Douglas Fambrough co-founded Dicerna in 2007 and has served as the Company’s president and chief executive officer since 2010. His background as both a genomic scientist and venture capitalist have been instrumental in the evolution of the Company, from the development of its unique GalXC™ platform to its transformation into a successful, publicly traded company.

Prior to Dicerna, Dr. Fambrough specialized in financing innovative life science technology companies as a general partner with Oxford Bioscience Partners, a Boston-based venture capital firm.

In 2003, Dr. Fambrough and two other investors created Sirna Therapeutics, a first-generation RNA interference (RNAi) pioneer; he served on Sirna’s board of directors until Merck acquired the company in 2006. On Oxford’s behalf, Dr. Fambrough invested in several ventures, including: Solexa, developer of the dominant ultra-high-throughput DNA sequencing platform, which Illumina acquired, and Xencor, a leader in engineering antibodies to improve their therapeutic properties (Nasdaq: XNCR). 

Before joining Oxford Bioscience Partners, Dr. Fambrough spent 10 years as a genomic scientist, most recently at the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research, now known as the Broad Institute. He graduated from Cornell University and obtained his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shreeram Aradhye, M.D., joined Dicerna in September 2020 from Axcella Health where he served as executive vice president and chief development officer overseeing clinical development, regulatory affairs, quality assurance and scientific communications. 

Prior to joining Axcella, Dr. Aradhye served for over two decades at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in multiple leadership roles of increasing responsibility in drug development and medical affairs, and across multiple therapeutic areas and geographies. In his most recent role as chief medical officer of Novartis, he was a member of the Global Pharmaceuticals Executive Committee responsible for over $20 billion in worldwide business, providing medical expertise on portfolio strategy and leading governance of medical activities worldwide. Dr. Aradhye was also a member of the development committee of Novartis that oversaw global development activities across its portfolio. In previous roles at Novartis and Sandoz, he led the clinical development program for Gilenya® in multiple sclerosis (MS), provided functional leadership for clinical development and medical affairs teams working on novel and biosimilar medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, and headed global development for neuroscience, where he oversaw a portfolio of programs in MS, Alzheimer’s Disease, neuropathic pain, muscle disease and migraine.

Prior to industry, Dr. Aradhye was Assistant Professor of Medicine and a transplant nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Aradhye received his medical education at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, and in Internal Medicine and Nephrology in the United States.
 

Bob Brown joined Dicerna as senior vice president, research in 2008. Prior to joining Dicerna, he had a successful career at former biopharmaceutical company Genta, where he was vice president, research and technology.

While at Genta, he amassed more than 75 patents and patent applications. Dr. Brown became one of the only executives in the biotechnology industry to follow a systemically administered oligonucleotide therapeutic (Genasense™) from the research bench through Phase 3 clinical trials and regulatory review. He worked directly with clinicians and study investigators on trial design, execution and interpretation, of results.

In addition to his roles at Genta, Dr. Brown was co-founder and vice president of research and development at Oasis Biosciences.

Dr. Brown holds a B.S. in chemistry and biology from the University of Washington and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rob Ciappenelli joined Dicerna as chief commercial officer in 2019, with nearly three decades of experience working across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. His expertise spans rare diseases, neurological disorders and diseases of the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.

Most recently, he was global head of commercial at Momenta Pharmaceuticals. In that capacity, Mr. Ciappenelli managed a portfolio of 13 programs ranging from early development to partnered in-market products.

Prior to Momenta, he held several leadership positions at Shire Pharmaceuticals (now part of Takeda) across commercial operations and business planning. He led global franchise operations for Shire’s Fabry (Replagal®) and Gaucher (Vpriv®) programs. Mr. Ciappenelli’s pharmaceutical commercialization experience also includes leadership positions at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, where he served as vice president of commercial operations, executive director of commercial services and sales training, and executive director of central nervous system marketing.

Mr. Ciappenelli earned his B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Jennifer Lockridge, Ph.D., is senior vice president of program development at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and has 20 years of experience in the development of oligonucleotide therapeutics. Prior to joining Dicerna, Dr. Lockridge spent nine years consulting with multiple biotech and large pharmaceutical companies to provide direction and support for early development-stage oligonucleotide programs as well as pharmacology and pharmacokinetics expertise.

From 1996 to 2007, Dr. Lockridge was employed at Sirna Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). As director of project management at Sirna, she managed and was involved with all aspects of siRNA and ribozyme development programs.

Dr. Lockridge received her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland and completed postdoctoral training at the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Ark.

