SPECIAL CENTRE FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY
New Delhi - 110067
Title: Drug development and Malaria, is it simpler?
Speaker: Dr. Marisa Belen
University of Granada
Department of Microbiology, Granada, Spain
Date: 13th August 2019, Time: 11.00 am
Venue: Seminar Room, SCMM, JNU, New Delhi
Dr Tornesi is a Senior director, Non-clinical pharmacology and Toxicology at Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Our mission is to defeat Malaria in collaboration with our donors, the Gates foundation, pharma partners and the WHO.
She was a Senior Principal Research Scientist, Developmental & Reproductive Specialist at AbbVie Inc, Chicago, IL for 12 years previously to this new position. After completing her veterinary degree in 1988 at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, she worked in a small animal practice for a couple of years. In 1990, Belen moved to Canada to continue her studies in animal reproductive physiology. Belen received her master degree in Reproductive Physiology from the University of Saskatchewan. The scope of research was embryo transfer, embryo culture and freezing, and limb-bud culture. Belen continued her reproductive research at the Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada where she was responsible for the sperm bank and the in vitro fertilization programs. In 1995, she moved to Texas where she worked at the Department of Animal Science at Texas A & M University in the molecular endocrinology laboratory. The focus of her research was novel gene regulation by steroid hormones. In Michigan, she had served as an Adjunct Professor at three different colleges where she taught Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Hematology and basic Pharmacology; before joining Dow in November 1999 to January 2007. At Dow, Dr. Tornesi was involved in guideline testing and reproductive/developmental toxicity research. Also, she oversaw the alternative method laboratory where she led all the in vitro techniques. At AbbVie Inc she was managing/monitoring the developmental and reproductive studies for different drugs on Phase II and is part of the drug developing teams. She was the co-leader of the Pregnancy and contraception in clinical trials group, interacting with the clinical teams for contraception decisions and pregnancies during clinical trials. In this new position (8 months) she oversees the design of the pre-clinical program for every compound, from discovery all the way through development. She also oversees the SCID mouse humanized model for malaria combination therapies and is a key member of the group of malaria in pregnancy internally at MMV and also externally with other organisms.
All are welcome
