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.

Kaycee Sink, MD, MAS

Dr. Kaycee Sink is the Chief Medical Officer at Cogstate where she leads the support of clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, including the advancement of new innovations to improve data quality and trial efficiency for more accurate conclusive studies. Dr. Sink is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine with over 20 years of experience in clinical care and research in neurodegenerative disorders.

Prior to joining Cogstate, Dr. Sink worked at Genentech where she was Principal Medical Director in Neurodegeneration with leadership roles in the late-stage development of several molecules being studied for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders as well as digital applications for the same. She joined Genentech in 2017 after 13 years on faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine, where she rose to tenured Full Professor of Medicine, Neurology, and Public Health Sciences. At Wake Forest School of Medicine, Kaycee served as interim Chief of Geriatrics, the Director of the Memory Assessment Clinic, and was the PI of the Clinical Core for the NIH funded Alzheimer’s Disease Center as well as an investigator/PI on multiple NIH and industry sponsored clinical trials in aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Sink obtained her medical degree at the University of CA, San Francisco, and subsequently trained in internal medicine followed by clinical and research fellowships in geriatrics, also at UCSF. She continues to see patients and teach in the Memory Assessment Clinic as adjunct faculty at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston Salem, NC.

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.

Erin Jacobstein, Psy.D

Erin Lasher Jacobstein, Psy.D. is Principal Scientist at Cogstate, and a clinical neuropsychologist with over 15 years of postdoctoral clinical experience. For 10 years, she was the Director of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Medicine at a large, hospital-affiliated neurology practice. She has expertise in neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. She served as a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alzheimer’s Association, Connecticut Chapter, for four years. Throughout her clinical career, she was a cognitive and clinical rater for numerous clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Jacobstein received her Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree from the University of Hartford, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Department of Neurology.  She earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, graduating from the University’s Honor’s Program, and she obtained her MS in Clinical Psychology from Towson University.

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.