Joel Barrish, Ph.D.

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.