PolG Leadership
Frederik de Nassau / Co-Founder, Creative Director
At 20, Frederik de Nassau is living with PolG Disorder. With courage and creativity, Frederik rises above the great challenges of his disease to lead the creative design of The PolG Foundation’s digital presence. “The mind is the strongest thing we have,” notes Frederik, “We have the potential to do anything we want to. Every second counts.”
Luca Bolliger, Ph.D. / Chief Strategy Officer
Luca trained as a scientist in biochemistry and immunology, and brings 20+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. First as Global discovery portfolio manager at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then pursued his career in the financial industry as a Fundamental analyst at BT&T asset management. He established Biopolo Ticino before becoming Director Business Development at Actelion. Luca Bolliger joined Recordati from Novimmune where he is VP and Director Corporate Licensing. Luca also founded abcDNA, an advisor Company.
Paula Casanova / Chief Operating Officer
Paula Casanova joined The PolG Foundation staff as Project Manager in September 2022. She brings to the Foundation a richly varied cultural background: childhood in Spain, boarding school in Switzerland, a degree in International Policy from New York University. Her post-graduate work has been in start-up efforts in New York and London (fashion), Iraq (fin-tech) and Moscow (skin care). Between business and family obligations, Paula has engaged in humanitarian work through foundations working in Ghana as well as Bolivia. She brings to her role within The PolG Foundation the administrative and organizational skills, as well as the professional passion, needed to support and manage the search for effective, life-sustaining research.
Julie de Luxembourg / Co-Founder, Vice Chair
Julie de Luxembourg is the mother of three children, the youngest of whom suffers from a rare PolG mitochondrial disorder. Her life work has focused on access to education, racial justice, human rights, music and now, seeking treatments and a cure for PolG disorders. She is a Human Rights Watch Ambassador, with a current focus on the U.S. criminal justice system; in the world of music, she is on the board of the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation and has served as a jurist for The Glenn Gould Prize and Montreux Jazz Piano Competitions. She was involved in the creation of École Eden, the first nonprofit educational establishment in Switzerland and she is an advocate for recruitment of underrepresented future educators in the U.S.
Brian Tseng, M.D., Ph.D. / Chief Scientific Officer
As a board-certified M.D., Ph.D. pediatric neurologist/neuromuscular physician–scientist, Brian Tseng has led large cross-functional teams (Novartis, AveXis, Vertex) to develop and bring forward many new medicines approved for use in infants and children with rare disorders, in particular genetic disorders. As a retired vice president from two top R&D companies, he has deep experience in translational and clinical development of novel molecules (small, biologic, cell-based, AAV genetic replacement, and CRISPR-mediated gene editing) for children. He is currently an expert consultant with NDA Partners, LLC. His most recent clinical/academic practice has been at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School; he was previously at Children's Hospital Colorado. His physiology undergraduate degree is from University of California Berkeley and he has a Ph.D. in molecular biology from MD Anderson Cancer Center/University of Texas at Houston McGovern Medical School. Dr. Tseng also teaches in several medical schools, including at the Gates Foundation University of Siena, and volunteers on several boards of nonprofit patient advocacy foundations. He is on the Board of Directors for the Estes Valley Fire Protection District in Colorado. He is also a NOLS Wilderness Medicine first responder.