Karen Akinsanya is the Executive Vice President, Chief Biomedical Scientist, and Head of Discovery R&D at Schrödinger. Karen has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D, clinical pharmacology, partnerships and licensing, having held numerous leadership positions at Merck & Co. Inc and at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. She led the discovery of a family of dipeptidyl peptidases related to DPPIV and pre-clinical characterization of FIRMAGON®, now FDA-approved for prostate cancer, while at Ferring. Karen went on to lead a cardiovascular therapeutic area team and the pre-POC licensing team, which brought >30 pipeline and new technology opportunities, at Merck before coming to Schrödinger.