Shilpa Sambashivan

Shilpa Sambashivan is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors at Nura Bio, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops neuroprotective therapies.129 Nura Bio focuses on creating therapies that prevent axon degeneration and modulate microglial responses to injury, with the goal of conferring neuroprotection across diseases of the central, peripheral, and ocular nervous systems.26 The company's research is centered around preventing neuronal loss and restoring the function of the neuron-glia axis to improve the nervous system’s immune surveillance capacity in response to neurological injury.478

Sambashivan has been with Nura Bio since April 2018 and was a member of the founding scientific team.35 Before becoming CEO, she served as the company's Chief Scientific Officer and led the establishment of Nura Bio’s R&D engine and small molecule pipeline.15 Prior to joining Nura Bio, Sambashivan spent nearly a decade at Amgen and NGM Biopharmaceuticals, where she defined R&D strategy and led drug discovery programs.1

Sambashivan holds an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the Birla Institute of Science and Technology in India.1 She earned a graduate degree in Molecular Biology and Protein Biochemistry from UCLA, where she researched protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases.1 She was also a Bio-X Genentech Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.1