Jason Roland, Ph.D. joined the Accelerator in 2015 and brings over 10 years of experience leading medicinal chemistry and drug discovery programs. While at the Accelerator, Dr. Roland was involved with the creation of Nerio Therapeutics and Anexigen, where he currently serves as the Director of Chemistry and Drug Discovery. In addition, Dr. Roland was the Director of Chemistry at Calporta Therapeutics (acquired by Merck) and a part of the chemistry team at Sitari Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK). Previously, he served as a Principal Investigator at the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr) where he led a series medicinal chemistry programs supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focused on neglected tropical diseases. Prior to his time at Calibr, Dr. Roland was a Research Investigator at the Genomics Institute for the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). While at GNF, Dr. Roland was responsible for the development of three clinical candidates, including the novel FXR agonist nidufexor (LMB763) which is currently in Phase II clinical trials for patients with NASH and diabetic nephropathy. Dr. Roland was a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University where he worked with Dr. Erik Sorensen. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and his B.S. in Chemistry from The Ohio State University.