Robert A. McArthur

Dr. McArthur began his professional career investigating the role of serotonin on feeding behaviour at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto, Canada. This interest led him to complete a PhD in the psychopharmacology of feeding behaviour an macronutrient selection with John Blundell at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.

In 1981 he joined Beecham Pharmaceuticals to work on adrenergic involvement in energy expenditure and obesity. In 1983 Dr McArthur began working on M1 functional agonists for the treatment of Alzheimer disease and was responsible for demonstrating the initial procognitive effects of Sabcomeline. Following the merger of Beecham with SmithKline French, Dr McArthur was appointed Business Development Executive at I.T.E.M-Labo, Paris working with Roger Porsolt in behavioural pharmacology contract research. In 1992, Robert was appointed Head of Behavioral Pharmacology at Farmitalia Carlo Erba, later Pharmacia in Milan. His lab was responsible for the preclinical behavioural pharmacology of Sabcomeline (Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia); Safinamide (epilepsy and Parkinson’s); Reboxetine (depression); Cabergoline (Parkinson’s); Nicergoline (Mild Cognitive Impairment); and Amperozide (alcoholism).

He is listed as an inventor in 19 issued patents and applications of which he is the principal inventor in 3. In 1998, Robert transferred to the Pharmacia and Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan where as senior behavioural pharmacologist responsible, he worked on mutant mouse characterizations, the establishment of a primate unit assessing cognitive changes in monkeys (CANTAB), and development of anxiety models in marmosets. Soon after the merger of Pharmacia and Upjohn with Monsanto-Searle, Robert returned to Europe where in 2001 he founded the consulting company, McArthur and Associates GmbH in Basel.

Robert has since worked on a series of projects for both large Pharma as well as biotechs, including further primate work in Parkinson’s, development of behavioural pharmacology expertise, novel target validation, due diligence, medical writing, strategy evaluation, scientific advisor and as an expert witness. Dr McArthur has pursued his academic interests in translational neuroscience. In 2003, Robert was appointed as a visiting Associate Research Professor in the Department of Neuroscience (Division of Behavioural Neuroscience) at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

He has written and co-edited extensively on the subject of the clinical and translational relevance of animal models of CNS disorders. He has authored 43 peer-reviewed papers, 13 book chapters, co-author on 1 book and senior editor of a three-volume set on translational value of animal models for CNS drug discovery. He has served as section editor (CNS) for Current Opinion in Investigational Drugs and is on the editorial board of Drugs of the Future. In 2009 he was appointed an independent scientific expert evaluator for the European FP7-Health call.