Dr. María-Jesus Blanco
Senior VP, Head of Drug Discovery, Atavistik Bio
María-Jesus Blanco obtained her BS and PhD degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She held postdoctoral positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at University of Strasbourg, France with Nobel Laureate Prof. Sauvage. Dr. Blanco began her career at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis where she held positions of increasing responsibility over 17 years, including Director of Discovery Chemistry Research & Technologies. She joined Atavistik Bio in September 2021 from Sage Therapeutics, where she served as Head of Chemistry and Sr. Director. As Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery, María oversees medicinal chemistry, DMPK, CMC, cheminformatics, and compound management functions. She brings over 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development working in the pharmaceutical industry and biotech. Dr. Blanco has >100 scientific publications, presentations, patent and patent applications and has actively contributed to the delivery of 15 compounds to clinical studies. In 2021, she was inducted as an ACS Fellow for her lasting service to chemistry, society, and medicine. She was the Division Chair of the ACS National Division of Medicinal Chemistry, in 2023. In 2024, she was inducted into the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame, a distinguished honor bestowed by the American Chemical Society’s Division of Medicinal Chemistry. Her leadership, creativity, and strategic thinking have led to impactful contributions on new chemical modalities, chemical biology, protein-protein interactions, translational research, and small molecule therapeutics primarily in neuroscience and oncology.