Dr. Agro is the CEO of Jocasta Neuroscience Inc, a pre-clinical stage biotech company with a focus on the longevity protein, Klotho, as a potential therapeutic for cognitive impairment in chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Jocasta has recently closed on a $36M series A financing to support their program up to and including the completion of the Phase 1 MAD study. Previously, Albert was the CEO and President of Sublimity Therapeutics Ltd, an Irish-based biotech developing novel therapeutics in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease therapeutic area. He raised over $75 million to support the clinical program through Phase 2b. Dr. Agro was the co-founder of GRI Bio Inc, where he was instrumental in initializing the company’s IPO, NASDAQ listing, and $30 million financing to move its NKT cell modulator platform into diseases of fibrosis and autoimmunity.
Albert has held executive positions at Colomba Therapeutics (CEO), KalGene Inc (CMO), and an Alzheimer’s disease-focused company with an interest in toxic oligomers, Versanum (CEO), and Cynapsus (CMO), where he was responsible for the clinical development of sublingual apomorphine for the management of OFF episodes for patients with Parkinson’s disease. The company was later sold to Sunovion for $850M. He also served at Ironshore Pharma (CMO), Trillium Therapeutics Inc. (CMO), Stem Cell Therapeutics (CMO), and TransTech Pharma (EVP of Clinical Development).
Dr. Agro holds board positions with Diamond Therapeutics, a Toronto-based clinical-stage company investigating the role of low-dose psilocybin in mood disorders; Imunexus Ltd, an Australian-based pre-clinical company focusing on a proprietary bi-specific delivery of antibody-based technologies; and SE Health, a not-for-profit healthcare company in Canada focused on the delivery of home care services to the aged population across Canada.
He has maintained the position as Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario since September 1996. He is the recipient of a Michael J. Fox Foundation Clinical Scholarship for his work on Apomorphine.