Team

Accelerate and de-risk neurotherapeutic drug development with the Inscopix neural circuit platform Preclinical Drug Development
Inscopix Team

Leadership

member

Kunal Ghosh

Founder & Ceo

Kunal Ghosh is founder and CEO of Inscopix. Kunal founded Inscopix out of a research project at Stanford University that resulted in the invention of a miniature, integrated microscope (the “miniscope”). The invention is the centerpiece of Inscopix’s core brain circuit mapping products which today have already advanced fundamental knowledge of the brain circuits underpinning brain function and behavior. Inscopix’s platform is also powering neurotherapeutic development in areas such as Parkinson’s and depression. Kunal is a passionate advocate of the role of business as a force for good in society. Kunal has served on the World Economic Forum’s Council on Neurotechnologies and Brain Science and the Forum’s Council on Precision Medicine. Kunal holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

member

Michaela Mueller

Chief Financial Officer

Michaela joins Inscopix from Pharmatech Associates Inc, where she served as Chief Operations and Financial Officer. In her role she was responsible for all aspects of Operations, including Accounting and Tax, Financial Planning and Analysis, Human Resource, Talent Management, Legal and Information Technology. Michaela co-led the company through transformative years that included a CEO transition, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the successful acquisition by USP. Throughout her career of over 25 years, Michaela has met the global challenges of complex business strategies in high growth market segments and has worked in international and domestic financial management. Her career began with Wenzel Logistics GmbH Group in Austria, where she was employee number one and served in leadership positions across multiple periods of dynamic growth, from start-up to 250 employees. Michaela served as Director of Finance at Spinal Modulation Inc., a medical device R&D and manufacturing company, managing the financial reporting and control for all functional areas, and the international commercial launch of their first products and FDA clinical trials in the U.S. With the successful completion of the U.S. clinical trials, Spinal Modulation was acquired by St. Jude Medical and subsequently by Abbott Laboratories. Michaela was asked to remain to manage all financial reporting and control for the company’s transitions and integration with St. Jude and Abbott. She holds an MBA from Joseph Schumpeter Institute, Austria, and professional certificates from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

member

Jonathan Nassi

Senior Director, Translational Science

Jonathan is the Director of Translational Science at Inscopix. Prior to joining Inscopix, he received his PhD in Neuroscience from UCSD and conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute. He has over 14 years of research experience utilizing advanced methods in neuroanatomy, in-vivo imaging and electrophysiology, optogenetics and behavioral measurement to study neural circuit function in rodents and non-human primates. Jonathan is committed to the advancement of innovative technologies that will enable tomorrow’s breakthrough neuroscience discoveries and next-generation therapies for neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease.

member

Sarah MacNamee

Senior Director, Sales, Western Markets

Sarah MacNamee is our Senior Director of Sales, Western Markets. She joined the company as a Sales Representative in September 2017 and has grown into a key leader at Inscopix, first serving as the Regional Manager for North American Sales (2020 – 2022), before moving to her present role with responsibilities spanning North America and Europe. Sarah is a neuroscientist by training and received her degrees from Vanderbilt University (BA, Neuroscience) and the University of Arizona (PhD, Neuroscience). Her dissertation research examined neuron-glia interactions in fruit flies using electrophysiology and optogenetics. Next, Sarah gained key skills as a scientific sales representative for the immunology product line at STEMCELL Technologies, Inc. These experiences led her to recognize the role that technology advances play in enabling breakthrough discoveries, as well as the importance of industry-academia partnership in translating these discoveries to the clinic. With family members experiencing dementia and addiction, Sarah feels most energized and inspired when she speaks with Inscopix customer labs whose discoveries are forming the foundation for next-generation treatments in neurology and psychiatry.

member

Shanna Resendez

Senior Director, Customer Excellence

Shanna Resendez is the Sr. Director of Customer Excellence at Inscopix, Inc. Prior to joining Inscopix, she gained extensive experience with the technology as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina and authored a Nature Protocols paper focused on in vivo imaging with miniature microscopes. As a postdoctoral researcher, she also gained expertise in related neuroscience methods such as 2-photon Ca2+ imaging, confocal microscopy, optogenetics, and chemogentic methods. She received a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor where her thesis work focused on reward processing and social behavior resulted in multiple first author publications. She now utilizes her extensive background in neuroscience behavioral methods and in vivo Ca2+ imaging techniques to promote the rapid success of our customers research goals.

member

Shay Neufeld

Director, Data Products and Analytics

Shay joined Inscopix as Data Product Lead in November 2019 to help architect and implement scalable data analysis products for the neuroscience community. Prior to joining Inscopix, he worked as a Senior Data Scientist for Livestories (a small public health focused analytics company in Seattle), as well as a Machine Learning Engineer & Product Consultant for Boston Children’s Hospital Technology & Innovation Development Office. Shay received a PhD in Neuroscience from Harvard in 2017 where he worked in Bernardo Sabatini’s lab to further our understanding of how neural circuits in the basal ganglia engender reinforcement learning & goal-directed behavior.

member

Keh-Yi Hong

General Manager, Asia Pacific Commercial Operations

Keh-Yi Hong joined Inscopix in December 2019 as the General Manager of Asia Pacific Commercial Operations. Prior to Inscopix, Keh-Yi had 30 years Asia/China business management experience at Applied Biosystems, Affymetrix, and Freeslate Inc. Keh-Yi holds a M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Washington.

