Dr. Jonathan Brotchie is a Canada-based neuroscientist with over 30 years experience as a world-leading researcher in Parkinson’s disease. He grew up in the north of England and he remains culturally a proud Northerner.

While studying medicine in the 1980s at the University of Manchester, Jon became fascinated with the basal ganglia, the interconnected areas of the brain that dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, and had some ideas about how new treatments for Parkinson’s might be developed. He has since spent the whole of his professional life in pursuit of that calling, holding leadership positions in both academic and commercial research organizations, leading teams in identifying and validating novel therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease.

Jon has held faculty positions at the University of Manchester and Toronto’s University Health Network, and his contributions to the academic literature have helped define the science of Parkinson’s as we know it today, with more than 220 publications cited over 13,000 times, and an h-index of 70.

In the commercial realm, he founded and currently leads Atuka, whose team of world-leading neuroscientists bridges the gaps in the therapeutic development ecosystem by combining the rigour and experimental mindset of academia with the creativity and innovation the company has become known for from over two decades of working with a multitude of clients and prospective drugs.

Through Atuka, Jon has overseen the assessment of efficacy of more than 300 potential drugs, biologics, and gene therapies for Parkinson’s, with 25 therapeutic candidates advancing to clinical development, and advised more than a hundred organizations globally, from large pharmaceutical and biotech companies to charitable foundations, universities, and government agencies. Jon’s teams have evaluated more potential treatments for Parkinson’s disease than any other organization.

Outside of his scientific work, Jon applies his thirst for intellectual novelty and analytical rigour in the worlds of art and agriculture. BAP Art Projects was founded in 2024 as a vehicle for making his collection of postwar and contemporary art accessible to the public, while leveraging the collection’s value to support ongoing research into Parkinson’s.

At his farm in the Plateaux des Appalaches of Quebec, Jon has planted an experimental vineyard to investigate how, in a world imperilled by climate change, Vitis sp hybrid grapes might flourish and potentially drive new styles of winemaking in northern climates.