Rick Monsma, PhD

Dr. Monsma oversees the NYSCF Research Institute laboratory, including day-to day-functioning, project planning, and strategic development. He joined NYSCF in 2017.

Dr. Monsma received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Rochester and began his career as a postdoc at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He then moved to an industry position with Hoffman-LaRoche in Basel, Switzerland where he focused on the identification and characterization of G-protein coupled receptors. From Roche, Dr. Monsma was recruited to Schering-Plough, where he led several teams in pre-clinical research including Functional Genomics and the High Throughput Screening (HTS) group, developing methods for testing millions of molecules in drug discovery efforts. Following the Merck/Schering merger, Rick transitioned to leading a cell pharmacology group, which supported medicinal chemistry efforts in diverse drug discovery projects in neuroscience, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

In his current role, Dr. Monsma manages the laboratories and daily operations, including strategic guidance for internal and collaborative research programs. This includes overseeing NYSCF’s disease research and technology innovation teams focused on realizing the potential of pluripotent stem cells for population-scale disease modeling, drug discovery, and cell therapy development.