Melissa Vasbinder is a drug-discovery and development leader with more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, leading multi-disciplinary teams across preclinical and clinical projects ranging from hit generation through to candidate selection activities, IND-enabling studies and IND submission, and early clinical development. She is currently head of research at Mariana Oncology, a Novartis Company. Prior to joining Mariana Oncology, Melissa was SVP of drug discovery and development at Ribon Therapeutics, where as an early member of the team she helped to create the company’s proprietary platform, which enabled delivery of two first-in-class clinical programs targeting broad indications in oncology and inflammatory diseases. Prior to her tenure at Ribon, Melissa worked at AstraZeneca in the oncology chemistry group. She received her PhD in chemistry from Boston College and her BS from Trinity University.