Michael Moradi
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Moradi is a successful serial entrepreneur, having founded or been a principal in several nanotech and pharmaceutical startups. He is currently the CEO of Charlesson LLC. He was a Founder of SouthWest NanoTechnologies, a manufacturer of single wall carbon nanotubes for the specialty chemical, pharmaceutical, and composites industries. At SWeNT he successfully developed and managed strategic partnerships with industry leaders including ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Intel (NYSE:INTC), and other Fortune 500 companies. Prior to SouthWest NanoTechnologies Mr. Moradi was Vice President of Business Development for NanoSource Technologies, a supplier of specialty chemicals to the personal care, coatings and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Moradi led the company’s acquisition by DuPont (NYSE:DD) - widely considered the first liquidity event in the nanotechnology community. He was previously a laboratory technician and auditor with a Fortune 500 company, a technology licensing associate for a major university, and an adjunct instructor to the University of Oklahoma colleges of engineering and business.
Mr. Moradi is a member of the Future Trends Forum, an international think tank based in Madrid. In 2003, Mike was awarded a community service commendation from the United States Congress for his voluntary efforts in technology-based economic development. Mr. Moradi earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma.
Jian-Xing “Jay” Ma, M.D., Ph.D.
Consultant
Dr. Jian-xing Ma graduated with a degree in medicine from China’s Jiangxi Medical College in 1984. He then moved to the prestigious Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, where he completed an MS in Pharmacology in 1987. Dr. Ma was invited to become a visiting scholar at the California-based City of Hope Beckman Research Institute (CHBRI) in 1987. In 1989, he began graduate studies at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1993. Dr. Ma. joined the faculty at Charleston’s Storm Eye Institute in 1994, where he was quickly promoted to the rank of tenured Associate Professor. He moved to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) in 2003 to accept the Laureate Endowed Chair of Research in the Department of Medicine, Section of Diabetes and Endocrinology, with an adjunct appointment in the Department of Cell Biology. In 2005 he became Director of Research for the Section of Endocrinology, just as Charlesson was incorporated to develop therapeutics based on his groundbreaking research.
Dr. Ma has received several research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA). His major research interest is in diabetic retinopathy, focusing on pathological angiogenesis, inflammation and vascular leakage in diabetes and development of new therapies to prevent vision loss from diabetes. Dr. Ma was the first to report that angiogenic inhibitors are important for diabetic retinopathy and have therapeutic potential for ocular neovascular disorders. Recently, he expanded his research into diabetic nephropathy. He has published a total of 78 peer-reviewed articles in first rated scientific journals including Nature Genetics, PNAS, JBC and Diabetes, and he has made a number of invited scientific presentations at prestigious national and international conferences. Dr. Ma also serves as a reviewer for many prestigious scientific journals. He is a member of grant reviewing panels in American Diabetes Association and NIH.
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Yan Feng , M.D., Ph.D.
Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer
Mostafa Analoui , Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Business Development
Dr. Mostafa Analoui, is Senior Vice President of Business Development at Charlesson Pharmaceuticals and Senior Advisor and Head of Healthcare and Life Science at The Livingston Group (New York, NY). Previously he was the Senior Director at Pfizer Global Research and Development in Connecticut. He is also adjunct Professor of Radiology and Oral Pathology, Medicine at Indiana University Schools of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Analoui is actively involved in investment, management and scientific/business development of novel biotechnologies and methodologies, global strategies. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Analoui was previously the Director of Oral and Maxillofacial Imaging Research at Indiana University, and Associate professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Comp Engineering at Purdue University. He was also President and CEO of Therametric Technology Inc. In addition to industry leadership in biomedical field, he lectures nationally and internationally. He has also served on various scientific and business advisory committees and boards. Dr. Analoui has authored over 130 publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports.
Philippe Margaron , Ph.D.
Vice-President, Research and Development
Dr. Philippe Margaron is a seasoned scientific research senior manager. He joins Charlesson LLC after over 14 years of experience directing research and development projects in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Margaron previously headed the ocular research programs at QLT Inc, a Canadian global biopharmaceutical company that developed Visudyne, the first therapeutic treatment approved worldwide for certain forms of wet age-related macular degeneration, after initially building the ocular research group. Under his leadership, several preclinical candidates were identified, including an oral small molecule currently evaluated in clinical trial for the treatment of a congenital form of childhood blindness. Dr. Margaron comes with an extensive experience in ophthalmic drug development and the evaluation of novel ocular therapies and drug delivery systems.
Dr. Margaron received his PhD degree from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France in 1991. He did a post-doctoral training within the Medical Research Council Group in Radiation Sciences at the University of Sherbrooke, Québec, from 1991 to 1993, before joining QLT Inc as an industrial post-doctoral fellow. He was rapidly promoted to different research management positions within the company where he lately was Director of Ocular Research, Preclinical Development. Dr. Margaron currently holds a position of Adjunct Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Canada. He authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and proceedings and is an inventor on 10 worldwide patent families on novel photodynamic and ophthalmic technologies and applications.
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Rafal A. Farjo, Ph.D.
Director, Research and Development
Dr. Farjo received his bachelor's degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Oklahoma. He has been involved in ocular research for over 10 years. During his time at the University of Michigan, Dr. Farjo worked to establish one of the first genomics core facilities at the university with a special emphasis on discovering genes and pathways associated with Age-Related Macular Degeneration. At the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Farjo's research focused on the characterization of macular disease models and the development of new treatment options. During this tenure, he published the first study demonstrating the feasibility of using non-viral DNA nanoparticles as a method for gene therapy to ocular cells. He has also published in several prestigious journals, including The Journal of Cell Biology, Genome Biology, and Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. At Charlesson, Dr. Farjo has raised nearly $2MM in non-dilutive federal and state funding for Charlesson's research program.
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Pui-Kai Li, Ph.D.
Director, Medicinal Chemistry
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Danyang Chen, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
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Drew Wassel, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
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Ying Chen, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
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Gennadiy Moiseyev, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
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Alexander Quiambao
Scientist I/II
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April Stanley, M.S.
Research Associate III
Didier Nuno
Research Associate I
Yang Hu, M.S.
Manager, Contract Services
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Robert Mott
Research Technician I
Scott Mitchell
Research Technician I
Research Technician I