Nassim Usman, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Usman is currently CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at Catalyst Biosciences. Dr. Usman joined Catalyst from Morgenthaler Ventures, where he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence beginning in June, 2005. Prior to joining Morgenthaler he was Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Sirna Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:RNAI – acquired by Merck NYSE:MRK) from 2004 to 2005 and held various R&D positions at both Sirna and Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:RZYM), including VP of R&D and Chief Scientific Officer, from 1992 to 2004. Dr. Usman has entered several drugs into clinical development, most recently Sirna 027, an siRNA for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). He has completed more than 10 licensing deals with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and participated in both private and public financings. Prior to moving into the biotechnology industry in 1992, Dr. Usman was an NIH Fogarty and NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow and Scientist in the Departments of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1987 to 1992. He has authored more than 70 scientific articles and 130 patents and applications. Dr. Usman serves on the SABs of RXi Pharmaceuticals (Worcester, MA) and Noxxon Pharma AG (Berlin, Germany) and is a past director of Archemix Corporation (Cambridge, MA) and atugen AG (now Silence Therapeutics, LSE/AIM:SLN). He received his B.Sc. (Honours) and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from McGill University. In his doctoral dissertation he developed a method for the solid-phase synthesis of RNA that is widely used in science and in a marketed RNA product (Macugen™).

Edwin L. Madison, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Madison received a Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Texas - Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWC) in 1990. Following graduation, Dr. Madison accepted a faculty position at UTSWC with joint appointments in the Departments of Biochemistry and Internal Medicine. Dr. Madison then moved to The Scripps Research Institute as an Associate Professor of Vascular Biology. Prior to moving to Catalyst Biosciences, Dr. Madison was Vice President of Biological Research at Dendreon San Diego and Dendreon Corporation, Professor of Vascular Biology at the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Vascular Biology at The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Madison has achieved an international reputation in the fields of serine protease and serpin basic research, and he is one of the lead inventors of a currently marketed protease therapeutic agent.

Erik Wiberg, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Wiberg brings to Catalyst 20 years of business development, finance and Wall Street experience. Mr. Wiberg joins Catalyst from ALZA Corporation, where he was most recently Vice President, Business Development from 2001 to 2007 with responsibility for product licensing, technology licensing and alliance management. From 1998 to 2001, he had responsibility for mergers & acquisitions and participated in corporate planning & analysis, financings and investor relations. During his time at ALZA, Mr. Wiberg completed a wide variety of transactions, including the $12.8 billion sale of ALZA to Johnson & Johnson, the $700 million acquisition of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, in-licenses and out-licenses of products, technology and patents, research collaborations, and spinouts and divestitures. Prior to joining ALZA, Mr. Wiberg was an equity research analyst from 1990 to 1998 at UBS Securities, Hambrecht & Quist and Smith Barney, covering a broad range of growth companies in healthcare services, biotechnology and medical devices. From 1985 to 1990, Mr. Wiberg was an investment banker at Smith Barney. Mr. Wiberg received a B.S. in Finance and Accounting and a B.A.S. in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeffrey R. Latts, MD, Chief Medical Advisor

In over 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Latts has been involved in numerous investigational new drug application submissions and has successfully initiated early to late stage clinical trials for multiple disease areas, including cancer, central nervous system, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.  Dr Latts has been a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry since January 2007.  Previously, Dr. Latts served as Executive Vice President of Exelixis, Inc., a biotechnology company, from January 2006 to January 2007, and as Senior Vice President of Exelixis, Inc. from July 2001 to December 2005.  He also served as Chief Medical Officer of Exelixis, Inc. from July 2001 to September 2006.  Prior to that, Dr. Latts held key management positions with Berlex Laboratories, a pharmaceutical healthcare company, where he served as Chief Medical Officer from 1995 to 2001, and Vice President, Clinical Research and Development from 1990 to 2001.  Prior to that, Dr. Latts served as Vice President of Clinical Research at Wyeth Ayerst Research, a division of Wyeth Laboratories. He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry with the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Division of Warner Lambert.  Dr. Latts received a B.S. in medicine and an M.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Camille DeLuca-Flaherty, Ph.D., Vice President, Project Management

Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty has served as Executive Director, Project Management and Project Leader of the FVIIa/Hemphilia program at Catalyst.  Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty joined Catalyst in June 2006 from Exelixis where she was most recently Senior Director of Development Project Management. In this capacity, she served on numerous project teams that spanned development stages pre-IND through Phase 3 clinical trials. In the role of Director of Research Operations, Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty played a central role in the transition of Exelixis from a platform technology to a fully integrated drug discovery/development company. Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty joined Exelixis as the company's first alliance manager in 1998. Prior to Exelixis, Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty led diverse research teams in the identification of novel protease inhibitors first at Sandoz Agro and later at Affymax, where she interacted with drug discovery teams from Glaxo Wellcome's sites in Research Triangle Park, Verona Italy, and Geneva Switzerland. Dr. DeLuca-Flaherty received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado and completed her post doctoral training in structural biology at Stanford University.

Marc Navre, Ph.D., Vice President, Drug Discovery

Dr. Navre brings twenty years of experience in applying innovative technologies to drug discovery, with a strong focus on proteases.  He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and undertook post-doctoral training at Stanford University as a Damon Runyon fellow.  In 1991 Dr. Navre joined Affymax, where he built the Enzymology group, and developed an innovative system for mapping protease specificity using polyvalent phage display, the use of which has been published on for a variety of therapeutically relevant proteases.  Following Affymax’s acquisition by Glaxo-Wellcome, Dr. Navre worked extensively with international teams including Glaxo’s Protease Systems-Based Research group, the Antibacterial Exploratory Discovery Board, as well as the Global Scientific Computing Board.  Prior to joining Catalyst, Dr. Navre was Vice President of Biology at Takeda San Diego (formerly Syrrx), where he participated in numerous discovery programs, including the development of SYR322, an inhibitor of the protease DPP IV, which is now in Phase III clinical testing for Type II diabetes.

Gerardo Zapata, Vice President, Process Development and Manufacturing

Dr. Zapata joined Catalyst from Amgen and brings over 20 years of experience in Protein Biochemistry and Process Development to Catalyst. He has participated in leadership positions in the development and manufacturing of therapeutic proteins at FDA, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Abgenix and Amgen. Dr. Zapata received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and post-doctoral training at CBER, FDA, where in addition to authoring scientific papers, participated in the IND and BLA review process. Dr. Zapata has coauthored more than 20 papers and holds several manufacturing process patents. Dr. Zapata is an expert in process development activities, including upstream and downstream process development, process characterization and manufacturing with an emphasis in purification processes, analytical assay development and formulation fill finish development. He has contributed to the filings of Investigation of New Drugs Applications (IND), Biological License Applications (BLAs) and commercial manufacturing. Dr. Zapata was involved in the development, licensing and manufacturing activities of Rituximab, Herceptin and Vectibix and has participated in the conjugation of potent compounds to antibodies as well as in the construction of manufacturing facilities for biotechnology products.