In The News
May 2, 2025 – CleopatraRX™ is pleased to announce that it has initiated a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) transition plan. Effective as of April 30, 2025, Dina Leeds will no longer serve as CEO. The decision to initiate the search was made unanimously by the Board of Managers (the “Board”), driven by the company’s growth trajectory and the strategic leadership needed to capitalize on its current momentum.
April 22, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA — Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, founder and medical advisor to CleopatraRX™ and inventor of PearlPAK®, was prominently featured in The New York Times article titled “Sex Hormones Are Brain Hormones: What Does This Mean for Treating Brain Diseases?” The article spotlights the groundbreaking research reshaping how medicine understands the role of estrogen—not just as a reproductive hormone, but as a critical regulator of brain health.
Cognitive issues occur in 50-70% of menopausal women. Estrogens are known to have neuroprotective properties in several neurodegenerative disease models. However, the type and dose of estrogen to prevent menopause related cognitive decline remains unknown. Estradiol treatment in standard hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has some potential to counter deleterious effects of loss of estrogen during aging in women, but it is only FDA approved to treat hot flashes. Treatment is limited to relatively short durations at the lowest possible dose to minimize estradiol binding to estrogen receptor alpha in breast and risk for breast cancer. Thus, we pursued use of estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) ligands for neuroprotection during menopause given published neuroprotective effects in multiple sclerosis (MS) women and its mouse model.
When Rhonda Voskuhl, MD, began researching multiple sclerosis over a quarter of a century ago, she was an anomaly.Unlike many scientists at the time, Voskuhl wasn’t committed to “bench to bedside” research, which focuses on working with molecules in the lab and then seeing how the results apply to patients. As both a clinician and researcher, she thought it made more sense to observe a symptom in her patients, research its underlying mechanisms in the lab and then bring that research back to patients in a clinical trial.
“You learn a lot about yourself when you are striving to be good at something. And I learned at an early age that it’s great to strive for goals, but in the end, it is about your internal sense of achievement”. Rhonda Voskuhl is Professor of Neurology and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She also holds the Jack H Skirball Chair in Multiple Sclerosis and is the neurologist for the UCLA Comprehensive Menopause Care Program. She has achieved national and international acclaim for ground-breaking research in neuroprotective treatments for neurological disability, with a focus on the role of sex hormones and sex chromosomes. Clearly, Voskuhl is a star player in her field; with numerous prestigious awards, international recognition, and more than two decades of continuous research funding, her “internal sense of achievement” has been validated.
Molecules that promote restoration of the neuron’s myelin sheath could offer a reparative therapy for multiple sclerosis.
In a groundbreaking exploration led by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, PearlPAK inventor and a leading neurologist at UCLA, estriol, a hormone peaking in the third trimester of pregnancy, has emerged as a promising treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). Inspired by the protective effect of pregnancy against MS, Dr. Voskuhl’s team demonstrated estriol’s anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects through clinical trials and recent mouse model studies. Their findings suggest estriol’s potential in inducing remyelination, offering hope for innovative neuroprotective treatments in MS.
A new study led by UCLA neurologist Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl sheds light on the underlying mechanisms linking menopause to cognitive deficits and brain atrophy, revealing a crucial role for estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) in astrocytes. The study, conducted on female mice, identified the specific brain regions and mechanisms responsible for the cognitive changes experienced during menopause.
In a groundbreaking recognition of her remarkable contributions to multiple sclerosis (MS) research, Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, a distinguished neurologist and researcher at the Brain Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has been awarded the inaugural Rachel Horne Prize for Women’s Research in MS.
Doctors and scientists have long recognized certain diseases affect men and women differently, yet the dosage and design of drugs remain the same.
In this newest article with contributing information from PearlPAK inventor and UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, learn how scientists are beginning to understand how sex chromosomes and hormones affect people’s risk for certain diseases – and whether the biology behind those differences can be harnessed to improve treatments.
Last week it was announced that Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl’s extensive research career in neuroscience has resulted in a $7.3 million Research Program Award from the National Institute of Health.