Jörg Duschmalé

An organic chemist by training, Dr. Duschmale completed his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Basel and the ETH Zürich investigating the catalytic properties of short peptides. He then switched his interests to the other natural oligomers when he started his career at Roche Pharmaceutical Research and Early Development within the field of RNA therapeutics, where he was working on the chemical modification of antisense oligonucleotides. His research there contributed to several portfolio projects and resulted in the publication of a peer-reviewed article and the filing of seven patent applications. More recently, he left laboratory work and joined the board of directors of Roche as a representative of the founding families. He has a keen scientific interest in rare diseases and combines a deep understanding of the drug discovery process with a long family tradition in not-for-profit endeavors.