CureDuchenne Appoints Lianna Orlando, PhD, to the Position of Senior Director of Research
CureDuchenne, the leading global nonprofit focused on funding and finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, announced today that Lianna Orlando, PhD has joined the team as Senior Director of Research. In this role, Orlando will help identify and evaluate strategic investments aimed at developing treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
“We are very excited to have Lianna join our team – she has exactly the skill set we need to find and evaluate the most promising Duchenne research from around the world that has the most potential to achieve our goal of improving and extending the lives of those affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy,” said Debra Miller, founder and CEO, CureDuchenne.
“I’m thrilled about joining CureDuchenne. The organization has a stellar reputation for being agile and impactful in its research investments,” said Orlando. “It’s exciting to work with a team that is so intensely focused on advancing Duchenne therapeutic development as quickly as possible.”
Prior to CureDuchenne, Orlando served as Interim Head of Research for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) where she oversaw all of the basic, translational, and clinical grant programs, including MDA’s venture philanthropy program. Before that, she was the Associate Director at Fidelity Biosciences Research Initiative (FBRI), focusing on funding research programs in neurodegenerative diseases.
Before leaving academia, Orlando was a junior faculty member in the Neurology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her doctorate in Neurobiology from Harvard University, and completed a select Markey Biomedical Scientist Fellowship to earn a masters degree from Harvard Medical School.
Orlando has taught both undergraduates and medical students at Harvard and worked as a freelance science writer for disease foundations and scientific journals. She holds B.S. degrees in Chemistry and in Magazine Journalism from Syracuse University.
