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.

Joanne brings over 25 years of experience leading the finance and operations organizations of early-stage companies. She previously served as chief financial officer of Quartet Medicine, a biotechnology company that focused on developing novel treatments for chronic pain. Prior to her career in the biotechnology industry, Joanne held chief financial officer roles at a number of technology companies, including WiTricity, Speedy Packets and Narrative Communications, where she led the finance role in the sale of Narrative to At Home Corp. Joanne began her career at Arthur Andersen & Co. and is a certified public accountant licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Joanne holds a B.S. from Babson College.

Jonathan is the Chief Business 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.

Brian is the Chief Innovation Officer and founding CEO of Disc Medicine. Prior to Disc he was the Founder and CEO of Merganser Biotech, where he worked on minihepcidin peptides. He has 25 years of drug development and executive management experience in a range of different therapeutic areas at companies that include Zelos Therapeutics, 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline. He is a research physician with an academic and clinical background in musculoskeletal biology and rheumatology. He received his MB, ChB and PhD from the University of Sheffield and is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians.

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 Vice President of Nonclinical 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.

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.

Min is the Vice President of Biology and brings 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development spanning a range of therapeutic areas. Prior to Disc, as the Senior Director of Biology at Proteostasis Therapeutics, she led a multi-year collaboration program with Astellas Pharma, focusing on discovery and early development of a small molecule therapeutic targeting a rare genetic liver disease. At Proteostasis, Min also oversaw multiple small molecule programs to target genetic diseases that result in the dysregulation of the proteostasis network. Prior to Proteostasis, Min held roles with increasing responsibilities in discovery biology, pharmacology, biomarker development and translational research at FORMA Therapeutics, Agios Pharmaceuticals and AVEO Oncology. Min received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Oak Ridge National Lab/University of Tennessee and completed her postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute of MIT.