Nicholas T. Hertz, PhD, is the founder and CEO of Montara Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on advancing therapies for brain diseases. Montara leverages its proprietary BrainOnly™ platform, originally developed in the Shokat Lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), to improve drug safety and efficacy and enable the targeting of previously undruggable targets. Dr. Hertz completed his BS in biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles and earned a PhD in chemistry and chemical biology at UCSF, where he co-discovered the first class of PINK1-activating molecules and co-founded Mitokinin Inc. After conducting postdoctoral research in neuroscience at Stanford, he served as CSO at Mitokinin, where he led the development of small molecule PINK1 activators as potential disease-modifying therapies for Parkinson's Disease. Dr. Hertz, an avid surfer and father of three, likes to emphasize the importance of rigorous science and innovative therapeutic development to combatting neurodegenerative diseases.