Jnana’s team is marked by a shared purpose to expand the boundaries of drug discovery to maximize therapeutic impact. Jnana is a Sanskrit word meaning knowledge gained through experience, a concept critical for achieving this ambition. Our rigorous approach to drug discovery is enabled by our collective experience, and continuous learning is a foundation of our culture.
Our extraordinary team comprises individuals with deep experience, bold ambition and a unified vision to deliver innovative therapies to patients.
Joanne’s life sciences experience spans research, business and operations. She helped formulate the initial scientific strategy for Jnana and has led the business and operations of the company since its launch in 2017. Prior to Jnana, she had a leadership role at FBRI, F Prime Capital’s initiative to enable therapeutic breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease and related brain disorders by funding innovative academic research and launching companies. Before F-Prime, Joanne was a director at the Broad Institute, where her research and business responsibilities included defining strategy and leading efforts in early stage drug discovery through collaborations with patients, disease foundations and biopharma. Joanne received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in chemistry and BA in sociology from the University of Florida. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris and at Genentech. Following Genentech, she was at Nature Publishing Group, including as founding editor of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Joel came to Jnana from Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where he served as their chief scientific officer. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in pharma, where he capped a 28-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb by spending the last five years as vice president and head of discovery chemistry, working across all therapeutic areas. In that role, Joel worked with teams responsible for advancing more than 40 compounds into clinical development, including Sprycel (dasatinib), which he co-invented. While at BMS, Joel and his colleagues made notable advances in the area of kinase inhibitor drug discovery, particularly in immunology and oncology. He is a co-author on over 130 peer reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on 40 issued U.S. patents. Prior to moving to BMS, he spent five years at Hoffmann La-Roche as a research scientist. Joel received his doctorate in organic chemistry from Columbia University and his bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Caroline came to Jnana from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where she spent eleven years in roles of increasing responsibility, and ultimately was Vice President and Head of Business Development. In that role, Caroline led the team responsible for the full range of business development activities including opportunity identification, diligence and transaction negotiations. These efforts resulted in the formation of multiple significant partnerships and licensing deals. Prior to Alnylam, Caroline was in business development at Amicus Therapeutics and started her career at Bain & Company. Caroline received her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and bachelor’s in economics from Duke University.
Doug brings over two decades of experience in finance, investor relations, strategy and capital formation in the biopharmaceutical industry to Jnana. Doug has had finance and operational leadership roles in both public and venture-backed companies going through transitions from pre-clinical to clinical to commercialization. Prior to joining Jnana, he most recently served as the Chief Financial Officer of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the IT and Finance organizations and oversaw the sale of the company to Novo Nordisk for $3.3BN. Doug also served as Chief Financial Officer at KSQ Therapeutics and Paratek Pharmaceuticals, as well as Vice President of Finance at Acceleron Pharma, shepherding their IPO. Additionally, he served on the Board of Directors at Ziopharm Oncology, and held roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and JPMorgan earlier in his career. Doug earned his MBA in Finance & Accounting from Columbia Business School and a BSE in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Engineering Biology from Princeton University.
Nick is an experienced drug discovery and development leader with 20 years of experience and a proven track-record of therapeutic innovation across multiple disease areas. Before joining Jnana, he was Vice President, Integrative Sciences, Inflammation & Immunology, Cardiovascular & Fibrosis, at Bristol-Meyers Squibb and prior to this, he served as Executive Director, Inflammation & Immunology for Celgene. In both of these roles, Nick was responsible for scientific and strategic leadership of drug discovery programs applying novel technologies and scientific insights to the expansion of the Inflammation & Immunology portfolio as well as more broadly. Dr. Pullen brings extensive experience in Inflammation & Fibrosis, following a career at Pfizer which spanned more than 15 years and brought multiple development candidates to clinical evaluation and touched many disease areas including renal disease, IBD, and NASH. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Southampton in the UK.
Dean has over 20 years of drug discovery experience at AstraZeneca (AZ) where he held the position most recently of Director of Chemistry. Dean has been responsible for building many new drug discovery programs in both neuroscience and infection, several which have resulted in successful transition to clinical trials. Dean is a globally recognized leader in medicinal chemistry, lead generation, library design, DNA-encoded library screening, and applications of computational chemistry. He has also been responsible for leading multiple industrial-academic collaborations which resulted in successful external grants in neurodegenerative disease research. Dean is listed as an author or co-author on more than 60 publications and patent applications in medicinal chemistry and drug design, including granted patents on clinical candidates. He obtained a B.S in chemistry at Abilene Christian University and a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in synthetic organic chemistry.
Dr. Throup joins Jnana from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) where he was most recently Vice President and Development Lead responsible for leading the development of assets in the Immunology pipeline across early and late development. Most recently, Dr. Throup led the development of the TYK2 inhibitor, deucravacitinib, from preclinical to NDA and MAA submission. Before joining BMS in 2014, Dr. Throup spent 15 years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in operational and strategic leadership roles across the R&D organization. Dr. Throup received his Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from the University of Nottingham, UK.
