Anabella Villalobos, PhD

Dr. Anabella Villalobos is a medicinal chemist and currently a Senior Vice President, Biotherapeutics & Medicinal Sciences at Biogen. Born and raised in Panama, she found her spark and excitement for chemistry in a high school organic chemistry class. She obtained her BS (1981) in Chemistry from the University of Panama. She obtained a MS on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship and a PhD (1987) in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas. She did a postdoctoral fellowship through the National Institutes of Health at Yale University to continue her research in synthetic organic chemistry. 

Villalobos’ first pharma job was at Pfizer in the neuroscience group. There she exhibited a passion for neurological diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s. She contributed to the design and discovery of Icopezil which advanced to Phase II clinical trials. Following this work, she went on to improve the number of candidates that advanced through the clinic by generating the Central Nervous System Multi-Parameter Optimization (CNS MPO) design tool, which now serves as a standard in the field to determine a drug’s potential. Her team at Pfizer continued to develop and advance molecules for Alzheimer’s leading to her promotion as Head of CNS Medicinal Chemistry in 2001 and Head of Bacterial and CNS Chemistry in 2007. 

In 2016, she was recruited to and joined Biogen to lead the company’s research and development efforts spanning biologics and gene therapy. She continues to be a scientific pillar in the field and a great mentor to other scientists at Biogen. Villalobos was inducted into the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame in 2021.

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