Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D. and Brian Cali, Ph.D. appointed to Board

Inaugural SAB comprises renowned leaders in the investigation of disease biology and applications to drug discovery and development

Boston, Mass. – Dec. 20, 2018 – Jnana Therapeutics today announced the appointment of two new members to its Board of Directors: Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D., a co-founder of Jnana Therapeutics and a founding core member of the Broad Institute, and Brian Cali, Ph.D., a co-founder of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and the company’s Senior Vice President of R&D Strategy and External Innovation.

“We are delighted to expand our Board with the appointments of Stuart and Brian, each of whom have extensive experience building biotech companies and a deep commitment to bringing transformative medicines to patients,” said Joanne Kotz, Ph.D., co-founder, chief executive officer and president at Jnana. “Their insights and expertise will be critical for Jnana as we build a pipeline of programs targeting SLC transporters to create breakthrough therapies.”

Stuart Schreiber is a founder and core member of the Broad Institute and the Morris Loeb Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. In addition to Jnana, Stuart has co-founded numerous biotech companies: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Forma Therapeutics and H3 Biomedicine. He is a world leader in chemical biology, using small molecules as probes in uncovering biological functions. Stuart is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry, the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Arthur Cope Award from the American Chemical Society, and most recently the Wolf Prize in Chemistry. Stuart received his B.A. in chemistry from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University.

Brian Cali co-founded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in 1998, and has served in various enterprise leadership roles since that time. In his current role 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 R&D, 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 Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and earned a B.S. in microbiology from Cornell University.

In addition, the company announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The members of Jnana’s Scientific Advisory Board are:

  • Charles Albright, Ph.D.: Chief Scientific Officer, Editas Medicine
  • Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D.:Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and Professor of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute
  • Lisa Olson, Ph.D.: Vice President, Immunology Discovery, AbbVie and Site Head of the AbbVie Bioresearch Center
  • Stuart Schreiber, Ph.D.: Co-founder of Jnana Therapeutics; Morris Loeb Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University; Core Institute Member, Broad Institute
  • Jim Wells, Ph.D.: Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco
  • Michael White, Ph.D.: Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Tumor Cell Biology, Pfizer
  • Ramnik Xavier, M., Ph.D.: Co-founder of Jnana Therapeutics; Kurt Isselbacher Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Core Institute Member, Broad Institute

“We are excited to bring together this exceptional group of academic and industry scientists to help guide Jnana in our efforts to develop novel medicines targeting SLC transporters,” said Joel Barrish, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Jnana. “SLCs have been understudied to date. The collective experience of Jnana’s SAB in pioneering innovation in drug discovery and development will be extremely valuable as we build the first platform to systematically address this compelling therapeutic target class.”

About Jnana Therapeutics

Jnana Therapeutics is a biotechnology company creating the first drug discovery platform to unlock the solute carrier (SLC) family of metabolite transporters as a therapeutic target class.   Jnana is systematically targeting SLCs, the cell’s metabolic gates, to advance first-in-class therapies for diseases where patients have limited or no treatment options. Headquartered in Boston, Jnana launched in 2017 with $50 million in Series A financing from investors including Polaris Partners, Avalon Ventures, Versant Ventures, AbbVie Ventures and Pfizer R&D Innovate. For more information, please visit www.jnanatx.com, and follow us on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

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Ten Bridge Communications
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