Richard M. Ransohoff MD

Dr. Richard M. Ransohoff, MD is Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures, Interim Chief Medical Officer, and Co-Founder at Abata Therapeutics.

From 1984-2014 Ransohoff was Staff Member at Cleveland Clinic where he founded and directed the Neuroinflammation Research Center (2005-2014) and served (1984-2014) as Staff Neurologist, at Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research. He lists >450 scientific articles and reviews in PubMed (March 2022 H-index 13; >80,000 total citations) and trained >70 students and post-docs. As of 2022, Ransohoff serves on advisory boards for the German Center for Research in Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE) and the Keystone Symposia.

Among other awards, Ransohoff was named “Best Doctor” from 1996-2014 for his expertise in patient care for MS. He received the John and Samuel Bard Award in Science or Medicine, Bard College (2002), F.E. Bennet American Neurological Association Lectureship (2009), the John J. Dystel Award for MS Research from the National MS Society and American Academy of Neurology (2012) and the Distinguished Alumni Award, CWRU School of Medicine (2018). He’s a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Association of American Physicians.

In October 2014, Ransohoff moved to Biogen as Senior Biogen Research Fellow. He subsequently assumed responsibility as VP, and Research/Early Development (RED) Unit Head for Neuroimmunology & MS/Pain/Acute Neurology (2016-2017) developing and leading a group of >45 scientists and clinicians in finding and prosecuting neuroinflammatory targets for the treatment of neurological disease and pain and bringing those relevant for acute neurology indications through phase II proof of concept (POC). During this time, he led the transformation of the neuroinflammation portfolio, successfully bringing 5 compounds (internally developed and externally identified) into the clinic as well as directing activities in blood-brain barrier (BBB) function, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) risk mitigation and novel screening technologies for glial targets, in addition to basic neuroinflammation biology.

In January 2018, Ransohoff joined Third Rock Ventures as Entrepreneur-In-Residence, taking up the Venture Partner role in June 2019. At Third Rock, he is involved in company creation across neurological and immunological indications.