• Andrew Miller, Ph.D., Founder of Karuna Therapeutics, joins Board of Directors
• David Michelson, M.D., named Chief Medical Officer, brings deep clinical development expertise in CNS diseases, including four New Drug Approvals
• Zachary Hill, Ph.D., promoted to Chief Technology Officer

SAN FRANCISCO, June 9, 2026 – Montara Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering brain-selective therapies for CNS diseases, today announced the appointment of Andrew Miller, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors; the hiring of David Michelson, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer; and the promotion of Zachary Hill, Ph.D., to Chief Technology Officer.

“We are building a team with the experience and ambition to realize our vision,” said Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Montara Therapeutics. “Andrew created and built an innovative neuroscience company by demonstrating that a two-drug combination strategy could mitigate peripheral side effects and unlock clinical value, a thesis that underpins our BrainOnly™ platform. David brings the regulatory and clinical rigor to advance our programs into the clinic, and Zach has been instrumental in further developing our platform and technology. Together with our existing team, this strengthens our ability to execute on our strategy and drive long-term value.”

Andrew Miller, Ph.D., Joins Board of Directors

Andrew Miller, Ph.D., is a highly accomplished leader in neuroscience drug development, named to Time Magazine’s 100 Next Generation Leaders, 100 Most Influential People in Health, and the Fierce 50 in 2025.

As Founder and President of R&D at Karuna Therapeutics, Dr. Miller was the lead inventor of KarXT, approved by the FDA in 2024 as COBENFY™, the first new class of treatment for schizophrenia in 35 years. He later served as COO, CEO, and board member, scaling Karuna from one employee to over 350 and raising approximately $2 billion ahead of its $14 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2024. COBENFY was developed using a pioneering two-drug strategy that paired a CNS-active muscarinic agonist with a peripherally restricted muscarinic antagonist, enabling clinically meaningful central efficacy with improved peripheral tolerability. Dr. Miller shepherded this work from initial concept through FDA approval and a landmark acquisition, and now brings that experience to Montara’s board. Dr. Miller currently serves as the Chairman of the Board at Progentos Therapeutics, a Board Member at Kyverna Therapeutics, and as an advisor to Google Ventures, General Atlantic, Vida Ventures, Longwood Fund and the One Mind Foundation.

“Montara is pursuing a novel and distinct two-drug strategy aimed at achieving brain-only pharmacology using a peripheral blocker. Supported by strong preclinical in vivo data, its lead program has the potential to be the first therapy to selectively inhibit mTOR signaling in the brain, opening new possibilities for treating TSC seizures and a broad range of other neurodegenerative diseases,” said Andrew Miller, Ph.D. “The BrainOnly platform has broad utility across CNS targets that are currently not accessible.”

Other members of Montara’s board include Troy Willson, Ph.D., Board Chair and CEO of Kura Oncology; Dr. Nicholas Hertz, CEO of Montara; Dirk Landgraf, Ph.D., Principal at SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund; and J. Seth Strattan, Ph.D., General Partner at Two Bear Capital.

David Michelson, MD, Appointed Chief Medical Officer

David Michelson, M.D., brings more than two decades of CNS clinical development leadership to Montara. At Eli Lilly, he rose to Executive Medical Director, leading atomoxetine through approval as Strattera, before spending over a decade at Merck as VP of Neuroscience and Ophthalmology Clinical Research, where he oversaw the portfolio from Phase 2 through approval, including Belsomra, the first orexin receptor antagonist for insomnia. He subsequently served as CMO at Regenacy Pharmaceuticals and Proclara Biosciences, advancing novel mechanisms in peripheral neuropathy and neurodegeneration, respectively. Across his career, he has led four programs through New Drug Approval and served as DSMB chair for the NIMH medications development program.

“The BrainOnly platform addresses a fundamental bottleneck in CNS drug development, enabling engagement of important targets in the brain without the systemic side effects and toxicities that limit dose and durability,” said David Michelson, MD. “I’m joining Montara because I believe this platform can deliver medicines to patients who currently have no good options.”

Zachary Hill, Ph.D., Promoted to Chief Technology Officer

Zachary Hill, Ph.D., has deep expertise in emerging therapeutic modalities, especially in bivalent inhibitors, heterobifunctional molecules, and synthetic molecular glues. He trained as a synthetic chemist and chemical biologist under Dustin Maly at the University of Washington, followed by postdoctoral research with Jim Wells at UCSF, where he co-invented the chemically induced dimerization technology, AbCIDs. Dr. Hill is an experienced biotech professional, having co-founded Soteria Biotherapeutics, where he served as CSO and board director, developing novel therapeutics based on the AbCID technology.

At Montara, Dr. Hill’s expertise in heterobifunctional molecules and molecular glues has been instrumental in advancing the BrainOnly™ platform. As CTO, he will lead platform innovation, discovery, and oversee the translation of Montara’s science into clinical-stage programs.

“BrainOnly is based on elegant chemistry to create pharmacology that is genuinely selective for the brain, which is something the CNS field has needed for a long time,” said Zachary Hill, Ph.D. “We have the scientific foundation, technological innovation, clinical leadership, and board experience to take this platform to its full potential.”

About Montara’s BrainOnly™ Platform

Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform enables brain-selective pharmacology by pairing brain-penetrant therapeutics with a proprietary peripheral blocker that restricts drug activity outside the CNS, improving safety and tolerability while preserving full efficacy at the target. The platform leverages Brain-Targeting Chimeras (BrainTAC™) and has the potential to unlock CNS targets previously limited by systemic toxicity, significantly expanding the addressable opportunity in neurological disease.

