Shahram founded Civilization Ventures to help other founders succeed after spending more than a decade starting, running and investing in life sciences companies.
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Shahram is fortunate to have a dozen exits under his belt as a life sciences founder and investor, including Rewrite (acq. by Intellia), Rocket (listed on Nasdaq), SingularBio (acq. by Invitae), Lemonaid (acq. by 23andme), Counsyl (acq. by Myriad), and Avantome (acq. by Illumina), among many others.

Shahram was the founding CEO of Inspirna (originally named Rgenix), a biotech startup with two first-in-class clinical-stage therapeutics for cancer. He was also founding CFO and VP of Corporate Development at NextBio, a genomics software pioneer acquired by Illumina.

Shahram is passionate about keeping people and our planet healthy and thriving. Born in Iran, he came to the US as a child after his family escaped and was raised in Portland, Oregon. He went on to graduate from Pomona College with a degree in economics (with plenty of science, math and language courses thrown in), and obtained a JD from Harvard. Shahram loves spending time with his family in nature.

Sonia is an investment partner at Civilization Ventures, where she leverages her passion for innovation and multidisciplinary background in basic and translational research to spearhead the firm's scientific due diligence and run its Fellowship program.

Sonia earned her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California as an endowed fellow where she specialized in developing single cell diagnostic tools for precision oncology by integrating multiplexed molecular profiles and machine learning. During her time at USC, she successfully managed multiple projects across seven clinical trials, collaborating closely with clinical teams and key opinion leaders. Her work led to the invention of a patented precision medicine liquid biopsy test for early cancer detection and publications in Nature Breast Cancer and Blood. Sonia also has hands-on expertise in the development of clinical stage cancer immunotherapies.

As part of Civilization, Sonia is excited to play a key role in shaping the future of the biotech ecosystem by nurturing groundbreaking ideas and supporting the growth of its cutting-edge portfolio companies. While completing her PhD, Sonia was a Vice President of Partnerships at Nucleate and Vice President of Biotech Connection Los Angeles where she helped other PhDs enter the world of entrepreneurship.

Themasap is co-founder and General Partner at Luma Group, a biotech fund based out of NYC. Themasap was Civilization Ventures' first associate and later Vice President, and he continues to support its mission as a Senior Advisor.
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Themasap received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Stanford Graduate Fellow. His research focused on using stem cell biology, genome engineering, and live imaging to elucidate biological mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders and was published in Nature Medicine. Themasap’s other research works have been published in Neuron and Cell Reports.

Prior to Civilization Ventures, Themasap consulted for CRV, Menlo Ventures and Biotech Connection Bay Area. He also started and led a successful tutoring business while at Stanford. Themasap obtained his B.S. in Neuroscience from NYU where he also did primary cancer research.

Kelcee is a part-time associate at Civilization Ventures, where she assists with due diligence, deal sourcing, and other special projects. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program at Harvard University. Her graduate work focuses on the therapeutic application of precision genome editors for rare diseases like sickle cell disease.

Before starting her doctoral studies, Kelcee graduated cum laude in Biomedical Engineering with a secondary in African American Studies from Harvard University. Kelcee hails from Ft. Worth, TX. She enjoys traveling, ceramics, and learning new languages in her free time.

Matt is the CFO of Civilization Ventures where he leads the finance and accounting functions. Prior to joining Civilization Ventures, Matt had an extensive career in client service focused primarily on alternative investments.

Matt began working in alternatives after successfully completing the level 2 CFA exam where he audited hedge funds with a global public accounting firm. After that, he joined a premier fund administrator in their San Francisco headquarters where he focused primarily on serving venture capital clients. Matt is the founder of fund administrator Vector AIS where he helped build an industry-leading team.

Matt has a business degree from Western University and holds a CPA designation. In his spare time, Matt likes to snowboard, mountain bike, travel, cook, read books and seek adventures.