About

Nassim Usman

About / Strategic Advisory / Nassim Usman

Dr Usman is currently President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at Catalyst Biosciences (NASDAQ: CBIO). Dr Usman joined Catalyst in 2006 from Morgenthaler Ventures, where he is a Venture Partner. Prior to joining Morgenthaler, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Sirna Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: RNAI, acquired by Merck - NYSE: MRK), Chief Scientific Officer & Vice President, Research & Development at Sirna Therapeutics Inc. and Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc (RPI). (NASDAQ: RZYM). During his industrial career Dr Usman has entered several drugs into clinical development, completed multiple licensing with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies deals (totaling $2.2B), founded and exited from several companies and raised & $500M in both private and public financings. Dr Usman previously served on several private and public Boards of Directors including; Principia Biopharma (NASDAQ: PRNB), Mosaic Biosciences, Osprey Pharmaceuticals, Archemix Corporation, atugen AG and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of RXi Pharmaceuticals and Noxxon Pharma AG. Dr Usman began his industrial career when he joined RPI in 1992 as a Senior Scientist in Chemistry & Biochemistry and was promoted to Director of Chemistry & Biochemistry Research in 1994; VP, Research in 1996; SVP, Research in 1999; VP R&D in 2000, CSO in 2002 and SVP & COO of Sirna Therapeutics in 2003. Prior to joining RPI, 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 served as a consultant for several companies and law firms on nucleic acid chemistry and drug development. Dr Usman received his B.Sc. (Honours) and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Chemistry at McGill University. In his doctoral dissertation, Dr Usman developed a method for the solid-phase synthesis of RNA that is widely used in science and in two marketed RNA products (Macugen™ & Onpattro™). Dr Usman has authored more than 70
scientific articles and 130 patents and applications.