Heather brings over 18 years of drug discovery experience to Jnana working in pharma and biotech on pre-clinical and clinical development programs. Prior to Jnana, Heather served as director of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics at Nimbus Therapeutics focusing on immunology, oncology and metabolic disease. She was a member of the clinical group working on Nimbus’ allosteric ACC inhibitor for NASH, as well as the preclinical team advancing their TYK2 allosteric inhibitor and STING discovery programs. Prior to Nimbus, Heather led the DMPK group at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a position in which she served from 2010 until the company’s acquisition by Merck in 2015. In her time at Cubist, Heather’s work focused on acute care therapies for pain and antibiotics developed for the treatment of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, including the clinical development of programs including Cubicin, and Zerbaxa and more. Heather received her bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire and doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Oregon prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry.
Brian is an expert finance leader with more than 20 years of global experience with fast-growing biotechnology companies. He joins Jnana from Momenta Pharmaceuticals where he led Financial Planning & Analysis. Previously, he served for more than 20 years in roles of increasing responsibility at Sanofi Genzyme. His most recent position at Sanofi Genzyme was Head of Finance for North America Rare Disease and Rare Blood Disorders, and he drove all aspects of strategic financial planning and operations for the North American region for two business units representing $2B in combined sales with over 500 employees and 12 products. In his roles at Sanofi Genzyme, Brian spearheaded the integration of the Bioverativ and Ablynx acquisitions, implemented financial modeling, and assembled franchise performance metrics for investor audiences. Earlier in his career, he held financial positions at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and KPMG. He earned a BS in accounting from Boston College.
Joining us as Jnana’s Interim Head of People & Culture, Danielle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, having held roles of increasing responsibility across multiple human resources domains and a diverse set of industries. Prior to Jnana, Danielle held senior business partner roles at bluebird bio, supporting Pharmaceutical Sciences, Clinical Development, Regulatory and Medical Affairs, and built a centralized People Operations capability to support the organization’s rapid growth. She is a Master’s-level Organizational Development practitioner with expertise in organizational assessment and design, leadership development, and talent management. She leads with an unwavering dedication to the employee experience and focus on building foundational operations that allow businesses to scale effectively. Danielle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from William James College.
Stuart is a Morris Loeb professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been a founding core member of the Broad Institute since 2003. Stuart is a world leader in chemical biology, using small molecules as probes in uncovering biological functions. He has provided some of the most significant small-molecule-based advances, including small-molecule probes of extremely difficult targets and processes (e.g., transcription factors, oncogenes, protein/protein interactions, transdifferentiation of cells) that are at the root of human disease. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and his doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University.
Ramnik is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and a co-director of the Broad’s Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program. Ramnik is also the Kurt Isselbacher professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, a member of the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and co-director of the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics at MIT. As a clinical gastroenterologist and molecular biologist, Ramnik studies the specific molecular mechanisms involved in innate and adaptive immunity as well as the genetic variants associated with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and autoimmunity. By determining the physiological functions of inflammatory bowel disease-associated polymorphisms, his work illuminates processes underlying mucosal homeostasis and inflammation. Ramnik has spent his academic career at MGH serving as chief of gastroenterology and director of the Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at MGH.
Brian Cali is senior vice president, R&D strategy and external innovation of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. Brian Cali co-founded Ironwood in 1998, with the goal of helping to translate scientific insights into medicines that make a difference for patients. As senior vice president, R&D strategy and external innovation, Brian is focused on ensuring tight integration between Ironwood’s R&D strategy and its overall corporate and commercial strategies, and guiding the search for product candidates, technologies and scientific innovations that can advance the company’s mission. He previously served as senior vice president of preclinical research and development, during which time his team identified and advanced a number of new pipeline candidates targeting gastrointestinal disorders and vascular and fibrotic diseases. Prior to this, Brian created and led the program management function at Ironwood. Before Ironwood, Brian was a Chiron Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He holds a doctorate in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and earned a bachelor of science in microbiology from Cornell University.
Matthew Hammond is a Principal on the Investment Team at RA Capital Management. Matthew works on both public and private investments and serves as a Director for Cerebral Therapeutics, DTx Pharma, Forge Biologics, Kira Pharmaceuticals, and Research Alliance Corp II. Matthew holds a BS in Environmental Health Science from the University of Georgia and both a PhD in Biomedical Science and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Connecticut. His graduate research investigated innate immune responses after intracerebral hemorrhage.
Avalon Ventures Kevin is the founder of Avalon Ventures and has specialized in the formation, financing and development of more than 125 early-stage companies. Kevin was also the founding chairman of Athena Neurosciences, Aurora Biosciences, Landmark Graphics, NeoRx, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Synaptics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, X-Ceptor and Sequana Therapeutics. Prior to founding Avalon, Kevin worked for Solar Turbines International (Caterpillar Tractor) where he directed all international joint ventures, barter and counter-trade. Previously, he was an advisor to the Peruvian government in national nutrition planning where he developed the first commercialization plan for quinoa, ran a technology exchange program between the U.S. and Latin America based in Mexico City, and taught algebra at the American High School in Beirut, Lebanon. Kevin received his bachelor’s degree in management from MIT with minors in electrical engineering and political science, and his master’s degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Kevin conducted his post-graduate work in political economy on a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Stockholm, Sweden.
