Our Leadership

John is the CEO of Disc Medicine. Previously, John was Chief Business Officer at Acceleron Pharma, where he spent more than thirteen years helping to build the company from a privately-held startup to a public biotech (acquired by Merck & Co. for over $11 billion in 2021). At Acceleron, John served in various roles including General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and finally Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer. John led the in-licensing of sotatercept for pulmonary hypertension from Bristol-Myers Squibb and helped negotiate the collaboration agreement governing the development and commercialization of luspatercept (now marketed as Reblozyl®️). Prior to Acceleron, John worked at the law firms of Ropes & Gray and Foley Hoag. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, summa cum laude, MSc from Stanford University, PhD from MIT in Biological Sciences, and JD from Harvard Law School.

Jean is an experienced CFO with over 30 years of finance leadership expertise at both public and private biotechnology companies of varying sizes across all stages of development. Most recently, she was the Chief Financial Officer of Replimune where she helped raise over $750 million across multiple financings and non-dilutive debt, supporting significant expansion while providing optionality in future capital formation for Replimune’s portfolio. Prior to Replimune, Jean served as Chief Financial Officer for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Dimension Therapeutics, which was acquired by Ultragenyx, and Good Start Genetics. Jean spent 16 years at Genzyme advancing within the organization during its most rapid phase of growth. She spent eight years at Genzyme as the Senior Vice President of Finance for all nine business units and then Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance working alongside the Chief Financial Officer and playing an important role in the approximately $20.1 billion sale to Sanofi. Jean holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Hofstra University.

Jonathan is the Chief Operating Officer and oversees corporate strategy, business development and commercial strategy at Disc Medicine. Previously, he was a co-founder of Qpex Biopharma and the Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Finance and Operations, where he led all business functions including the spin-out of the company’s core assets, its Series A financing and its partnerships. Before Qpex, Jonathan served in various leadership roles at The Medicines Company, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development, where he was instrumental in the divestiture of commercial-stage infectious disease assets to Melinta Therapeutics and the acquisition and subsequent integration of Rempex Pharmaceuticals. Jonathan has also held a variety of roles at SR One, Acceleron Pharma and Johnson & Johnson, spanning commercial planning and assessment, business development and finance. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College.

Will is the Chief Medical Officer and brings a decade of hematology and transfusion medicine clinical research experience, having worked across academic institutions, biopharma and biotech. Prior to joining Disc Medicine, he served as Senior Medical Director at Magenta Therapeutics, where he managed clinical development activities from preclinical through phase 2. Prior to Magenta Therapeutics, he was the Global Clinical Development Lead in Hematology at Shire/Takeda. Before transitioning to biotech/biopharma, Will was an Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He started his career at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he trained in pediatric hematology/oncology and transfusion medicine. He received his BA in Biochemistry magna cum laude from Columbia University, his MD with honors in research from Weill Cornell Medical College and his PhD in Clinical Investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Pamela has more than 20 years of biopharma commercial leadership experience across multiple functions and disease areas. She most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer at Albireo Pharma. Before joining Albireo, she served as Vice President, Global Market Access and Value, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she led the global market access and pricing strategy for current and future products. Earlier in her tenure at Vertex, she led marketing and sales activities for the company’s hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis lines of business, and oversaw the U.S. launches of Incivek® (telaprevir) and Orkambi®(lumacaftor/ivacaftor). Prior to Vertex, Pamela spent 10 years at Pfizer in marketing roles of increasing responsibility for brands such as Viagra® (sildenafil citrate), Lyrica® (pregabalin), and Aromasin® (exemestane). Pamela holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and received her master’s degree in public health from Boston University School of Public Health.

Steve is the Chief Regulatory Officer at Disc Medicine. He has more than 25 years of experience in global product development and regulatory affairs, having held senior leadership positions at several top biotechnology companies. Most recently, he served as Head of Regulatory Affairs at CRISPR Therapeutics where he was involved in the development and approval of Casgevy® (exagamglogene autotemcel) for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Prior to joining CRISPR, Dr Caffé was the Senior Vice President leading Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Quality, and Patient Advocacy at Ra Pharmaceuticals. Before this, Dr. Caffé held senior-level regulatory positions at a number of other biopharmaceutical companies, including Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, MedImmune (Biologics Division of AstraZeneca), Baxter, Sanofi-Aventis and Merck. Across these experiences, Dr. Caffé has contributed to over 40 new drug approvals and major new indications worldwide in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Steve received his M.D. at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.

Rahul is the Chief Technical Officer and oversees Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) functions at Disc Medicine. He has over two decades of previous experience at top biotechnology companies, most recently as an executive team member and Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at FibroGen. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director and head of external manufacturing at Nektar Therapeutics and spent over 15 years at Amgen, where he held a variety of leadership roles within CMC. Across these experiences, Rahul was an integral part of teams that enabled the pharmaceutical development and regulatory approval for Repatha® (evolocumab), and Amgevita® (adalimumab-atto), contributed to CMC development of several agents into early and late-stage clinical trials, and provided scientific leadership for lifecycle management of commercial franchises including Kyprolis® (carfilzomib), Neulasta® (Pegfilgrastim) and Imlygic® (talimogene laherparepvac). He also led the team that created a state of the art, end-to-end pilot manufacturing facility to serve pipeline programs. He holds an integrated Bachelor’s plus Master’s degree in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in India and a Ph.D. from Stanford University across the Chemistry and Biological Sciences departments.

Dr. Khara joins Disc Medicine from Acceleron where he served as Vice President, Legal and Chief Compliance Officer. In this role, he led the commercial legal and compliance functions. While at Acceleron, Dr. Khara led or supported a wide range of legal matters including facilitating the launch of Reblozyl® (luspatercept-aamt), Acceleron’s first commercial product, building the company’s commercial compliance program, and the successful acquisition of the company by Merck. Prior to Acceleron, Dr. Khara worked at the law firms of Arnold & Porter LLP and Sidley Austin LLP, where he helped biopharma companies in various stages of development navigate legal issues related to the clinical development of new assets, launch of new drug products, business development transactions, compliance, and enforcement. Dr. Khara received a Pharm.D. from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Srikanth is the Senior Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry and has twenty years of research experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery with particular expertise in the design of novel protease inhibitors. Prior to joining Disc Medicine, he worked at Schering Plough (later Merck) where he was the co-inventor of Victrelis and Arlansa, first generation HCV protease inhibitors. For these accomplishments, he received the Heroes of Chemistry award from the American Chemical Society. Srikanth received his doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Hua is the Senior Vice President of Early Development and Clinical Pharmacology and brings over 20 years of experience in drug discovery, nonclinical development and clinical pharmacology. Prior to Disc, she served as the Vice President of DMPK and Clinical Pharmacology at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she established these functions and was instrumental in the discovery, development, and successful approvals of its flagship programs IDHIFA® (enasidinib) in relapsed or refractory AML and TIBSOVO® (ivosidenib) in AML patients with IDH1 mutations, as well as mitapivat (PKR activator) and vorasidenib (dual IDH1/2 inhibitor). Prior to Agios, Hua held positions in DMPK and drug discovery at Millennium/Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Hua received her BA in Pharmacology from Fudan University, an MS in Pharmacology from Peking Union Medical School and her PhD in Pharmacokinetics from University of Nebraska Medical Center.