Doug Pagán has more than 25 years of financial and operational experience, and in May 2020, Mr. Pagán joined Dicerna as Chief Financial Officer from KSQ Therapeutics. Prior to serving as Chief Financial Officer at KSQ, Mr. Pagán was Chief Financial Officer of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on infectious disease. Mr. Pagán played a key role in transforming Paratek from a development-stage to commercial-stage company, with responsibility for finance, investor relations, strategic planning and SEC reporting. Under his financial leadership, Paratek raised more than $450 million in equity financing and maintained a strong balance sheet to support the commercialization of the company’s first antibiotic product.

Prior to Paratek, Mr. Pagán served as Vice President, Finance at Acceleron Pharma Inc., where he was responsible for strategic and financial planning, accounting, SEC reporting, treasury and financial operations, and played a significant role in the company’s Initial Public Offering. Prior to working at Acceleron, he served in strategic and financial management roles at Biogen Idec and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Previously, Mr. Pagán worked in healthcare investment banking at J.P. Morgan, as well as pharmaceutical operational roles at Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Pagán received his BSE in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University and his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Regina DeTore Paglia was named Chief Human Resources Officer of Dicerna in June 2020 after joining the company in 2019 as senior vice president of human resources. She has more than two decades of experience in human resources management at several biopharmaceutical, biochemical and managed-care companies – from early-stage start-ups to full global commercial operations.

Prior to joining Dicerna, Ms. Paglia was senior vice president of human resources at Paratek Pharmaceuticals, reporting to the chief executive officer and chairman. Prior to that, she was senior vice president of human resources at Myriant Corporation, a biochemical company that is a subsidiary of PTTGC Global Chemical Company, and vice president of human resources at Mascoma Corporation, a biofuels company. She also held executive positions in human resources at Sepracor Inc. and Tufts Health Plans.

Ms. Paglia is the 2018 recipient of the Bob Gatti HR Leadership Excellence Award of Distinction from the Human Resources Leadership Forum. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing from Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University and her master’s degree in human resources management from Framingham State College.

James Powell joined Dicerna as vice president of manufacturing in 2017, bringing 30 years of pharmaceutical leadership experience in the operations and manufacturing of oligonucleotides to the Dicerna management team. Based out of Dicerna’s Boulder facility, Mr. Powell is responsible for CMC, oligonucleotide manufacturing, chemical development, analytic development and supply chain.

Prior to joining Dicerna, Mr. Powell served in leadership roles at various biopharmaceutical companies involved in manufacturing, process chemistry, engineering and business development related to oligonucleotides, including Synthecell Corporation, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals, Codon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Transgenomic, Inc. and Eyetech Pharmaceuticals.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Powell served as General Manager of Agilent Technologies Nucleic Acids Solutions Division (NASD) where he led the creation of one of the world’s leading large-scale oligonucleotide manufacturers focused on the production of oligonucleotide-based APIs.

Mr. Powell holds a B.S. in biology from Leeds University, England.

Jim Weissman joined Dicerna as chief business officer in January 2012 and was appointed chief operating officer and executive vice president in September 2019. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the life sciences industry, with extensive international management experience in biotech and pharmaceutical general management, product development, licensing, business development, marketing and M&A activities. Mr. Weissman serves as Chairman of the Board at Receptor Life Sciences. 

Prior to Dicerna, Mr. Weissman was vice president of business development at MannKind Corporation, responsible for leading the company’s activities related to licensing, new products and strategic planning. Prior to MannKind, Mr. Weissman held leadership positions in both business development and marketing at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Tokyo, most recently as senior director of marketing. In that position, he was responsible for the sales, profit and strategic targets for the company’s specialty products, including central nervous system (CNS), endocrinology, ophthalmology and oncology therapeutics and diversified portfolios.

Mr. Weissman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Bates College.

Ling Zeng, J.D., joined Dicerna as chief legal officer and secretary in September 2020. She brings to her role more than 20 years of broad and deep experience in biopharmaceutical law and global drug development and has held multiple leadership positions in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

Ms. Zeng joins Dicerna from Novartis AG where she served as deputy head of the legal M&A group responsible for mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Prior to Novartis, Ms. Zeng held several senior-level positions at Bausch Health Companies, Inc., most recently as vice president and general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), where she was responsible for EMEA legal matters in over 30 countries, and provided counsel on business development efforts, commercial operations, compliance, regulatory and IP strategies, and M&A transactions and integrations. Earlier in her career, Ms. Zeng was an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York. Ms. Zeng was a research scientist prior to beginning her legal career.

Ms. Zeng earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Georgetown University, a Master of Science degree in biophysics from Brandeis University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Peking University.