Martin Jacko
Founder & Chief Executive Officer Aperture Therapeutics
Dr. Jacko has built and led multiple pharma R&D teams throughout his career, including serving as the first R&D hire at Serotiny (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and in business development and operations at BridgeBio Pharma, where he led two subsidiaries focused on neurodegeneration and inflammatory disease. He is the inventor of several high-throughput screening platforms that enabled the development of novel tools and therapeutics, and he has also discovered key factors driving neuronal maturation and aging.
His expertise spans business development, corporate strategy, and intellectual property, underpinned by a technical background in genetics, neuroscience, RNA regulation, and immunology. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University, earned a Ph.D. in Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine from Columbia University’s Department of Pathology, and holds an M.Sc. in Genetics from Masaryk University in Brno
Seminars
- Utilizing human genetic resilience datasets to prioritise high-impact CNS targets independent of traditional drugability constraints
- Translating genetic mechanisms into oligo strategies, for expression modulation and splice-switching approaches
- Advancing first-in-class programmes through IND-enabling pharmacology by integrate efficacy and safety signals in neurodegenerative models
