Team
An experienced team of biotherapeutic innovators
Vesigen is led by an interdisciplinary team of seasoned professionals with deep experience in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel biotherapeutics.
Leadership
Paulash Mohsen
Chief Executive Officer
Nicholas Buffinger, Ph.D., J.D.
Chief Operating Officer
Joseph Nabhan, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Scientific Advisors
Board of Directors
Gerald Chan, Sc.D.
Chairman
Morningside
Stephen Bruso
Morningside
Jürgen Eckhardt, M.D.
Leaps by Bayer
Lucio Iannone, Ph.D.
Leaps by Bayer
Dieter Weinand
Board Member
Paulash Mohsen
Chief Executive Officer
Paulash Mohsen is a seasoned biopharmaceutical executive who has served in a variety of roles across multiple disciplines. Prior to his appointment at Vesigen, he served as Chief Business Officer at Yumanity Therapeutics, and helped the company grow from a seed stage, research-based startup to a public company, with a lead clinical program in Parkinson’s disease. He was responsible for securing a strategic research collaboration and license agreement with Merck & Co. for two pipeline programs in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar dementia. Before Yumanity, Paulash served as Country Manager in Canada for Cubist Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Merck), where he led the company’s first international operation from conceptualization through commercialization. In this role, he oversaw the approval and launch of two novel anti-infective therapeutics and led the company’s commercial, scientific and administrative functions. Paulash joined Cubist via acquisition of Optimer Pharmaceuticals, where he was Vice President, Strategy and Business Operations and helped establish the U.S. commercial infrastructure and led launch preparedness for DIFICID, an anti-infective. Preceding Optimer, Paulash held strategic and operational roles at Pfizer, including Vice President of Strategy and Vice President, Multi-Channel Management. Paulash holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Brown University, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nicholas Buffinger, Ph.D., J.D.
COO
Nicholas Buffinger is the Chief Operating Officer of Vesigen Therapeutics. Prior to joining Vesigen, he was a co-founder of Surface Oncology, Inc., where he served as Vice President, Corporate Development and IP Strategy. During his tenure at Surface, Nick was responsible for company operations, including managing legal, IP, finance, and facilities, and negotiated the company’s 2016 strategic collaboration and licensing partnership with Novartis, which included more than $1.5 billion in upfront and potential milestone fees.
Nick was also a co-founder of CoStim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he served as Senior Director, Corporate Development and was a member of the team that negotiated the acquisition of CoStim by Novartis in 2014. Prior to CoStim, he was Director of Strategic Alliances at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was responsible for sourcing, negotiating, and managing collaborations and licenses relating to biologics platform technologies. Nick began his career in patent law, serving as a patent agent/attorney at Celtrix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dyax, Inc., and Morrison & Foerster, LLC. He holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from Stanford University and a J.D. from Santa Clara University.
Quan Lu, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Vesigen Therapeutics
Dr. Lu is Professor of Environmental Genetics and Physiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He directs the Harvard Superfund Research Center and also co-directs the Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Training Program at the Harvard Chan School.
His laboratory studies molecular mechanisms underlying complex gene-environment interactions in multigenic human diseases such as asthma, diabetes and neurodegeneration, focusing in part on the emerging role of extracellular vesicles in disease pathogenesis, prevention, and therapeutics. Research in Dr. Lu’s laboratory is supported by multiple NIH R01 grants and a Program Project grant as well funding from private foundations. Dr. Lu discovered ARMMs and is co-inventor of ARMMs-inspired technologies.
Stephen Haggarty, Ph.D.
Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Stephen J. Haggarty is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, an Associate Neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Director of the MGH Chemical Neurobiology Laboratory within the Center for Genomic Medicine. He is also a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute and Affiliate Faculty Member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Haggarty’s research program operates at the interface of neurology and psychiatry with a focus on dissecting the role of neuroplasticity in health and disease using chemical biology. His efforts are guided by knowledge emerging from human genetics regarding the root causes of disease and have led to the discovery of novel chemical probes targeting the regulation of neurotrophic factor signaling, epigenetic regulation of neuronal gene expression, neurogenesis, synaptogenesis, and proteostasis networks, including most recently using the strategy of targeted protein degradation.
A major emphasis of Dr. Haggarty’s research program is the use of reprogramming technology to create patient-specific, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as ex vivo models of neurogenetic disorders and their use for characterizing chemical probes. The ability to differentiate human iPSCs into neural networks with the capacity to form synapses and regulate genes in an activity-dependent manner provides powerful new avenues for studies of neuroplasticity, for understanding the neurobiology of human disease, as well as for addressing the challenging goal of discovering novel targets and next-generation, disease-modifying therapies using the principles of genomic medicine.
Thomas Reh, Ph.D.
Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington
Dr. Thomas Reh’s lab at the University of Washington is focused on neural development and regeneration to develop new types of therapies for degenerative disorders of the retina that cause blindness. He has been studying development and regeneration in the nervous system throughout his career. His group developed some of the first in vitro culture methods for retinal cells and identified many of the key factors that control retinal development and regeneration. They found that growth factors could stimulate retinal regeneration and identified several mitogens for retinal progenitors and factors that direct the progenitors to photoreceptor fate.
