects of investigational drugs on chronic diseases, and more specifically, the development of strategies for treating individuals before the onset of symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases.

Dr. Siemers most recently served as Distinguished Medical Fellow for Eli Lilly and Company’s Alzheimer’s Disease Global Development Team, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of 5 large phase III clinical studies of AD sponsored by Lilly, in addition to playing a major collaborative role in 2 public-private partnership studies. Prior to his appointments at Lilly, Dr. Siemers founded and headed the Indiana University Movement Disorder Clinic; his research there included investigations of Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, and he established one of the first centers for surgical PD treatments in the US.

Dr. Siemers is a member of the NIA/Alzheimer’s Association working group that will evaluate biomarkers and clinical symptoms in the nomenclature used for research of the entire Alzheimer’s disease continuum, and was previously a member of the working group that proposed criteria for preclinical Alzheimer’s disease in 2011. He also served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Experimental Neurotherapeutics, as founding member and Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Research Roundtable, and Steering Committee member for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Dr. Siemers earned his MD with highest distinction from the Indiana University School of Medicine, where he completed an internship in the Department of Internal Medicine and residency in the Department of Neurology.