About Montara Therapeutics

Montara Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel approaches to create safer and more efficacious treatments for neurological diseases. The company’s proprietary BrainOnly™ platform enables brain-selective pharmacology by leveraging both existing and novel Brain-Targeting Chimeras (BrainTAC™) while restricting deleterious on-target/off-tissue peripheral activity. BrainOnly holds the potential to unlock numerous targets previously considered undruggable, greatly expanding the therapeutic options for patients in need of these therapies. Montara is supported by an outstanding group of investors, including founding investor SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund, Two Bear Capital, KdT Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, and BEVC. For more information, visit montaratx.com.

Media Contact

Kayla Sadowsky

Kayla@lmprcommunications.com

Building on a prior MJFF-funded collaboration targeting LRRK2, Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform now targets the mTOR pathway — exploring a class of drugs with longstanding scientific interest but a history of safety challenges.

Highlights:

• Montara Therapeutics awarded non-dilutive funding grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) to advance a BrainOnly™ therapy targeting mTOR, with the goal of activating the brain’s natural protein-clearing machinery to address toxic α-synuclein buildup in Parkinson’s disease
• Project will leverage Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform to restrict mTOR inhibitor activity to the brain, aiming to reduce the systemic side effects that have historically prevented this drug class from reaching Parkinson’s patients

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2026 – Montara Therapeutics, a biotech company pioneering brain-selective therapies for central nervous system (CNS) diseases, today announced it has been awarded a research grant of approximately $1 million from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF). The funding, Montara’s second grant from MJFF following an award in May 2025 to develop a brain-selective LRRK2 inhibitor, will be used to develop their BrainOnly™ platform to activate autophagy in the brain, promote clearance of the toxic α-synuclein protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease, while aiming to mitigate adverse effects throughout the body.

This work is supported by MJFF through its Therapeutics Pipeline Program, which funds preclinical and clinical efforts to accelerate the development of new therapies for Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s disease is characterized in part by the accumulation of α-synuclein, a toxic protein that clumps together and damages brain cells over time. One promising strategy for removing this protein is activation of autophagy, a natural cellular housekeeping process in which cells break down and recycle damaged components. The protein mTOR acts as a brake on this process: when mTOR is active, autophagy is suppressed; when mTOR is inhibited, the brake is released, and the cell’s protein-clearing machinery is switched on. Drugs that inhibit mTOR, a class that includes rapamycin and related compounds, which have also attracted sustained scientific interest for their role in aging biology, have shown encouraging results in clearing α-synuclein in laboratory models of Parkinson’s disease. However, because mTOR plays essential roles throughout the body, systemic mTOR inhibition causes serious side effects, including immune suppression, impaired wound healing, and metabolic disruption, severely limiting the use of these drugs as neurological therapies.

This challenge is one Montara knows well. The company is already advancing its proprietary peripheral blocker, MT1110, toward the clinic in combination with everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, to treat tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)-related epilepsy, another disease driven by mTOR pathway hyperactivation. The Parkinson’s program builds directly on that foundation, applying the same BrainOnly™ approach to a new indication where mTOR-driven autophagy could clear the toxic protein accumulation at the heart of the disease.

Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform is designed to address this challenge by pairing a brain-penetrant therapeutic with a proprietary peripheral blocker that prevents the drug from acting outside the brain. This approach enables brain-specific pharmacology, allowing therapies to target mechanisms underlying neurological disease while minimizing harmful systemic effects.

Through this collaboration with MJFF, Montara will evaluate several clinically utilized mTOR inhibitors combined with its proprietary peripheral blocker to identify novel two-drug combinations that selectively activate autophagy in the brain. The program will assess these combinations in cell-based systems and Parkinson’s disease animal models to determine which candidates most effectively reduce α-synuclein accumulation, treat pathology, and exhibit favorable safety profiles.

If successful, this project could lead to a potential therapeutic strategy that safely enhances autophagy in the brain, helping remove toxic protein buildup and potentially slowing, or even stopping, the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“Our team has spent years working toward a therapy that doesn’t just treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s but addresses the underlying biology causing neurons to die,” said Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Montara Therapeutics. “MJFF’s continued support reflects the importance of exploring new approaches to Parkinson’s disease biology. . The mTOR pathway is one of the most powerful levers we have for clearing toxic proteins from the brain, and our platform may finally make it safe enough to use.”

“The mTOR pathway represents an important area of investigation in Parkinson’s research,” said Jessica Tome Garcia, Lead Scientific Program Manager, Translational Research at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. “While the underlying biology is compelling, challenges related to systemic toxicity have limited progress. This work aims to explore approaches that may help address those barriers and advance our understanding of how targeting mTOR-driven autophagy could impact disease biology.”

“Our own genome-wide screens in human neurons identified mTOR signaling as one of the key pathways controlling the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates — and a target with real therapeutic potential,” said Martin Kampmann, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF and a Scientific Co-Founder of Montara Therapeutics. “The challenge has always been that you cannot inhibit mTOR systemically without serious consequences for the rest of the body. Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform is the most compelling approach I’ve seen for solving that problem, and this program gives us a direct path to test whether brain-selective mTOR inhibition can reduce pathological protein buildup in Parkinson’s disease.”

About Montara Therapeutics
Montara Therapeutics is a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pursuing novel approaches to develop safer and more efficacious treatments for neurological diseases. Montara’s BrainOnly™ platform enables brain-specific pharmacology by leveraging existing and novel chemical warheads, restricting deleterious on-target / off-tissue peripheral activity. BrainOnly holds the potential to drug numerous targets previously considered undruggable, greatly expanding the therapeutic options for patients in need of these therapies. Montara is supported by an outstanding group of investors, including founding investor SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund, Two Bear Capital, KdT Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, and BEVC. For more information, visit montaratx.com.

Media Contact:
Kayla Sadowsky
LMPR Communications
kayla@lmprcommunications.com