Stacie Weninger, PhD is the President of FBRI and a Venture Partner with F-Prime Capital. Dr. Weninger focuses on advancing neuroscience research and early-stage therapeutics through strategic collaboration, investment, and advisory roles. Through these activities, she contributes to the translation of early discoveries into novel therapeutics and helps to build innovative neuroscience companies.
She currently serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Rugen Therapeutics, and serves on the Boards of Aratome, Atalanta, Engrail, and Tenvie Therapeutics. She was a founding member of the Board of Directors at Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) and Neumora Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NMRA) and has held Board roles at companies including Annexon Biosciences (NASDAQ: ANNX), BRI-Alzan (acquired by MeiraGTx), Digital Cognition Technologies (acquired by Linus Health), Enspectra, Inscopix (acquired by Bruker Corporation), and Sironax.
In addition to her work in biotech investing, Dr. Weninger serves in leadership and advisory roles for several different organizations, including the Board of Target ALS, the Governing Board of the Michael J Fox Foundation Targets to Therapeutics Initiative, the External Advisory Board of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Rosamund Stone Zander Translational Neuroscience Center, and the Harvard Experts in Residence (XIR) network. Dr. Weninger also chairs the Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention, which seeks to share learnings and best practices to facilitate clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Denali Therapeutics, the Breuer Foundation, Brown University’s Carney Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Harvard Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator Fund, the Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Brain Research, MIT’s Yang-Tan Center for Molecular Therapeutics, and the UK Dementia Research Institute, among others. Dr. Weninger was previously the President of Alzforum for over a decade and continues as a special advisor to the site.
Prior to joining F-Prime, Dr. Weninger was Senior Director of Science Programs at the Fidelity Foundations, where she oversaw biomedical research funding initiatives. Earlier in her career, she served as Project Manager and Senior Analyst for the Task Force on Women in Science at Harvard University and was a Senior Scientific Editor at Neuron (Cell Press). Dr. Weninger began her career as a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Bruce Yankner’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Weninger received her PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow and earned a BS in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.