Robert Place

Rob has deep expertise in the field of oligonucleotide therapeutics with an entrepreneurial background in biotech spanning over 12 years. As a fellow at UCSF, he was co-inventor and key scientific lead during the discovery of RNAa (RNA activation) unearthing a new field of oligonucleotide therapeutics. He helmed a collaboration between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and University of California, San Francisco in the first efforts of RNAa drug development by combining Anlylam’s lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations with gene activating oligos. He has worked with several biotech companies including Sevident developing their molecular capturing platform for diagnostic testing that was acquired by Seinna Cancer Diagnostics in 2019. In 2016, he established the Chinese-based company Ractigen Therapeutic with long-time colleague Dr. Long-Cheng Li and Dr. Moorim Kang. Rob has a scientific background in oligonucleotide delivery and medicinal chemistry in context to drug development with upwards of a dozen patents, as well as experienced in the drug regulatory process of oligonucleotide-based IND submissions.