Lead Partners

In 2016, Ionis Pharmaceuticals (“Ionis”) [NASDAQ: IONS] and RogCon began a collaboration with the goal of developing new disease-modifying antisense oligonucleotide drugs to treat SCN2A disorders.

Our co-founder, Dr. Steven Petrou, leads The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, one of the largest and most highly respected brain research centers, and the leading institute in the world for genetic epilepsy research.
Advisors
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Dr. Ingrid Scheffer, AO, MBBS, Ph.D, FRACP, FAA, FRS
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Professor of Neurology
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Dr. Annapurna Poduri, M.D., MPH
Director, Epilepsy Genetics, Boston Children’s Hospital Professors of Neurology, Harvard University Medical School
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Dr. Heather Olson, M.D.
Assistant in Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital Instructor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
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Dr. Katherine Howell, MBBS (Hon), Ph.D, FRACP
Neurologist at Royal Children’s Hospital, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Melbourne
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Dr. Rikke Møller
Head of the Epilepsy Genetics and Personalized Medicine Unit at the Danish Epilepsy Center, Filadelfia
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Dr. Maria Roberta Cilio, M.D., Ph. D
Director of Research, University of California San Francisco Epilepsy Center Professor of Neurology, UCSF Medical School
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Dr. Theodore Cummins, Ph.D
Chair of Biology, Stark Neurosciences Institute, Indiana University
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Dr. Holger Lerche
Neurologist, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research University Children’s Hospital, Tubingen, Germany
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Dr. Sam Berkovic, AC, FAA FRACP, FRS
Neurologist, University of Melbourne Department of Medicine Director of the Epilepsy Research Center at Austin Health
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Dr. Markus Wolff
Neurologist at University Children’s Hospital Tubingen, Department of Neuropediatrics, Developmental Neurology, Social Pediatrics
Collaborators

Roger
We were always told that the moment you see your child for the first time is surreal, a day you will always remember. That first day is forever ingrained in my and my wife’s minds, but for a different reason. Our delivery, like the pregnancy, was a breeze, and we were staring in awe at our first child Roger in the early hours of the morning on February 1, 2014. After nursing and spending a few minutes alone with me and my wife, Roger was taken away for a routine check and we had a moment to ourselves, giddy at the prospect of being first time parents and embarking on this new chapter of life.”

Connor
Connor was born and labeled healthy, and we were sent home from the hospital. We were so excited that we were able to give our older son Chase a brother and a best friend for life. But it was short-lived. A few weeks after birth, he cried often, rarely slept and had a lot of gastrointestinal issues and feeding difficulties. At this point I naively thought that when a person was ill, he went to the doctor, received a diagnosis, took a medication and got better. I thought diseases were cured and people recovered. I was in for the shock of my life having Connor as my son.