She earned a doctorate in MRI physics - the math of imaging a living brain. Then she went and started building the drugs meant to fix it.
On October 30, 2025, Megan McGill, M.D., Ph.D., took the chief executive seat at Brenig Therapeutics and a place on its board. Brenig is a clinical-stage biotech in Somerville, Massachusetts, built on an AI-based discovery platform and pointed squarely at the diseases that erode the brain. Her first assignment is not theoretical. It is a molecule called BT-267.
BT-267 is a LRRK2 inhibitor that Brenig describes as best-in-class, designed to slow - not just mask - both idiopathic and LRRK2-associated Parkinson's disease. LRRK2 is one of the most-studied genetic culprits in the condition, which makes it both a crowded target and a high-stakes one. Brenig expects Phase 1 topline data by the second quarter of 2026, with proof-of-concept studies slated to begin by the end of that year. McGill walked into the job with that calendar already ticking.
Behind the lead program sits a second candidate, BT-409, an NLRP3 inhibitor aimed at the neuroinflammation that shows up across a range of neurological conditions. The company's stated ambition is a portfolio of first- and best-in-class therapies for neurodegenerative disease, and McGill is the person now asked to carry it from promising biology to something a patient can actually take.
"Neurologic disorders touch millions and remain a profound area of unmet need." That line, from her appointment announcement, is the whole thesis. Brenig is betting that a physician who once measured the brain in physics can read where the science is going.
Brenig was created in 2021 inside a venture-creation incubator run by Torrey Pines Investment and OrbiMed. Its $65M Series A in July 2024 was led by NEA, with BioGeneration Ventures, OrbiMed, and Torrey Pines along for the ride.
"I'm honored to join Brenig's world-class team to accelerate a pipeline that translates promising biology into therapies that can meaningfully improve patients' lives." - Megan McGill, on taking the CEO role
Most biotech CEOs arrive through one door - the bench, or the spreadsheet, or the clinic. McGill came through several. She trained as a physician and earned a Ph.D. in neuroimaging and MRI physics at New York University School of Medicine, then did radiology residency work at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and at NYU. That is a person who learned the brain first as an image, then as a patient, then as a problem worth solving with chemistry.
The pivot out of medicine ran through McKinsey & Co., where she worked as a management consultant - the classic crash course in how decisions actually get made when money is on the line. From there she moved into business development and strategy at BridgeBio and at Regenxbio, two companies that treat drug pipelines as portfolios to be assembled and pressure-tested.
Then came the operator years. She has sat in the CEO chair at three companies before Brenig - Epitor Therapeutics, Regel Therapeutics, and HitchBio. Three first-in-class bets, three teams, three runs at turning early biology into something fundable and, eventually, testable. By the time Brenig's board chairman Iain Dukes welcomed her aboard, he could point to "experience in drug development" as the reason she fit.
Imaging scientist. Radiologist. Strategist. CEO. Different jobs, same organ. The brain has been the constant in a career that kept changing its angle of attack.
A career measured not in titles but in proximity to the same hard problem.
Exact dates for the earlier roles aren't public - the sequence is what tells the story.
The lead program. Brenig calls it best-in-class and aims it at both idiopathic and LRRK2-associated Parkinson's - a disease-modifying shot, not a symptom patch.
The pipeline's second act. NLRP3 sits at the center of inflammatory signaling that recurs across many neurological conditions - a broad target for a young company.
Progress bars are illustrative of stage, not regulatory milestones.
Brenig's stated aim is a robust stable of first- and best-in-class therapies for neurodegenerative disease, starting with Parkinson's and widening from there.
The company's small-molecule programs run on an AI-driven discovery platform - the kind of tooling that's reshaping how early biotech picks its targets.
Phase 1 topline data is expected by Q2 2026, with proof-of-concept studies targeted to begin by year-end. The calendar is the pressure.