Joanne has broad life sciences experience in research, business and operations. She helped formulate the initial scientific strategy for Jnana and has led the business and operations of the company since its launch. Prior to Jnana, she was assistant director of the F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative, whose mission is to advance the discovery of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease by funding early-stage research in academia and biotech companies. Before F-Prime, Joanne was a director at the Broad Institute, where she held a leadership role in creating and guiding partnerships to advance drug discovery efforts, including the Broad-Bayer collaboration in oncology that resulted in the identification of multiple drug candidates. At Broad, Joanne also developed a model for rare disease research that directly involved patients in the research team. Joanne received her doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Florida. She conducted her postdoctoral research at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris and Genentech. Following Genentech, she was at Nature Publishing Group, including as founding editor of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Dr. Nicholson was most recently CEO at Nimbus Therapeutics. Prior to Nimbus, Dr. Nicholson spent 25 years at Merck, where he held various strategic, leadership and operational roles across diverse therapeutic areas including inflammation, immunology and neuroscience, amongst others. He began his career at Merck Frosst in Montreal as a senior research biologist and advanced through various positions of increasing responsibility, including vice president and site head of the Merck Neurosciences Research site in San Diego, vice president of immunology and infectious diseases and then vice president and worldwide discovery head for the Bone, Respiratory, Immunology and Endocrine franchise based in New Jersey. Don has co-authored more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals and is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of apoptotic cell death. Don received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario and trained as a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the University of Munich in Germany. He is the recipient of multiple academic and professional honors. Don is also a member of the Board of Directors of Kymera Therapeutics and Generation Bio.
Versant Ventures Carlo is a partner at Versant Ventures and focuses on biotech investing and company building for a number of Versant’s portfolio companies including Quentis, VenatoRx, Repare, Pandion, Jnana and Gotham. In addition to Versant, Carlo currently serves as chief executive officer of Highline Therapeutics, Versant’s New York City-based discovery engine. Carlo joined Versant from Novartis where he led global product development teams and helped advance their innovative pipeline products. Prior to his role at Novartis, he held the position of associate principal at McKinsey & Company, advising U.S. and European clients in the pharmaceutical, payor and provider sectors. Prior to joining McKinsey, Carlo helped found engeneOS (Adnexus Therapeutics). Carlo received his doctorate in virology from Harvard University and his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia.
Stuart is a Morris Loeb professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been a founding core member of the Broad Institute since 2003. Stuart is a world leader in chemical biology, using small molecules as probes in uncovering biological functions. He has provided some of the most significant small-molecule-based advances, including small-molecule probes of extremely difficult targets and processes (e.g., transcription factors, oncogenes, protein/protein interactions, transdifferentiation of cells) that are at the root of human disease. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Virginia and his doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University.
Dr. Katalin Susztak is a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. Her laboratory is interested in understanding the pathomechanism of chronic kidney disease development. Susztak has made discoveries fundamental towards defining critical genes, cell types and mechanisms of chronic kidney disease. She was instrumental in defining genetic, epigenetic transcriptional changes in diseased human kidneys. She identified novel kidney disease genes and demonstrated the contribution of Notch signaling and metabolic dysregulation in kidney disease development.
Her lab was the first to map the kidney epigenome and catalogue genotype-driven gene-expression variation (eQTL) in human kidneys. Integration of GWAS, eQTL and epigenome data has been essential to prioritize disease-causing genes and variants.
Dr. Susztak generated the first unbiased, comprehensive kidney cell-type atlas using single cell transcriptomics. She identified that specific renal endophenotypes are linked and likely caused by the dysfunction of specific cell types.
In follow-up animal model studies, she conclusively demonstrated that MANBA, DAB2, DACH1 and APOL1 are new kidney disease risk genes. Her work established the role of proximal tubule cells, endolysosomal trafficking, metabolic and developmental pathways in kidney disease development.
Susztak’s discoveries span genetics, genomics, epigenetics, molecular biology, physiology and nephrology, and have enormous translational relevance and considerable therapeutic potential.
Dr. Susztak has been the recipient of the 2011 Young Investigator Award of the American Society of Nephrology and American Heart Association; one of the most prestigious award given to researchers under the age of 41 in the field of nephrology. Her laboratory is supported by the National Institute of Health, the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and private sources.
“I think this is a really exciting time in science. New technologies are emerging, which will really accelerate research progress, and I think we have fantastic new discoveries ahead of us in biology.”
Ramnik is a core institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and a co-director of the Broad’s Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program. Ramnik is also the Kurt Isselbacher professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, director of the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, a member of the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and co-director of the Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics at MIT. As a clinical gastroenterologist and molecular biologist, Ramnik studies the specific molecular mechanisms involved in innate and adaptive immunity as well as the genetic variants associated with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and autoimmunity. By determining the physiological functions of inflammatory bowel disease-associated polymorphisms, his work illuminates processes underlying mucosal homeostasis and inflammation. Ramnik has spent his academic career at MGH serving as chief of gastroenterology and director of the Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at MGH.
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