Alto Neuroscience CEO, Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D., Appointed to NIDA’s National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA)

--Selected as one of 12 scientific experts on distinguished council--

LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alto Neuroscience today announced that founder and chief executive officer, Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed to serve as a member of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (NACDA). In this role, Dr. Etkin will contribute his expertise to identify and support the highest caliber of research in addiction science. Members of NACDA provide guidance to the leadership of NIDA, a $1.1B per year branch of the National Institutes of Health, with respect to how to best advance the understanding and treatment of substance use disorders.

“Addiction affects a large, and greatly underserved, clinical population. NIDA is a major driver behind the innovations these patients need,” said Amit Etkin, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Alto. “Given my background in academia and long track-record of federal support for research at my lab at Stanford, which laid the foundation for Alto, this appointment is especially meaningful to me. I fully appreciate the need to disrupt the status quo in addiction and mental health, in order to meet the urgency of the clinical need. I am excited to collaborate with council members to achieve this goal for NIDA, as well as to advance these efforts through work on substance use disorders at Alto.”

As a member of the NACDA, Dr. Etkin will provide guidance to NIDA on research funding and strategic initiatives across academia and industry, as well as their impact on patients, their caregivers and providers.

About Alto Neuroscience

Alto Neuroscience is pioneering precision psychiatry by developing targeted medicines to help patients get better faster. Differences in individuals’ biology impact how they respond to treatment. Alto’s human data-driven platform measures brain biomarkers including EEG activity and behavioral patterns, wearable data, genetics, and other factors, to match each patient with the right Alto therapy. The company’s clinical-stage pipeline includes drug candidates being studied in mental health conditions targeting cognition, emotion, and sleep processes. For more information, visit https://www.altoneuroscience.com or follow us on Twitter.