Our Team

Anne Prener, M.D., Ph.D., has more than 25 years of leadership experience within life science companies. Anne joined Imbria Pharmaceuticals as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in July 2020. Anne also serves as Venture Partner at SV Health Investors. Anne has led companies and teams across several therapeutic areas, including a focus on rare diseases. As CEO of Freeline, a liver-directed gene therapy company, she scaled the company from preclinical stage to a fully integrated biotechnology organization, which included a broad, internally developed pipeline, two programs in clinical development and a commercial-scale, high-quality CMC and manufacturing platform.

Prior to joining Freeline, she served as CEO of Gyroscope Therapeutics Ltd., a gene therapy company focused on eye diseases. Before that, Dr. Prener was Global Therapeutic Area Head of Hematology and Vice President, Clinical Research Hematology at Baxalta. During her time there, three new major product approvals in the U.S. and EU were secured along with a significant advancement in Baxalta’s hematology portfolio. Earlier in her career, Dr. Prener held several positions of increasing responsibility at Novo Nordisk, most recently serving as Senior Vice President, Hemophilia R&D Portfolio, where she was instrumental in building a portfolio of late stage and commercial hemophilia products. Dr. Prener serves on the Board of Directors of Galecto. She holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology and an M.D., both from the University of Copenhagen.

Jai Patel is Chief Medical Officer of Imbria Pharmaceuticals. He has over 30 years of experience in Phase I to IV clinical drug development in the US and Europe in the cardiovascular and metabolism therapeutic area. Prior to Imbria, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Enterome and NephroGenex. Jai spent over 20 years at GlaxoSmithKline in positions of increasing responsibility, serving as Vice President across multiple R&D functions including Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Regulatory Affairs and Project Management. Jai received a Bachelor of Science in Experimental Pathology from the University of London and completed his medical training at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and Kings College Hospitals, University of London. He is a member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK).

Komal Joshi is the Chief Financial Officer of Imbria Pharmaceuticals. She has over 20 years of finance leadership experience in life sciences as a Chief Financial Officer, as a healthcare investment banker and as an equity research analyst. Most recently, she was the Chief Financial Officer for LIB Therapeutics, a privately-held late-stage biopharmaceutical company.

Komal has also held various positions of increasing strategic, financial and operational responsibility at private and public life science companies. As a healthcare investment banker, she has had broad transaction exposure, executing on capital raising and strategic advisory for emerging to large-cap companies across the healthcare industry. During her time in equity research, she covered Biotechnology, Medical Supplies and Devices as well as Enterprise Software. Komal holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS from Boston College, Wallace E. Carroll School of Management.

Arash Yavari is Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Imbria Pharmaceuticals and a physician scientist by training. Arash serves as a consultant to Imbria Pharmaceuticals and has supported the scientific and clinical development of the programs since 2019.

Arash also serves as Senior Drug Development Clinician with Weatherden, a London-based biotech-focused consulting organization, and is a University Research Lecturer and Principal Investigator at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. Arash holds a B.Sc. and M.B. B.S. from the University of London, a DPhil from the University of Oxford and is on the GMC Specialist Register. He is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) of the United Kingdom and Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFPM).

Hugo joined Imbria Pharmaceuticals as Chief Commercial Officer in December 2021. He has an extensive and diverse career spanning three decades within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors characterized by strategic and leadership roles, including Chief Executive Officer of Topas Therapeutics and Chief Business Officer and Managing Director at 20Med Therapeutics as well as CEO of RQ Biotechnology.

With a focus on guiding companies toward success, Hugo has previously led R&D, Industrial Affairs as well as Commercial teams and is experienced in licensing, fundraising and forging strategic partnerships. He has also held several executive positions spanning multiple countries, including Managing Director of Sanofi UK and Ireland, and Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Sanofi Pasteur MSD joint venture, along with being the Vice-President of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

Hugo holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Salford and has completed further studies in Finance at London Business School and Leadership at Duke University.

Sarb Shergill has over 30 years of experience in drug development. Most recently Sarb was Corporate Vice President of Boston Global Development at Novo Nordisk leading programs in rare diseases and cardio-metabolic disorders. Prior to Novo Nordisk, Sarb was SVP Clinical Operations and Data Management at ResTORbio Inc. a company focused on the development of drugs for the treatment of diseases related to aging.

Previously Sarb was VP Clinical Operations and Data Management at Akebia Therapeutics where she was responsible for leading the Phase 3 cardiac outcomes program in renal anemia. Sarb also worked at Sanofi following the acquisition of Genzyme Corporation. At Genzyme, she held positions of increasing responsibility and seniority, working in a number of therapeutic areas including rare diseases, CNS, oncology, cardiovascular and renal. Sarb has a PhD in Pharmacology from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

Karen Jauregui has over 25 years of experience in drug development including regulatory strategy, quality assurance, clinical operations, and project management. Karen joined Imbria Pharmaceuticals as the Head of Regulatory Affairs and Quality in April 2020 and was promoted to Senior VP of RA, QA and CMC in June 2021. Prior to joining Imbria, Karen was the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance at resTORbio Inc., a company focused on the development of drugs for the treatment of diseases related to aging.

Previously, Karen was the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Akebia Inc, where she was responsible for the Phase 3 global regulatory strategy to develop a treatment for renal anemia. Karen also worked at EMD Serono and Repligen Corporation where she held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in Clinical Operations and Regulatory Affairs. She has a BS in Biology and Medical Technology from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Vanessa Murray supports Imbria Clinical Operations, leading trial execution and oversight. Vanessa joined Imbria from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals where she managed development operations for several of the company’s GC-C assets, including lifecycle management of Linzess®.

Prior to Ironwood, Vanessa worked in a number of research labs in the Boston area, including the VA Healthcare System and Boston University. Vanessa holds a BA in Neuroscience from Boston University.

Murali Bommana supports Imbria CMC, leading the drug product manufacturing for phase appropriate clinical supplies and future commercialization activities. Murali joined Imbria from SK Life Science where he managed CMC activities and clinical supplies for several of the company’s Phase I-III CNS programs, and subject matter expert for one of the commercial programs.

Prior to SK Life Science, Murali worked at several biopharmaceutical companies, including Impax Labs and Kashiv Biosciences. Murali holds a PhD in Industrial Pharmacy and Physical Pharmacy from St. John’s University.