Kassoum is a medicinal chemist with a big passion for drug discovery and drug hunting for the treatment of human ailments. Before joining Volastra Therapeutics, Kassoum worked in Discovery Chemistry at EDDC (ASTAR, Singapore) in early and late projects including the MNK project that led to the discovery of clinical candidate ETC-206. Prior to joining EDDC, Kassoum was a medicinal chemist at AMRI (now CURIA) where he contributed to the discovery of clinical candidate Liafensine. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. He pursued a visiting fellowship at the National Cancer Institute of the NIH and was later appointed to Georgetown University, Lombardi Cancer Center as a faculty member.