Senior Management
Gail Farfel Ph.D. - Chief Clinical and Regulatory Officer
Virinder Nohira, M.D., Ph.D. - Chief Medical Officer
Kenneth Shaw, Ph.D. - Senior Vice President, Research and Development
Julia Tsai, Ph.D. - Director of Clinical Operations


Gail M. Farfel Ph.D.
Chief Clinical Development and Regulatory Officer

Gail Farfel joined Marinus as the company's Chief Clinical Development and Regulatory Officer in January 2010. Previously, Dr. Farfel worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. (US subsidiary of Novartis AG) as Vice President, Therapeutic Area Head for Neuroscience Clinical Development and Medical Affairs. At Novartis Dr. Farfel oversaw a portfolio of products including Gilenya (fingolimod), Exelon and the Exelon Patch, and the antidepressant agomelatine. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Farfel held a variety of leadership positions in Clinical Development and Global Medical Affairs at Pfizer, Inc. where she directed programs through all stages of clinical development and regulatory submissions including development of the first product approved globally to treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr. Farfel holds an Ph.D. in Neuropsychopharmacology from The University of Chicago, where she trained as a behavioral scientist and neurotoxicologist, and received the Ginsburg Prize for Dissertation Excellence. She has a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from The University of Virginia, and is the author of over 50 scientific articles in the areas of neuropsychopharmacology and drug treatment. She serves as an advisor to Ariotech and on the board of PrintedArt.


Virinder Nohira, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Virinder Nohria is an experienced biotechnology entrepreneur and drug developer with a track record of successful NDAs and MAAs through his work in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, both in multinational corporations and in small start-up companies, over the past 15 years.

In the past, Dr. Nohria was Chief Medical Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and Executive Vice President of Alaven Pharmaceutical and Alaven Consumer Health LLC. Dr. Nohria worked for Eli Lilly on Zyprexa and at UCB, where he was clinical lead for submission and commercialization of Keppra in the USA. Between 2003 and 2005, he was Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Xcel Pharmaceuticals where he led development of retigabine (ezogabine) for the treatment of epilepsy. Dr. Nohria is a non-executive director of Allergy Therapeutics plc (AIM: AGY), a UK based specialist pharmaceutical company. He also sits on the board of Promentis Pharmaceuticals Inc., a privately held early stage neuroscience company.

Dr. Nohria is a board-certified neurologist with special qualifications in child neurology. His medical training was conducted at the University of Cambridge in England. His postgraduate training was completed in the UK and USA at Duke University. He also holds a Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology. He has authored many publications and book chapters, and serves on boards of several non-profit organizations.


Kenneth R. Shaw, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Research and Development

Kenneth Shaw is a co-founder of Marinus and heads non-clinical research and development operations at the Ccompany. Dr. Shaw has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. For the fifteen years prior to joining Marinus, he was a primary force in growing Neurogen Corporation from 5 to over 200 employees. At Neurogen, he was Senior Vice President of Chemistry and Preclinical Development. In this position, Dr. Shaw was responsible for managing all preclinicalactivities involving chemistry (medicinal, process and high speed synthesis), drug metabolism, toxicology, analytical chemistry and manufacturing. He served as project leader on many of Neurogen's collaborative programs. Through multiple collaborations, he has been a member on internal prescription committees at Pfizer, Merck, Aventis and Schering-Plough.

Dr. Shaw holds over 45 patents relating to pharmaceutical drug discovery and development.


Julia Tsai, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Operations

Julia Tsai joined Marinus Pharmaceuticals in September 2004 and has been part of the Marinus management team since its incorporation. She is responsible for all facets of drug development operations.

Dr. Tsai has almost ten years of clinical development operations and management experience in the US and abroad, covering neurology and psychiatry indications in adults and pediatrics. She has been an active participant in regulatory and business development meetings and has co-authored numerous scientific/clinical papers, abstracts and presentations.

Dr. Tsai received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Physiology from the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University School of Medicine. She holds a B.A. from Cornell University.