Jennifer Leeds is retired from her position as Executive Director and Head of West Coast Search and Evaluation, Corporate and Business Development, for the Novartis. In that role she was responsible for identifying new science and technology from the western United States and across Canada for potential partnering with Novartis.
Before assuming her last role, Jennifer Leeds was Head of Antibacterial Discovery in the Infectious Diseases Area of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. She was responsible for the strategy and execution of the new antibacterial portfolio from target discovery through pre-clinical validation, and the clinical microbiology strategy and resources in clinical development. Jennifer co-invented and co-led the international discovery project team for the novel antibacterial LFF571, which demonstrated safety and efficacy in humans for the treatment of C. difficile infection. In June 2017, the NIBR antibacterial discovery group disclosed the preclinical discovery programme for LYS228, a novel antibacterial in phase II, which was being developed to treat infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. In 2018, Novartis announced their exit from antibacterial R&D and Jennifer, in partnership with the NIBR BD&L team, successfully out-licensed LYS228, along with two other preclinical antibacterial programs, to Boston Pharmaceuticals.
Jennifer joined Novartis in 2003 as a research investigator, progressing to project team leader before assuming the leadership role for the Antibacterial Discovery Unit in 2010. Before joining Novartis, Jennifer was a senior scientist in the new technologies group at Dyax Corp.
Jennifer represented Novartis in drafting and reviewing recommendations for vehicles to incentivize antimicrobial R&D and was a member of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Research Working Group.
She served on strategic teams for business development and licensing in the antimicrobial and respiratory disease areas and, in her new role, leads in-licensing and out-licensing teams in multiple therapeutic areas. She has chaired several conferences and symposia on antimicrobial R&D and AMR.
Jennifer has published 38 primary research articles and five review articles and is the author of four book chapters. She is also inventor on three issued patents. Jennifer was an editorial board member of ACS Infectious Diseases and was a two-term member of the Finance Committee of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Jennifer was a postdoctoral fellow in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where she trained in the laboratory of Dr Jonathan Beckwith. She received her BSc degree in microbiology from Cornell University, and her PhD in medical microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.