Joseph Moskal elected to medical and biological engineering elite

Northwestern University's Joseph R. Moskal has been elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering's (AIMBE) College of Fellows. Moskal was cited for his studies of the NMDA receptor, which have led to the design and development of novel therapeutics for the treatment of depression.

Moskal, a distinguished research professor in Northwestern's Department of Biomedical Engineering, is among 145 engineers who make up the College of Fellows Class of 2017. They will be inducted during AIMBE's 2017 annual meeting on March 20 in Washington, D.C.

The College of Fellows comprises the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country. Current AIMBE Fellows have received some of the nation's highest awards, including the Presidential Medal of Science and Presidential Medal of Technology and Innovation. Many are also members of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences.

"I am honored to join such an elite group of engineers," said Moskal, founding director of Northwestern's Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics. "I hope this will help motivate the next generation to continue to develop what we have only begun to understand."

Moskal founded and served as chief scientific officer of Naurex, Inc., a drug discovery company that develops therapies for difficult-to-treat depression and other central nervous system diseases. While at Naurex, his team developed rapastinel, a novel therapy for treatment-resistant major depression, which is now in phase III clinical trials. In 2015, Allergan acquired Naurex for $1.7 billion.

Now, Moskal is the co-founder of Aptinyx, Inc., which targets areas of pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and traumatic brain injury for therapeutic development. Last year, he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors and the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.

Provided by Northwestern University