Francisco Quintana

Francisco Quintana, PhD, is a founder of Violet Therapeutics and inventor of C-to-C Communication Maps and SPEAC-seq.  He is a Professor of Neurology at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Program on Immunology of Aging at the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, and an Associate Member at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Dr. Quintana’s research is focused on Neuroimmunology, investigating signaling pathways that control inflammation and neurodegeneration, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets for immune-mediated and neurodegenerative disorders.  Dr. Quintana has published over 230 peer reviewed articles and book chapters.  Dr. Quintana’s work identified the transcription factor AHR as an important regulator of inflammation driven by adaptive and innate immune cells. He defined mechanisms by which cell-cell interactions, metabolism, the microbiome, and environmental chemicals control inflammation and neurodegeneration. Dr. Quintana’s work guided the development of Tapinarof, the first FDA-approved AHR-targeting drug for the treatment of psoriasis.