4E Therapeutics is a neuroscience company based in Austin, Texas focused on developing next generation treatments for pain. With a history of commercial success and scientific expertise, 4E Therapeutics has entered clinical development for a cutting edge therapy for chronic neuropathic pain and is also at the forefront of discovering and developing compounds to treat migraine and acute pain.
Meet Our Team
The company, founded by a world-class team of experts, is dedicated to improving the lives of those living in pain by developing innovative, non-addictive pain medications that target the underlying neurological mechanisms that cause pain.
Theodore (Ted) Price is Ashbel Smith Professor in the Department of Neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at University of Texas (UT) at Dallas. He is also the Director of the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at UT Dallas. He did his PhD work with Chris Flores and Ken Hargreaves at UT Health San Antonio and a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University with Fernando Cervero. He started his independent laboratory in 2007 at University of Arizona School of Medicine and moved to UT Dallas in 2014. His lab is interested in molecular mechanisms driving the transition to chronic pain with a focus on drug development for chronic pain disease modification and on peripheral and central mechanisms of neuronal plasticity in response to injury. He has won numerous awards including the Patrick D. Wall Young Investigator Award from IASP. He is editor in chief of Neurobiology of Pain and on the editorial board of Journal of Neuroscience and PAIN. Ted has published more than 150 peer reviewed studies, has been continuously funded by NIH for more than 10 years, and is a former member of the Neurobiology of Pain and Itch Study Section for NIH. He is a co-founder of several companies, including 4E Therapeutics, CerSci Therapeutics, which was acquired by Acadia Pharma in 2020, and Doloromics which is alumni company of the Illumina Accelerator program.
A major part of Ted’s work has focused on signaling mechanisms that cause nociceptors to become sensitized in chronic pain states. His work on MNK and eiF4E phosphorylation demonstrates this pathway is a central node in the signaling events that cause chronic pain. This scientific foundation formed the impetus to start 4E Therapeutics. Ted’s ongoing work at 4E Therapeutics has focused on developing this target pathway, building the neurobiology arm of 4E’s discovery platform and developing a clinical bridge program that leverages advances in human molecular neuroscience to demonstrate the efficacy of MNK inhibitors in reducing human nociceptor excitability.
Sahn and collaborators have synthesized hundreds of σ2R modulators across multiple compound classes, leading to the discovery of pharmacological tools with neuroprotective- and analgesic properties. These efforts led to the cloning and identification of σ2R as transmembrane protein 97 (TMEM97), enabling previously unavailable biological investigations that have further enhanced the understanding of this potential drug target. Sahn has published 20 peer review articles, is a co-inventor on nine patent applications, and is a co-founder of NuvoNuro, a UT Austin spinout.
With over 200 publications in prominent journals, Michele Curatolo’s research focuses mainly on studying nociceptive processes in humans to improve the understanding of pain and facilitate the development and evaluation of treatments. He has applied advanced phenotyping from his research to the conduct of clinical trials. He has been the principal investigator of several clinical trials on the pharmacological modulation and treatment of acute and chronic pain conditions. He is currently one of the principal investigators of the project: “EPPIC-Net Hub at the University of Washington”, as part of the NIH’s HEAL Initiative for carrying out phase-II clinical trials within the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network. Current NIH-funded clinical trials include two large pragmatic clinical trials on the comparative-effectiveness of treatments for chronic pain, with roles as co-investigator and principal investigator for the University of Washington site.
Michele’s research has been supported in Switzerland by the Swiss Science National Foundation, the Federal Funding Agency, and in the USA by the National Institute of Health. He has been awarded several prizes for his scientific work and an honorary doctorate at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.
With an extensive experience in university teaching and mentoring, Michele was invited to hold over 300 lectures, courses, and workshops in national and international meetings. He has served as reviewer for multiple highly ranked scientific journals, funding agencies and external academic institutions. Current journal editorial responsibilities include membership in the editorial board of Pain, and role as section editor of the European Journal of Pain and the Scandinavian Journal of Pain.
Benson has been General Partner of CTX Capital Partners, LLC since 2019. CTX is engaged in developing and managing attainable housing communities as well as other real estate investments. Mr. Benson has served as General Partner at Caddo Minerals, Inc. since 2013, which is a private energy investment company. Mr. Benson has served on the Board of Directors of four publicly held companies and is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Also, he is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas. He received a BBA degree from Southern Methodist University in 1984.
Dr. Aldridge has leveraged her training as a translator, or liaison, between scientists and non- scientists, communicating effectively about the potential of science. Her roles have included technology commercialization; improving patient outcomes through quality based initiatives; working with disease-specific nonprofits; development and venture philanthropy; and biotech and life science investing through venture capital.
Dr. Aldridge received her Ph.D. from Duke University in the Department of Immunology and Program in Genetics, and her Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science is from Texas A&M University.