Niels Plath
Chief Scientific Officer Muna Therapeutics
Niels is the Chief Scientific Officer at Muna Therapeutics, bringing over 15 years of experience in neuroscience-focused research and development across both the pharmaceutical industry and academia. Before joining Muna, he led small molecule and biologics portfolio projects at Lundbeck, driving the discovery and development of therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Seminars
Despite promising advances like GFAP and neurofilament light (NFL), fluid and blood biomarkers still face major hurdles before they can reliably predict neuroimmune disease progression or serve as clinical decision tools. This panel will explore the current state of biomarker science, including the challenges of patient heterogeneity, distinguishing brain-specific inflammation from systemic signals, and validating markers for clinical use.
- What is the current predictive value of fluid biomarkers in neuroimmune diseases, and how do they complement genetic or omics data?
- How does patient heterogeneity, such as in Parkinson’s disease subtypes, effect biomarker utility and trial design?
- What are the biggest challenges in distinguishing CNS-derived inflammatory markers from systemic inflammation, and how might technologies like extracellular vesicles or PET tracers help?
- How close are we to having reliable progression or efficacy biomarkers, and what gaps remain for clinical validation?
