Catalyst



Charles Hart, PhD

Executive Director
Catalyst

Charles Hart is the director of the Catalyst program. From 2004 to 2017 he was at Threshold Pharmaceuticals and responsible for both in vitro and in vivo preclinical translational studies. He was also project leader for the global clinical development program for the hypoxia-targeted anticancer drug evofosfamide (TH-302), a partnership with Merck KGaA. Prior to joining Threshold, Charles was Senior Director of Biology at Galileo Pharmaceuticals (2001 to 2004), Director of Drug Discovery at Signature Bioscience (2000 to 2001), and a Research Unit Director at Affymax (1990 to 2000). Charles received his AB in cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977, an MS in developmental biology from Stanford University in 1980, a PhD in molecular biology and genetics from Yale University in 1987, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Strasbourg, France in 1990.

Nathaniel Prorok, MHA

Director - LaunchPad and Senior Program Manager - Catalyst
Catalyst

Nate Prorok brings a diverse and wide ranging skill set and experience to the Catalyst Program team. After undergraduate studies in Physical Therapy and Athletic Training at Loyola Marymount University, Nathaniel worked with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps - International in Tacna, Perú, with local communities to develop sustainable solutions to the problems they faced in health and education. Afterwards, Nathaniel earned a graduate degree in Healthcare Administration from Marquette University and worked with Children’s Hospital Wisconsin to develop a medical home for youth in foster care. Prior to joining the Catalyst Program, Nathaniel completed a fellowship at the University of Utah Health where he worked on various population health, wellness, and social determinants of health projects.

Roopa Ramamoorthi, PhD

Director - Catalyst Program and InVent Fund
Catalyst

Roopa Ramamoorthi brings a diverse scientific background in drug development, bacteriology, biotechnology, and engineering. Prior to joining UCSF, Roopa was Associate Director Partnering and Scientific Affairs at BIO Ventures for Global Health, where her focus was putting together collaborations between academic, non profit and pharmaceutical organizations to accelerate the development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for Neglected Tropical Diseases, TB and Malaria for the WIPO Re:Search Consortium. She worked for Bayer in California for more than five years as a scientist and senior scientist in development of antibody and other biological therapeutics and evaluating and bringing in platform technologies and has experience in science and technology consulting with Strategic Perspectives.

Roopa received her Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington and at MIT. She is a registered patent agent and holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Roopa grew up in India where she received her B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Sohela Shah

Program Director Catalyst Program and InVent Fund
Catalyst

Sohela serves as the program director for Catalyst Program and InVent Fund, within Innovation Ventures at UCSF. With a strong passion for advancing research projects and promoting technology patenting and commercialization, Sohela is dedicated to bridging the gap between groundbreaking innovations and real-world applications. Before joining Innovation Ventures, she held the position of founding product manager at The Production Board, a prominent technology incubator and investment holding company in San Francisco, where she made significant contributions to the TERA startup project.

Sohela started her career journey in academia, earning her Ph.D. in Genetics from Tufts University's School of Biomedical Sciences in Boston. Building upon her expertise, she pursued postdoctoral training in rare disease genetics at the University of California San Francisco, followed by a research fellowship in clinical genetics and genomics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a Niehaus Scholar. After her academic research and training, Sohela transitioned to the field of technology startups focused on developing software tools and solutions for curating, interpreting, and analyzing complex biological data. She played a pivotal role in the development of NGS (Next-Generation Sequencing) data interpretation and reporting software for genetic test results at Ingenuity Systems (acquired by QIAGEN) and Invitae Corp.

Driven by her dedication to the field of genetics and genomics, Sohela aspires to continue making significant contributions. She aims to foster collaboration between academia and industry, working towards driving innovation and improving patient outcomes. With her diverse expertise in research, product management, and technology commercialization, Sohela is poised to make a lasting impact in the field.