The Reh lab cloned the first avian proneural gene, Cash1 (now called Ascl1), and went on to study the role of this factor in retinal regeneration from Müller glia. Using what they learned from studying retinal stem/progenitors, they developed one of the first protocols to direct human ES/iPS cells to the retina fate. Throughout this time, Dr. Reh has trained many pre- and postdoctoral fellows to become independent investigators in the fields of development and regeneration.
Joseph Nabhan, Ph.D.
CSO
Joseph Nabhan is Chief Scientific Officer at Vesigen Therapeutics. Prior to joining Vesigen, Joe held scientific and leadership positions in several pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, he headed an RNA biology group at Astellas Innovation Management in Cambridge, where he initiated numerous early drug discovery programs and external collaborations using multiple modalities. Previously, Joe held roles of increasing responsibility in the Rare Disease Research Unit of Pfizer, where he led several programs from early discovery through lead development and a number of external collaborations with biotech and academic labs. At Millennium Takeda, he was involved in target validation activities for cancer therapy.
While a postdoctoral fellow in Quan Lu’s lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Joe led the study that discovered a new class of microvesicles called ARMMs (ARRDC1 mediated microvesicles). He received his Ph.D. from McGill University.
Jürgen Eckhardt, M.D.
Leaps by Bayer
Jürgen Eckhardt is SVP and Head of Leaps by Bayer, which is the strategic venture capital unit of Bayer. The mission of Leaps is to invest in breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models in the areas of healthcare and agriculture. Jürgen is currently a board member of BlueRock, Joyn Bio, Dewpoint, Khloris, Oerth Bio, Immunitas and eGenesis. Before joining Bayer in 2016, Jürgen was head of the venture capital franchise at Bellevue Asset Management in Switzerland.
Previously, he was a management consultant and Associate Partner with McKinsey & Co. in Zürich and New York and a member of the Healthcare Leadership Team. He began his career as a radiologist at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. Jürgen received his M.D. from the University of Basel and his MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
Gerald Chan, Sc.D.
Chairman
Morningside
Gerald Chan is the co-founder of Morningside, an investment group engaged in private equity and venture capital investments. Working with academic scientists, he has started more than two dozen biotech companies across diverse therapeutic areas of oncology, inflammation, ophthalmology, autoimmunity, diabetes, neurodegeneration, rare genetic diseases, and prophylactic vaccines.
Gerald is a board member of several privately held biotech companies. He is the chairman of two Nasdaq listed biotechnology companies: Apellis Pharmaceuticals and Stealth BioTherapeutics. From 2016 to 2020, he chaired the Innovation Advisory Committee of the Wellcome Trust. He is currently a trustee of the Scripps Research Institute and a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which was renamed in honor of his father, Mr. T.H. Chan, following a gift from the Morningside Foundation in 2014.
Gerald was educated at UCLA, Harvard University, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He has been honored with six honorary degrees conferred by universities in the UK, Hong Kong and America. In 2017, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, he gave the Andrew Carnegie Lecture in University of Glasgow, Scotland and held a visiting fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge University.
Stephen Bruso
Morningside
Stephen Bruso has served as an investment advisor at Morningside since 2019, and focuses on early stage life science opportunity evaluation and operational oversight of the portfolio. He serves as a director of Cognito Therapeutics and Kuzani Pharmaceuticals. From 2012-2017, Stephen worked in a series of molecular diagnostics companies before leading the development and launch of a B2B cloud software product. He received his MBA in health sector management from Boston University in 2019, graduating magna cum laude. He received his BA in Anthropology from Emory University in 2009.
Lucio Iannone, Ph.D.
Leaps by Bayer
Lucio Iannone is Senior Director, Venture Investments at Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of the global life sciences company Bayer. Lucio is responsible for developing investment cases and deal execution. He is also involved in the sourcing, screening, and mentoring of companies with game-changing science. As an investor, Lucio is also serving as board member for Khloris Biosciences, Pyxis Oncology, Immunitas Therapeutics, eGenesis, Azitra, and Axxam. Before joining Leaps by Bayer, he had several senior roles in biotechnology companies and venture capital firms. He has experience with molecular biology, cell & gene therapy technologies and their application in oncology and other therapeutic fields. Lucio obtained his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Imperial College of London.
Dieter Weinand
Dieter Weinand is an experienced executive with over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotech industries. In addition to serving on Vesigen’s Board, Mr. Weinand presently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ZielBio and Replimune Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REPL). Previously, Mr. Weinand served as the Executive Vice President of Primary Care and was a member of the Executive Committee at Sanofi from November 2018 to March 2020. Before moving to Sanofi, he was CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer Pharma AG and member of the Management Board at Bayer AG. Prior to his work at Sanofi and Bayer, Mr. Weinand held various positions in commercial, operational, and strategic areas of the pharmaceutical industry. These included responsibilities spanning various therapeutic areas and geographies for companies such as Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Otsuka. Mr. Weinand is a former board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA), and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), and served as a member of the Board of Directors of HealthPrize Technologies.
Vesigen Therapeutics
790 Memorial Drive
Suite 103
Cambridge, MA 02139
