Brian Johnstone

Vice President, Research

For the past 20 years, Dr. Johnstone has been actively involved in translating adult stem cell therapies into treatments for a host of diseases affecting the major organs of the body. In 2004, he co-authored one of the first studies demonstrating the potential for treating cardiovascular diseases with novel adult stem cells isolated from fat.

Since then, Dr. Johnstone has continued to develop and test new medical uses for adult stem cells as part of his own research as well as in collaboration with international academic centers and pharma / biotech firms.

Outside of the research setting, Dr. Johnstone co-founded NeuroFx, an early-stage biotech firm developing a novel therapy for neurological disorders. Dr. Johnstone led the R&D program at NeuroFx for two years, where he was directly responsible for preclinical and chemistry, manufacturing, and controls development activities. He continues to act as an advisor for NeuroFx. Additionally, Dr. Johnstone has formed two other biotech companies, Chemigen, which is developing a small molecule drug for treating Lou Gehrig’s disease, and EmphyMab Biotech (now Allinaire), which is developing biologics to treat serious lung diseases.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Dr. Johnstone was an early employee at Sangamo Biosciences for 6 years, where he managed the preclinical development program for their lead gene therapy candidate for cardiovascular diseases, which is currently in Phase II clinical testing. Dr. Johnstone received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Margie Mathewson

Senior Vice President, Business Operations

Dr. Mathewson’s career has focused primarily on helping start-ups and small businesses build out robust operations, from internal structures and systems to external partnerships. Prior to joining Ossium, Dr. Mathewson was the 7th team member at Point, a FinTech start-up offering non-traditional options for home equity funding, where she led Business Operations. While there, she drove development of an underwriting process for nontraditional, complicated customers that allowed funding of Point’s initial set of homeowners, including the first to successfully exit the investment. She also communicated complex mathematical concepts to homeowners to educate them on the Point investment model and how their equity sale would work.

Dr. Mathewson also worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, where, among other projects, she helped develop a rapid growth strategy for a successful health system, overhauled a sales and supply chain planning process to improve communication and ensure every customer got what they ordered on time, and restructured the international sales team for a major global telecom. Dr. Mathewson completed her PhD at the University of California, San Diego, where she was an NSF Fellow and founded a successful mentorship program for first generation college students in engineering.