Jason Katz, PhD

Jason joined NextRNA in 2022 as VP, Head of Drug Discovery. His drug discovery experience prior to NextRNA spans an 18-year career, including 13 years at Merck & Co. followed by 5 years at IFM Therapeutics, where he was a Sr Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Jason is a scientific leader with a strong track record of recruiting, managing, and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams. At IFM Therapeutics, Jason worked on several programs targeting the innate immune system, including the team that developed a suite of NLRP3 antagonists that were acquired by Novartis and advanced into Phase 2 clinical trials. At Merck, Jason was one of the first scientists hired at the Boston site, where he developed a passion for drug discovery, working on multidisciplinary teams, and mentoring other scientists.  He and his teams discovered and advanced into clinical development molecules addressing challenging oncology and immuno-oncology targets. Jason earned his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Michael Crimmins and then went on to study as a NIH postdoctoral fellow at UC Irvine in the labs of Larry Overman. Jason received a BS in Chemistry from Union College.