Ayako Honda
Principal Scientist I, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research
Ayako Honda received her M.S. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and joined Novartis Global Discovery Chemistry in 2006 after working at OSI Pharmaceuticals (currently Astellas), impacting their kinase-targeting portfolios, such as c-Kit, IGF1-R and mTOR. In the past 15 years with Novartis, she has contributed to both target validation (autophagy target VSP34) and hit to lead optimization projects (CFTR correctors). Ayako also worked on a novel drug delivery technology to enable sustain drug release of biologics. She has recently transitioned to the role of material enablement coordinator, globally supporting Novartis projects across multiple disease areas, sites and modalities.