Tiburio’s leadership team of endocrine and rare disease experts is committed to building lasting relationships with patients, their families and the clinical community.

Abraham N. Ceesay
Chief Executive Officer

Michael D. Culler, PhD
Scientific Founder and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board
Michael brings over 35 years of research experience and is an internationally recognized expert in endocrinology, metabolic disorders and peptide therapeutics with over 200 publications and 22 patents. Michael was formerly Vice President of Endocrinology Research for Ipsen, where he led programs in diverse endocrine/metabolic areas that resulted in five compounds reaching clinical development. He is a co-founder of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, and he led the preclinical programs that produced the key assets for both Rhythm (relamorelin and setmelanotide) and Radius Pharma (abaloparatide; Tymlos). Prior to joining industry, Michael conducted basic research in neuroendocrine physiology as a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health.
In addition to his work with Tiburio, Michael is also Chief Scientific Officer for Alizé Pharma, and he serves as a member of the Expert List Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Michael received his Ph.D. in Endocrine Physiology from Texas A&M University, and he was a post-doctoral fellow in neuroendocrinology at Tulane University Medical School under the mentorship of Professor Akira Arimura

Imran Babar, PhD
Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer
Imran has a diverse range of experiences in the healthcare industry, including equity research, venture capital, company creation, consulting, and rare disease nonprofit management.
As the Chief Business Officer of Cydan, Imran co-founded Tiburio Therapeutics and played a key role in the company’s Series A financing. Imran joined Cydan from the venture capital team at OrbiMed Advisors where he was involved with a range of companies including Audentes (public), 89bio (public), resTOR bio (public), Dimension (acquired), True North (acquired), Neurogastrx, NeRRe, Arvinas (public), Synlogic (public), and others.
Prior to joining OrbiMed, Imran was a Biotechnology Associate at Cowen & Company where he covered over 20 companies. Imran also co-founded and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for Rare Genomics Institute (RG), a nonprofit dedicated to helping rare disease patients since 2011. Imran completed his PhD in Molecular Biology at Yale University, where he was a HHMI Fellow and a Harvey Fellow. Prior to Yale, he completed his BA in Biology at Carleton College and conducted research at MIT and NIH.