Dr.Philip Ashton-Rickardt  is the Founder and CEO, Smith Therapeutics, acquired by AZTherapies in October 2019; inventor of cutting-edge CAR-Treg technology targeting brain glial cells to reduce neuroinflammation associated with neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS. He is an esteemed immunologist known for his early findings on T lymphocytes; previously Chair in Immunology at Imperial College London, Visiting Professor, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago .Awarded tenure from The University of Chicago; recipient of the Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Bill Clinton; author of more than 65 peer-reviewed papers in more than 30 academic journals (including Cell, Science, Immunity, and Nature Immunology) . He received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of London, King’s College with honors, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh; completed post-doctoral work at the University of Edinburgh and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Molecular Biology and Molecular Immunology, respectively