Dr. De Souza is currently Chairman of Cyclerion Therapeutics. He has substantial experience as an executive in the biopharmaceutical industry, having founded companies (Neurocrine Biosciences) and served as Executive Chairman (Bionomics, Kures Inc., nLife Therapeutics, Ligon Discovery) and President and CEO of several public (Biodel; Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp.) and private (Archemix; Neuropore Therapeutics) biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. De Souza has raised several hundred million dollars in capital in private and public sectors and has taken companies public (Neurocrine Biosciences IPO in 1996 & Bionomics IPO in 2021) and sold companies (Synaptic sale to Lundbeck 2002) to provide liquidity and build shareholder value. Over Dr. De Souza’s career, he has served in a number of high-ranking R&D roles, including SVP and U.S. head of R&D for Aventis (1998-2002), co-founder and EVP of R&D at Neurocrine (1992-1998) and Head of CNS at DuPont Merck (1990–1992). He serves or has served on several Editorial Boards and National Institutes of Health Committees as well as Board of Directors of several private companies (Merial, Archemix, Neuropore Therapies, Kures Inc., Intra-Cellular Therapeutics, Ligon Discovery, nLife Therapeutics, Zengen and Psyadon) and public companies including Royalty Pharma (Nasdaq: RPRX), Neurocrine Biosciences (Nasdaq: NBIX), Targacept, Inc., (Nasdaq: TRGT), Palatin Technologies (AMEX: PTN), IDEXX Laboratories (Nasdaq: IDXX), Biodel (Nasdaq: BIOD), Synaptic Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: SNAP), Catalyst Biosciences (Nasdaq: CBIO), Cyclerion Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CYCN) and Bionomics Limited (Australian Exchange: BNO.AX; Nasdaq: BNOX).

He has edited 6 books and is an author or co-author of approximately 300 original articles, chapters or reviews and 300 abstracts. His research has focused on the receptor mechanisms involved in coordinating brain-endocrine-immune responses to stress. He is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including the 1990 Joseph Cochin Young Investigator Award of the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence, the 1991 Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award of the American Society for Neurochemistry, the 1994 Curt Richter Award and the 2005 Service Award of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, the 1997 Daniel H. Efron Award of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (New England Biotech category). Dr. De Souza has served on the faculty of several universities including The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of California at San Diego and Rutgers University.