Karin Briner, Ph.D.

Karin is Vice President, Head, Global Discovery Chemistry, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR).

Karin joined Novartis from Eli Lilly where she was the Vice President of Translational Sciences and Technologies, located in Indianapolis, with responsibilities for biomarker discovery research across all therapeutic areas, centralized in vitro screening, and structural biology. From 2007 to 2010, she was Managing Director and Research Head of the Lilly Research Centre, UK, with a focus in Neuroscience Research. She also served as a member of the board of Eli Lilly and Co., Ltd, Lilly’s UK Company.

From 2000 to 2010, she was a member of the Discovery Chemistry management team with increasing responsibilities, starting as Medicinal Chemistry Director in Neuroscience and Endocrine Research, later as Executive Director for Global Lead Optimization Chemistry and for Discovery Chemistry at the Lilly European Sites. Throughout this time up to 2007, she maintained her own research laboratory contributing new portfolio projects and delivering molecules into the clinic.

Karin obtained her bachelor’s of science in Chemistry and Biochemistry and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Zurich. She did NSF and NIH postdoctoral studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.