Team » Management | Board
of Directors |
Scientific Advisory Board
MANAGEMENT
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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 joins Catalyst from Morgenthaler Ventures, where he has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence since 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. During his industrial career Dr. Usman has entered several drugs into clinical development, completed multiple licensing deals with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and raised capital 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 Board of Osprey Pharmaceuticals, 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™). | |
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Todd J. Lorenz, M.D., Chief Medical Officer |
| Dr. Lorenz joins Catalyst from Johnson & Johnson, where he was Vice President and Associate Therapeutic Head for Cardiovascular Development (2006-08), and contributed to efforts in several internal J&J entities including Scios, the Corporate Office of Science and Technology and Peninsula Pharmaceuticals. He has held several leadership positions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries with responsibilities across several therapeutic areas, including immunology at XOMA (1990–94) and anti-thrombotic drug development at COR Therapeutics (1994–2001), where he was intimately involved in the development, approval and medical affairs support for a novel platelet inhibitor (Integrilin®). He was Chief Medical Officer at Corgentech (2001-05) where he was responsible for the clinical development of a transcription factor inhibitor through Phase 3 studies. He also served as CMO for Orexigen Therapeutics from 2005-06. Dr. Lorenz is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern. He completed a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco, and is board certified in both subspecialties. Dr. Lorenz is a coauthor on more than 25 clinical research papers, published in journals such as JAMA, The Lancet, Circulation and the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. | |
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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. |
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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. | |
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Steven Bass, Ph.D., Vice President, Molecular Biology |
| Dr. Bass joined Catalyst
from Maxygen where he was Senior Director of Research and Development
helping to develop and commercialize Maxygen's directed evolution platform
and improved immunotherapeutic product candidates. He has over 20 years
of experience engineering proteins, phage and whole cells for the production
and characterization of therapeutic proteins including nine years at
Genentech. Dr. Bass is a coinventor and pioneer of the monovalent
phage display system for selecting proteins with improved properties
from large libraries of variants. He has coauthored over 20 publications
and is a coinventor on over 20 patents in protein engineering and directed
evolution. Dr. Bass received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the
University of Southern California. |
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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. | |
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Gerardo Zapata, Vice President, Process Development and Manufacturing |
| Dr. Zapata joins 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. |
