Maria WendtGlobal Head of Digital and Biologics Strategy and Innovation, Large Molecule Research, Sanofi
Maria Wendt is the Global Head of Digital Biologics and Biologics Strategy and Innovation (DBSI), Large Molecule Research Platform at Sanofi, based in Cambridge, MA.
She has spent over 20 years at the interface of computation and biology. At Sanofi, she oversees the strategic innovation portfolio that ensures Sanofi is always in the forefront of molecular and computational innovations for biologics. She manages a global team in seven sites and five countries creating the next generation of smart biologics medicines using cutting-edge molecular engineering techniques, synthetic biology and AI.
Prior to her current position, she was Head of Biologics Research US (2019-2022) overseeing the biologic therapeutics portfolio for Sanofi’s key therapeutic areas of Immuno-oncology, Immunology & Inflammation and Rare & Neuro Disease; and the antibody discovery and protein engineering operations in the US focusing on bispecific and trispecific antibodies, ADCs and conditionally activated biologics. In 2020, Maria initiated a novel program of expertise-building and upskilling to further Sanofi’s ambitions in AI for biologics discovery which lead to the creation of a new organization called the Digital Biologics Platform that has now evolved into the current DBSI organization and resulted in the launch of a new strategic “Biologics AI Moonshot (BioAIM)” program.
Prior to joining Sanofi, she held various positions at Genedata AG (2001-2018), and as Head of Science from 2015 until 2018. Genedata is a global informatics software and consulting firm for the life sciences, based in Basel Switzerland. She was founding principal scientist of SANOFI US | 350 Water Street | Cambridge, Massachusetts 02141 | Tel: +15087458124 1/1 28 July 2022 Internal Genedata Biologics® and Genedata Bioprocess® platforms. GDBx and GDBp are global, foundational, enterprise data management, workflow support and data analysis platforms supporting end-to-end biologics research and development processes, employed by the majority of top pharmaceutical and biotech organizations worldwide.
In the early part of her career, she focused on -omics Big Data and was one of the leaders of the EU Framework 6 InnoMed Predictive Toxicology consortium.
She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines.