Monica Bandera

In 1998, Monica received her Ph.D. in biotechnology from the University of Dundee, UK, for her work in the development of recombinant yeasts expressing human drug-metabolizing enzymes. After a post-doctoral period at Duke University, USA, she spent the early part of her career in pharmaceutical discovery, first at Sigma-Tau S.p.A (now, Alfa-Sigma, Italy) working on diabetes and obesity projects and later at Arpida AG, Switzerland, focusing on screening cascades for antimicrobials. In 2007, Monica transitioned to the Specialty Chemicals industry by joining the Biotechnology Dept. of Firmenich SA, Switzerland, where she had roles of increasing responsibility, from Sr. Scientist to Director of Cell Biology. During her time with the Company, Monica also had the opportunity to spend two years in China as Director of Biotechnology until 2016, when she was nominated Vice-President R&D, Health Benefits and Bio-responses and made her way back to Switzerland. Since 2021, Monica has been acting as a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.