Paul Johnson joined PhaseRx as a founder in November, 2007. From 2003 to 2007 he was Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientifc Officer at Nastech Pharmaceutical Co. Inc., Bothell, Washington, where he built and led R&D programs in drug delivery, including RNAi and siRNA. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Johnson was Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientifc Offcer at EpiGenX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company focused on the development of epigenetic-based strategies to treat cancer and infectious diseases. From 1994 to 2001, Dr. Johnson served as the Head of the Cell and Molecular Biology Department and Principal Scientist in the Cancer Research Department at Berlex Biosciences in Richmond, California, the U.S. Research and Development Center for Schering AG in Germany and also held an adjunct faculty position in the Graduate Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of California at Davis. From 1975 to 1994, Dr. Johnson was the Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology Laboratory at SRI International (formerly the Stanford Research Institute) and was Professor of Biochemistry at Wayne State University Medical School.

Dr. Johnson received a BS in Molecular Biology from the State University of New York, Buffalo, a PhD in Biochemistry from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (SUNY), and did his post-doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology under an American Cancer Society fellowship. Dr. Johnson is the author of numerous scientifc papers, abstracts and patents and was the recipient of the 2007 Jeffrey Wenig Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drug Delivery.