Birgit more than 15 years experience in R&D. As a bioengineer by training she is passionate about applying computational approaches (machine learning/AI as well as Systems Biology/Systems Pharmacology) to drug discovery and development.

Currently, she serve a Global Head of Modeling and Simulation, PK Sciences at Novartis. Before joining Novartis, she served as interim Senior Vice President, Scientific Value, at GNS Healthcare. She focussed on how causal machine learning can drive strategic decision making in drug development.

Prior, she established the use of Systems Biology (quantitative Biology combined with mathematical modeling and simulation) at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where she held assignments of increasing responsibility from 2003 to 2017. As Head of Discovery and Early Development, she was responsible for all target identification and Ph1/2 clinical development activities.

She received her Diplom Ingenieur (MSc) in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University in Karlsruhe, Germany, and her PhD in Biological Engineering from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems in Magdeburg. She was a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Douglas Lauffenburger and Peter Sorger in the Biological Engineering Department at MIT.