Maria Fuentes

Dr. Fuentes is a seasoned drug discovery executive with a track record of advancing multiple assets into the clinic. Maria has led preclinical teams to advance programs across multiple therapeutic areas, including respiratory, autoimmune, fibrosis, and others. Combined with the significant progress Mantra Bio has made over the past 4 years in refining and validating its Targeted Exosome delivery platform (REVEAL), Maria’s deep experience in translational development will accelerate Mantra’s unique platform towards clinical success.

Most recently, Maria led Blade Therapeutics biology and translational activities to advance programs to clinical development, as Blade’s Executive Vice President of Research. Maria developed pre-clinical and biomarker strategies and provided key data for the advancement of three cysteine protease inhibitors in fibrotic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Prior to Blade, she was Group Director, Fibrosis Discovery Biology at Bristol-Myers Squibb. In this position, her focus was to advance into the clinic small molecules and antibody therapeutics for the treatment of fibrotic diseases, including interstitial pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Dr. Fuentes has previously held leadership positions at Roche (Palo Alto) and Hoffmann-La Roche (Nutley, NJ), including as Research Director and Head of the Respiratory Drug Discovery Group. During her tenure, she was responsible for progressing several projects to clinical trials and collaborated closely with the company’s Early Development Groups to establish translational approaches, including biomarker discovery and proof of mechanism studies.

Dr. Fuentes received her Ph.D. degree from the Catholic University of Chile and was a Fogarty post-doctoral fellow in the Pharmacology Department, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, Biochemist from the University of Chile.