Associate Professor Richard Gordon leads a multi-disciplinary, industry-partnered research program in Translational Neuroscience which integrates immunology, drug development, pharmacology, metabolomics and microbial metagenomics to study the gut-brain-immune axis in neurodegeneration. His team uses human patient studies and disease models, to understand and target key pathological mechanisms which drive the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr Gordon’s research is funded by the US Department of Defense CDMRP Parkinson’s Research Program (PRP), Michael J Fox Foundation Therapeutic Pipeline Program and the Queensland Government, along with industry research collaboration with Sanofi and EpicentRx. His work at the University of Queensland (UQ) contributed to the commercialisation of CNS-permeable NLRP3 inhibitors by UQ startup Inflazome, as well as the launch of Sycura Therapeutics in 2023, a UniQuest startup funded by Australia’s national biotech incubator – CUREator which is developing first-in-class brain penetrant small molecules for neuroprotection. Dr Gordon is a Science Ambassador for the World Parkinson’s Coalition (WPC) and a board-certified Toxicologist with the American Board of Toxicology. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Chemicals Scheduling (ACCS) for the Australian Therapeutics Goods Administration’s (TGA), which makes recommendations to the Department of Health on the scheduling of chemicals and medicines in Australia.