Nicholas Hertz, PhD ’13 : A Scientist Inspired by Art and Nature

Nicholas Hertz comes from a long line of scientists. His great-great-uncle was Heinrich Hertz, the German physicist who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves and for whom the “hertz” unit of frequency measurement was named.  

But he also comes from a family of artists. His mother, Pamela Burton, is an internationally known landscape architect, and his father, Richard Hertz, is former chair of the graduate program in fine art at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. 

Hertz grew up on an artist’s commune in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and it was there, among nature, surrounded by artists, that he fell in love with science.  

“I remember spending a lot of time running through the wilderness, creating paths, trying to find deer trails, and digging holes,” he says. “Sitting there, looking at a tree, wondering, ‘What is that tree made out of?’ That was really what brought me into chemistry.” 

When he was in eighth grade, Hertz combined art with science to make a diorama of mitochondria. Often referred to as the powerhouse of the cell, mitochondria would come to be a powerful player in Hertz’s scientific work. 

Thriving under the right mentor 

Hertz earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UCLA, then came to UCSF in 2007 to work with Kevan Shokat, PhD, chair of the UCSF Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. 

“My dad really impressed upon me that it was crucial where you went to grad school, but even more important was the person you worked with,” Hertz says. “What Kevan was doing at UCSF was applied to making new drugs and understanding biological pathways, and that’s what I wanted to do – try to help human health.” 

Hertz began looking at mutations in a mitochondrial kinase (a type of enzyme) dubbed PINK1 that is implicated in the development of early-onset Parkinson’s disease. 

“I had a counterintuitive discovery, so I brought it to Kevan, who is so brilliant at interpreting findings,” Hertz says. “And he said, ‘If it’s real, you just cured Parkinson’s. Now go prove it.’” 

At UCSF, Hertz took a class called Idea to IPO, in which he learned about the business side of science. Soon he was thinking about starting a company based on the Parkinson’s work he was doing in Shokat’s lab. He didn’t give up when early fundraising efforts were unsuccessful; he just dug deeper into the science, heading to Stanford University for postdoctoral work. 

While he was at Stanford, funding for the company came through, and when his postdoc was finished, Hertz began working on his own project full time.  

 In 2013, Hertz and Shokat founded Mitokinin – the name comes from “mitochondria” and “kinase” – to develop a treatment for Parkinson’s disease by addressing the mitochondrial-dysfunction discoveries they’d made at UCSF. Last year, Mitokinin was acquired by AbbVie for $110 million. 

Hertz launched his second company, Montara Therapeutics, earlier this year to pursue therapies for central nervous system diseases.  

“We made progress in the past 10 years trying to cure Parkinson’s, but in the intervening years, my mom now has dementia, and there are really no drugs for dementia,” Hertz says. “So for me, it is really a personal battle. I want to use all the things we learned at Mitokinin to try to make an impact on Alzheimer’s and other dementias.” 

Surfing to stay humble 

For his many accomplishments just 11 years after completing his PhD, Hertz is receiving the 2024 UCSF Alumni Early-Career Award. 

“UCSF is one of the premier biomedical organizations in world, so it’s humbling to be recognized for doing work there as well as the hard work that came after,” he says. “I’m excited and deeply honored.” 

While Hertz spends much of his time in the lab or poring over scientific findings, he also makes time for his family. He and his wife, Janel Molton Hertz, a fashion entrepreneur, have three children. 

And Hertz still finds inspiration in nature like he did during his youth. 

“I love seeing a piece of data that’s really intriguing and then going surfing,” he says. “It’s definitely a way to come to a new idea. You realize how absolutely insignificant you are in the world. You can’t have a huge ego if you’re just getting absolutely pounded, destroyed by massive waves at Ocean Beach.”