I am a Senior Vice President & Global Head of Translational Science & Medicine (TSM), Research & Development in the Immunology Therapeutic Area at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Innovative Medicine, where I lead the TSM Organization, a team of talented, experienced and dedicated MD/PhD clinicians and scientists in Translational Science (research, discovery and biomarkers) and Translational Medicine (clinical trials and research) of drug development by incorporating cutting-edge science and technologies across the end-to-end portfolio for the Immunology Therapeutic Area’s four Disease Area Strongholds: Immunodermatology, Rheumatology, Gastroenterology and Autoantibody/Maternal Fetal Immunology, which include specialty and rare/orphan diseases.

My mission focuses on combining scientific leadership and setting the vision and strategy of TSM to pioneer the development of transformational therapies that address the critical unmet needs of the millions of patients living with immune-mediated diseases and autoimmune conditions. This includes the design and execution of first-in-human, clinical pharmacology and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) and mechanism of action experimental medicine-based human trials and studies, as well as initial efficacy and safety assessments. TSM supports all phases of therapeutic development through registration, including internal candidate therapies and those partnered or licensed externally. In cross-functional partnerships with Discovery, Compound Development, Late Clinical Development, Data Sciences, Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Commercial and External Innovation. TSM aims to discover new targets, biomarkers and novel endpoints that inform patient stratification, combination therapies and co-diagnostics, utilizing the latest scientific approaches and technologies, including multi-omics, biochemical assays, molecular imaging, digital health technologies, bioinformatics, computational biology and big data analyses on datasets from clinical trials, internal/external collaborative experimental medicine studies and preclinical translational models. 

I also serve as a member of the Core Immunology Leadership Team and the Immunology Portfolio Committee, where I collaborate with other senior leaders to shape the Immunology portfolio and strategy, leveraging my former role in leading J&J's Immunodermatology Disease Area Stronghold, my extensive network of academic and clinical partners and my track record of publishing over 100 peer-reviewed papers, review articles, and book chapters, while fostering a culture of innovation, inclusion and excellence.