Alan Sachs, M.D., Ph.D.
Vice President, RNA Therapeutics
Merck Research Laboratories

Alan Sachs, Vice President, RNA Therapeutics, Merck Research Laboratories (MRL), assumed leadership of Sirna Therapeutics and established the global MRL RNA Therapeutics Department effective January 4, 2007. Prior to this, Dr. Sachs assumed responsibility for the scientific leadership at Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC effective July 2002, responsibility for the Rosetta site effective March, 2004, and overall responsibility for the Department of Molecular Profiling in 2006.  Dr. Sachs joined Merck & Co., Inc. as Director of Clinical Genomics for MRL in July 2001.

Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Sachs was Associate Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology while at the University of California at Berkeley, and a Whitehead Institute Fellow at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge.  Dr. Sachs is one of the leading figures in the field of mRNA translation and regulation, and has made landmark contributions, particularly to the understanding of the role of the poly(A) tail in translation and mRNA stability. 

Dr. Sachs graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biochemistry; received his Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Stanford University; his M.D. from Stanford Medical School; and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University.

Bharat M. Chowrira, Ph.D., J.D.
Vice President Sirna Therapeutics
Executive Director, Licensing/External Research, Merck & Co. Inc.

Bharat M. Chowrira, Ph.D., J.D., joined Sirna Therapeutics in 1993 and was responsible for Sirna’s legal and business licensing activities and general corporate matters. Dr. Chowrira also served as the corporate secretary. Dr. Chowrira has been responsible for building and maintaining Sirna Therapeutics' strong intellectual property portfolio and strategic alliance initiatives.

Dr. Chowrira received his J.D. degree from the College of Law at the University of Denver and holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Vermont.

Dr. Chowrira is a member of the Colorado Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, Licensing Executive Society and the Association of Corporate Counsel. Dr. Chowrira is admitted to practice in Colorado, in California as a registered in-house counsel, as well as before the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Following the acquisition of Sirna by Merck, Dr. Chowrira has joined the Worldwide Licensing and External Research at Merck. He is responsible for identifying and evaluating licensing and partnership opportunities in Asia.

W. Michael Flanagan, Ph.D.
Senior Director, RNA Sciences
Merck Research Laboratories

W. Michael Flanagan joined Sirna Therapeutics, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., in November 2007 and is responsible for Sirna's efforts in discovering and developing best-in-class RNA therapeutics.

Prior to joining Sirna, Dr. Flanagan was Senior Director of Biology at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco, California where he was responsible for leading the discovery and development of small molecule inhibitors for oncology.

Dr. Flanagan brings over 14 years of industry experience in preclinical and early clinical development of therapeutics for cancer and inflammatory disease, along with experience in developing antisense RNA and DNA technologies to silence gene expression.

Dr. Flanagan graduated from University of California at Davis with a B.S. in Genetics; received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at University of California at Irvine and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University Medical School.