Joel Barrish

Joel Barrish is currently Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Jnana Therapeutics, a company dedicated to the discovery and development of SLC transporter therapeutics. Prior to Jnana, Joel’s first Biotech role was as Chief Scientific Officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals focused on modulating the Alternative pathway of Complement. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in Pharma, where he capped a 28-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb spending the last five years as Vice President and Head of Discovery Chemistry, working across all therapeutic areas. While at BMS, Joel worked with teams responsible for advancing more than 50 compounds into clinical development, including Sprycel (dasatinib) which he co-invented. Joel and his colleagues made notable advances in the area of kinase inhibitor drug discovery, particularly in immunology and oncology. He is co-author of over 130 peer reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on 40 issued US patents. Prior to moving to BMS, he spent 5 years at Hoffmann-LaRoche as a senior scientist. Joel received a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.