Board of Directors

member

Kunal Ghosh

Founder & CEO

Kunal Ghosh is founder and CEO of Inscopix. Kunal founded Inscopix out of a research project at Stanford University that resulted in the invention of a miniature, integrated microscope (the “miniscope”). The invention is the centerpiece of Inscopix’s core brain circuit mapping products which today have already advanced fundamental knowledge of the brain circuits underpinning brain function and behavior. Inscopix’s platform is also powering neurotherapeutic development in areas such as Parkinson’s and depression. Kunal is a passionate advocate of the role of business as a force for good in society. Kunal has served on the World Economic Forum’s Council on Neurotechnologies and Brain Science and the Forum’s Council on Precision Medicine. Kunal holds a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, a BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

member

Abbas El Gamal, PhD

Co-founder & Director

Abbas El Gamal is a co-founder of Inscopix, Inc. He has been on the Stanford University faculty since 1981, where he is currently the Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research contributions have spanned several areas, including network information theory, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, and digital imaging devices and systems. Abbas received his M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1977 and 1978, respectively. He graduated with Honors from Cairo University in 1972 with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. Abbas is a Fellow of the IEEE and has received several honors and awards for his research contributions, including the 2012 Claude E. Shannon Award. Abbas has also played key roles in several Silicon Valley companies, including previously being on the founding teams of LSI [NYSE: LSI], Actel [now Microsemi, NASDAQ: MSCC], and Silicon Architects [acquired by Synopsys]. He has also served and continues to serve on the Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards of several other semiconductor, EDA, and Life Sciences startups.

member

Ann Miura-Ko, PhD

General Partner, Floodgate

Ann Miura-Ko is a co-founding partner at FLOODGATE where her investment interests include the innovations in e-commerce, security, and big data. She currently sits on the boards of Modcloth, Refinery29, Chloe and Isabel, Wanelo, Zimride, Ayasdi, Inscopix, and CSS. She was previously a board member of TaskRabbit. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she got her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. She teaches High Tech Entrepreneurship with Steve Blank and is a frequent lecturer in courses such as Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program.

member

Matt Hershenson

Founding Partner, Playground Global

Matt Hershenson, a Founding Partner at Playground Global, knew he was going to be an engineer from an early age. His earliest professional experience was at Apple, where he worked first in manufacturing engineering in Apple’s “Mac Factory” and later worked in the PowerBook group on the design of Apple’s line of PowerBook laptops. In 2000, Matt co-founded Danger, which went on to produce the first consumer smartphone. After creating nine versions of the T-Mobile Sidekick and beginning the process of going public, Danger was purchased by Microsoft. Matt stayed at Microsoft for two years after the acquisition, serving as a Partner in Hardware Engineering. Leveraging his mobile hardware experience, Matt joined Google’s Android team as Director of Hardware. At Google, Matt built the Android hardware team to span all aspects of hardware development – from chip design to regulatory compliance and everything in-between. Matt and his team shipped over 10 generations of devices across phones, tablets, and streaming receivers. In late 2014, Matt joined up with the founding team to start Playground. The idea was to invest in transformative companies with multigenerational impact, while working side-by-side with portfolio companies to help them advance faster than if they were on their own. Today, Matt is still unafraid of technological risk. His reasoning is: if you’re going to go through the trouble, you might as well create something with significance. Matt lives in the Bay Area with his wife of over 20 years and three children.

Strategic Advisors

member

Mark Schnitzer, PhD

Scientific Cofounder & Board Observer

Mark Schnitzer is a co-founder of Inscopix, Inc. and its Chief Scientist. He is an Associate Professor of Biology and Applied Physics at Stanford University and is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research concerns the innovation of novel optical imaging technologies and their use in the pursuit of understanding neural circuits. Mark received his M.A. and Ph.D., both in Physics, from Princeton University in 1994 and 1999, respectively. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 1992 with an A.B. in Physics. Mark is the recipient of several honors and awards, including the 2010 Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, and the 2007 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award.  

member

Thomas R. Insel, MD

Humanest Care

Dr. Thomas R. Insel is the President and co-founder of Mindstrong. A psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 2002-2015. Most recently he led the Mental Health Team at Verily. Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.

member

Michael Ehlers, MD, PhD

Apple Tree Partners

Michael D. Ehlers is Chief Scientific Officer and a venture partner at life sciences venture capital firm Apple Tree Partners. He was formerly Executive Vice President for Research and Development at Biogen and before that was Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience at Pfizer. Prior to joining industry, Ehlers was the George Barth Geller Professor of Neurobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Duke University Medical Center. His academic work was focused around neuronal organelles and the trafficking of neurotransmitter receptors. He has a BS in chemistry from Caltech in 1991 and an MD and a PhD in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with Richard L. Huganir. His work at Duke was centered around the trafficking of neurotransmitter receptors notably the AMPA receptor.

member

William R. Brody, MD, PhD

Salk Institute

Dr. William R. Brody, President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, an acclaimed physician-scientist, entrepreneur, and university leader, joined the Salk Institute on March 2, 2009 after 12 years as president of The Johns Hopkins University. He is a national figure in efforts to encourage innovation and strengthen the U.S. economy through investments in basic research and education. Most recently, he has written and spoken extensively around the country to promote a fuller discussion of health care reform.

Scroll to Top