Dr. Lauren Friedman joined the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in August 2023 and currently serves as Scientific Program Manager for the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network for Biologics (BPN-Biologics). Before joining NINDS, Dr. Friedman was a Venture Director at Cambrian Biopharma, a company-building biotech. At Cambrian, she performed in-depth evaluations of new therapeutic opportunities and planned and coordinated preclinical studies as part of due diligence and company-building activities. Prior to that, Dr. Friedman was the Director of Scientific Affairs at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) where she led search & evaluation for therapeutic and diagnostic programs and monitored a large portfolio of funded drug and biomarker projects targeting Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Dr. Friedman received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and conducted postdoctoral training at Columbia University.