Dr. Nylen will leverage his expertise in large-scale research collaborations and informatics to drive Baszucki Group’s research initiatives at the intersection of psychiatry, neuroscience and metabolism.

SAN MATEO, Calif., September 26, 2023 – Baszucki Group today announced it has hired Kirk Nylen, PhD, as Managing Director, Neuroscience to oversee its growing research program. Prior to joining Baszucki Group, Dr. Nylen served as a Deputy Scientific Director and Vice President of Integrated Discovery & Informatics at the Ontario Brain Institute.

Dr. Nylen will leverage his experience in metabolic neuroscience and open data research networks to advance Baszucki Group’s mission to transform mental health outcomes. With the goal of rapidly translating basic and clinical discoveries into improvements in clinical care, Dr. Nylen will lead efforts to catalyze researchers, clinicians, data scientists, patients, and advocates around common data platforms.

“We are witnessing a sea change in how we study and treat mental illness,” said Jan Ellison Baszucki, who co-founded Baszucki Group with Roblox founder and CEO, David Baszucki, in 2021. “Dr. Nylen understands the power of team science and recognizes that discovery and innovation are anchored in data connectivity. We can’t imagine anyone better suited than Dr. Nylen to help us transform the study and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders through a metabolic lens.” 

Dr. Nylen has over a decade of leadership experience in the research and healthcare sectors, with extensive expertise in health system strategy, large-scale research collaborations, impact evaluation, and integrated approaches to informatics and open data governance. Dr. Nylen’s former experience in pioneering preclinical studies in metabolic therapies for neurological disorders aligns with Baszucki Group’s efforts to support the growing fields of metabolic neuroscience and metabolic psychiatry.  

Dr. Nylen is a member of the Milken Institute’s LeadersLink program, a Fellow of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), a member of the Board of Trustees for the Ontario Science Centre, and has advised both national and provincial governments on research and data governance policy. He is a recipient of the Van Gelder Savoy Award for epilepsy research and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Research Award, and led work that received the Changemaker Award from the Neurological Health Charities of Canada. 

Dr. Nylen holds an MSc and PhD in pharmacology from the University of Toronto and a BA in pharmacology from the University of Saskatchewan. He currently serves as an adjunct professor and lecturer at the University of Toronto.