Sam Brundin

Patrik Brundin (born December 26, 1961, in Malmö, Sweden) is a neuroscientist known for his research on Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease. He is currently a Distinguished Scientist and serving as Therapeutic Area Leader for Movement Disorders at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development (pRED).

Brundin was educated at Lund University from 1980 to 1992, where he became a full professor in 2000. In 2012, he was appointed the Jay Van Andel Endowed Chair in Parkinson's Research at Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Before moving to F. Hoffmann-La Roche in 2022, Brundin held multiple roles at the institute such as the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer, the Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science and the Parkinson's Disease Center.

Early life and education Already at age 12, Brundin became interested in studying and finding a cure for PD, a passion influenced by his father's, Bertil Brundin, diagnosis in 1974. While born in Sweden, Brundin spent the majority of his early childhood in the UK, before the family's return to Sweden in 1975.

Career In 1994, Brundin started his own independent research group at Lund University, Sweden, and he was promoted to full professor of neuroscience at the Faculty of Medicine in 2000. His team moved to the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center at Lund University in 1996.

In 2011, Brundin was awarded a European Research Council grant to study disease mechanisms in PD. In 2012, he moved to the USA and joined the Van Andel Institute, serving both as the Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Science and the Head of the Laboratory for Translational Parkinson's Disease Research. He later held positions as the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer and the Director of the Parkinson's Disease Center at the same institute until 2022. In 2022, he moved to F. Hoffmann-La Roche where he became a Distinguished Scientist where he has the role of Therapeutic Area Leader for Movement Disorders. In 2021, Brundin was listed on the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List. He has been a member of the World Parkinson Coalition Board of Directors and the MJ Fox Foundation Executive Scientific Advisory Board. He is a scientific co-founder of the biotech companies Acousort AB and RYNE Biotechnology, the latter focused on induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based transplantation therapy for PD.

Awards and recognition 1999: Dr Eric K Fernström Foundation's Prize to Young Swedish Scientists 2001: Chair, Gordon Research Conference on CAG Triplet Repeat Disorders 2003: Medal of Honour from the Swedish Parkinson Association 2018: Aligning Science Across Parkinson's Planning Advisory Council 2019: Fulton Lecture Award, World Federation of Neurology 2021: Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers List