Andrea Compton
President & Co-founder
Andrea Compton is the adoptive mother of 2 boys, one with DRPLA. She, along with her husband, is a co-founder of CureDRPLA. She graduated from the University of Michigan with an accounting degree, earned her CPA working for Ernst & Young, earned an MBA at the University of Queensland, Australia and spent the bulk of her career at JPMorgan Chase. She retired in 2006 to stay home with her two children.
Paul Compton
Co-Founder
Paul Compton is the adoptive father of 2 boys, one with DRPLA. He, along with his wife, is a co-founder of CureDRPLA. Currently, Paul holds the role of the Global Head of Banking, Co-President of Barclays Bank PLC (BBPLC), and a member of the Group Executive Committee of Barclays. Before joining Barclays in 2016, Paul served for nearly two decades in a variety of senior roles at JPMorgan Chase, including Group Chief Administrative Officer, and Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of the Investment Bank. Previous to JPMorgan, Paul spent 10 years as Principal at Ernst & Young in the Brisbane, Australia and New York office.
Junko Shiozawa
Advisory Board Member
Ms. Junko Shiozawa is a journalist. She has traveled to 50 countries with her husband, a former TV director, to document people fighting difficulties. Junko has joined CureDRPLA as an Advisory Board Member. Junko is helping CureDRPLA engage with the Japanese community, especially in finding DRPLA patients and families in Japan. With a higher number of DRPLA patients in Japan, it is very important that we also reach out to them and Junko will be the key person in this project. Junko’s daughter has juvenile-onset DRPLA and Junko has been raising awareness of DRPLA on Cure Disease Kuri YouTube channel.
Dr. Julie Greenfield
Advisor
Dr Julie Greenfield is the Head of Research for Ataxia UK, a medical research charity and patient support organisation. She has been working for Ataxia UK since 2001 and in this time has gained substantial knowledge of research in the ataxia field as well as the issues being faced by people with ataxia. At Ataxia UK Julie is responsible for managing the research programme, funding grants, promoting and facilitating research on ataxia and developing numerous partnerships.
Julie has a background in scientific research in the biological sciences, having completed a PhD at the University of Bristol and a three year postdoctoral research position at the University of Manchester. CureDRPLA engaged with Ataxia UK to help further its efforts and benefit from their expertise and connections in the ataxia field.
Dr. Silvia Prades
Advisor
Dr Silvia Prades joined Ataxia UK in early 2020 to work on the collaborative partnership between Ataxia UK and CureDRPLA. Silvia has established and managed collaborations across academia, industry, clinicians, and patient organizations; overseeing complex, multi-country initiatives that advance scientific understanding and therapeutic development for DRPLA. She has led the development and implementation of the CureDRPLA Global Patient Registry.
Silvia also engages with the DRPLA community, managing our social media channels to increase DRPLA awareness and convey our efforts to the wider community in lay terms.
Silvia holds a PhD in Neurobiology from University College London and an MBA from Imperial College London, reflecting her commitment to integrating scientific excellence with effective leadership and strategic execution.
Dr. Elisa Martelletti
Advisor
Dr Elisa Martelletti is joining Ataxia UK as Research Manager on a fixed term contract. In this role, she will support the partnership with CureDRPLA and the ongoing DRPLA Research Programme, helping to connect key stakeholders to advance therapeutic development. Her work will also include supporting the CureDRPLA Global Patient Registry and engaging with the DRPLA community through social media and awareness activities.
Elisa has over 12 years’ experience in biomedical research. Following a PhD in Neuroscience and postdoctoral research at King’s College London, she worked there as a research fellow on a charity-funded project investigating age-related hearing loss and inflammation. Beyond research, Elisa has promoted inclusive and equitable workplace cultures while making science accessible to wider audiences.
Scientific Advisors
Dr. Joanna (Asia) Korecka-Roet
As a neuroscientist, her research focuses on uncovering the earliest cellular changes that drive neurodegenerative diseases and translating these discoveries into novel therapeutic strategies. She earned her PhD from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and subsequently completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Ole Isacson at the Neuroregeneration Institute, McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her work contributed to the development of antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics targeting the LRRK2 pathway in Parkinson’s disease. After joining the Khurana Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, she expanded her research into rare genetic neurodegenerative disorders. Now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, she leads a laboratory focused on using patient-derived neuronal and neuro-glial models to define disease mechanisms and de-risk genetic, gene-editing, and neuroimmune therapies. Her current research spans Parkinson’s disease and rare genetic ataxias, including DRPLA, AOA2, and SCA3.
Prof. Darren Monckton
Prof. Monckton is a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Glasgow (UK). Prof Monckton brings years of experience in research for conditions like Huntington’s disease and Myotonic Dystrophy. His expertise is on repeat expansion disorders like DRPLA, in which some parts of the DNA are unusually long and unstable, which can worsen over time and generations. His research group is working to understand why this happens by studying human samples, lab models and computer simulations. He is also developing advanced genetic tools to detect these changes more accurately.
CureDRPLA Global Patient Registry
The CureDRPLA Global Patient Registry aims to collect data on up to as many DRPLA patients as possible. Participants will be asked to complete a set of questionnaires after enrollment with email requests for yearly updates. Data collected include participant demographic and contact information, details about diagnosis, functional mobility status, health economics, medical history, and activities of daily living.