Daniel Pierce Joins Initial Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., March 24, 2025 — Initial Therapeutics, a life sciences
company discovering and developing new small-molecule therapeutics with a novel
platform to selectively modulate translation of pathogenic proteins by the ribosome, has
appointed Daniel Pierce, Ph.D., as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, effective today.
“Dan brings to us his deep expertise in the discovery and development of therapies
with novel mechanisms that address significant unmet medical need,” said Peter DiLaura, President and Chief Executive Officer at Initial. “I’m excited to welcome Dan aboard to help build on the strong scientific and drug discovery foundation that has been established at Initial.”
Dr. Pierce is a distinguished drug discovery leader with a career spanning translational
medicine, targeted protein degradation, and biomarker-driven clinical development.
As Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Bristol Myers Squibb’s
Oncogenesis Thematic Research Center, he led a team of more than 40 scientists
to advance nine novel protein degrader therapies from preclinical development to
first-in-human trials, with multiple candidates progressing to Phase 3. Previously, at
Celgene, he established and led the translational medicine function for the protein
homeostasis unit, driving patient selection strategies, novel clinical pharmacodynamic
assays, and optimization of dose and schedule. Before Celgene, he served as Director
of Discovery Biology at Five Prime Therapeutics, where he developed novel oncology
models and screening approaches using the company’s proprietary library of secreted
proteins. And at Cytokinetics, he played a pivotal role in assay development and lead
discovery, inventing new high-throughput screening techniques for oncology and muscle biology drug programs.
Before transitioning to industry, Dr. Pierce established himself as a leading academic
researcher in biophysics and cell biology. As an Assistant Professor at Montana State
University, he built a laboratory focused on kinesin-family molecular motors and secured
competitive NIH and NSF funding for advanced biophysics research. He earned his Ph.D.
in Biophysics at Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of California San Francisco. With a strong foundation in molecular biophysics
and cutting-edge imaging techniques, he has applied his expertise throughout his career to advance the discovery and development of transformative therapies.