Primary Job Title Founder & CSO Primary Organization Ophidion
Location Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States Regions Great Lakes, Northeastern US Gender Female
LinkedIn View on LinkedIn
Julie Miwa is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Ophidion. Julie Miwa, Ph.D., is Ophidion’s founder and Chief Scientific Officer. Ophidion’s technology platform is based on Dr. Miwa’s science and understanding of complex neurobiological processes and how they are regulated through the cholinergic system. A key focus is on a class of
modulators, lynx genes, which act as molecular brakes on the cholinergic system by binding to and inhibiting nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Dr. Miwa uses a highly multidisciplinary approach through the generation of genetically engineered mouse lines and the characterization of such lines by electrophysiological, behavioral, biochemical and microscopic techniques. These investigations have been informative since the wide-spread cholinergic system is involved in many significant complex processes, but is suppressed under normal conditions by lynx proteins. Dr. Miwa has identified that genetic animals lacking lynx1 have enhanced learning, critical period plasticity, and many more pronounced phenotypes, and Ophidion is now actively commercializing these discoveries. Dr. Miwa earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Rockefeller University. She did postdoctoral work at the Rockefeller University, and was previously research faculty at Caltech. Dr. Miwa is currently Assistant Professor at Lehigh University’s Department of Biological Sciences.
