Rick Schnellmann is the scientific founder of Mito Innovations and the originator of MARY1. He has spent four decades on one problem: making the kidney repair itself after injury.

That idea began in his laboratory’s research on mitochondrial biogenesis – the process by which cells rebuild the mitochondria that power organ function. His team was among the first to show that restarting this program pharmacologically after injury restores mitochondrial function and reverses acute kidney injury in preclinical models. This finding reframed kidney injury as a problem of recovery, not just prevention. MARY1, a selective 5-HT2B receptor antagonist that re-engages this program, descends directly from it. Rick is the inventor on MARY1 composition of matter and method of use patent estate.

Rick is the Howard J. Schaeffer Endowed Chair at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy (Dean from 2016 to 2025) and a Research Health Scientist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Earlier, he was a Distinguished University Professor and Eminent Scholar at the Medical University of South Carolina, chairing the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, with prior faculty appointments at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Rick earned his PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arizona and trained in physiology at Duke University.

His program has been funded by NIH, VA, and foundation grants ($12M to date) across renal injury, repair, aging, and nephrotoxicity, with recent work extending mitochondrial repair biology into spinal cord injury, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. He authored 250+ peer reviewed manuscripts (h index >70) and 20 book chapters and served as Editor of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Repurposed drug discovery work in his lab was acquired and carried into a Phase 2 kidney study.