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.

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.

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.

Karra Harrington, PhD

Dr. Karra Harrington is a Senior Clinical Scientist at Cogstate, where she supports biotech and healthcare customers with a focus on digital cognitive assessments. She plays a key role in the development and validation of Cogstate’s digital cognitive tests, ensuring they meet the highest scientific and clinical standards. Before joining Cogstate, Karra was an Assistant Research Professor at Penn State. Her research centered on developing smartphone-based cognitive assessments designed to measure cognition remotely and in real-world settings.

Karra holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Clinical Psychology from Deakin University. She was board-endorsed as a Clinical Psychologist in Australia and previously practiced for four years before transitioning to research in the United States. With over 50 peer-reviewed publications and numerous conference presentations, Karra is a recognized expert in Alzheimer’s disease research and digital cognitive assessment methodologies.