François Franceschi is Head of Asset Evaluation and Development and Serious Bacterial Infections Project Leader at the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP).

François has over 25 years of experience in antimicrobial research and development. He previously served as Program Officer for Therapeutics Development (antibacterial and antifungal) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Maryland, US. Here, he also served as NIAID’s liaison to CARB-X and as a member of its Scientific and Milestone Review Boards. François has held various director positions within antimicrobial R&D such as at Rib-X Pharmaceuticals (now Melinta Therapeutics). François was previously a principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPI) in Berlin, Germany, where his research focused on the structure and function of ribosomes, especially in complex with antibiotics. His group was a pivotal part of an international consortium headed by Ada Yonath, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009.

François earned his PhD in Chemistry at the Frei Universität Berlin, Germany after being awarded his Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Universidad Simon Bolívar, Venezuela.