Justin Rettenmaier, Ph.D.

Justin joined Jnana shortly after its founding in 2017. While at Jnana, he co-invented and has continued to evolve the technology underlying the RAPID platform, which is a next-generation chemoproteomics method that identifies lead-like small molecules that bind to any target of interest inside of a cell. Every drug discovery program at Jnana has used the RAPID platform to identify drug-like chemical starting points, including Jnana’s allosteric inhibitor of SLC6A19 currently in clinical trials for PKU. Justin also played a key role in establishing and supporting Jnana’s two active partnerships with Roche, which leverage RAPID to tackle challenging targets across immunology, oncology, and neurological disease. Today, Justin leads the Early Discovery group, which is responsible for supporting teams in taking new projects from conception through to cellular proof of concept.

Prior to Jnana, Justin completed postdoctoral training in discovery biology at the Whitehead Institute with the late Susan Lindquist. He obtained his PhD in chemical biology working with Jim Wells at UCSF to discover small molecules targeting allosteric sites and protein-protein interfaces.