Kalpana Merchant, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board

Kalpana Merchant has deep expertise in the neurobiology of chronic neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders with more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development with a special emphasis on translational strategies. Dr. Merchant retired in March 2014 from Eli Lilly and Company where she was the CSO for Tailored Therapeutics – Neuroscience, accountable for scientific and business strategies to deliver personalized therapies and associated biomarkers for the neuroscience portfolio – from discovery through Phase III. Prior to Eli Lilly, Dr. Merchant conducted neuroscience drug discovery research at Pharmacia Corp. She received her Ph.D. in neuropharmacology from the University of Utah. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship at University of Washington, she was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the same institution. Dr. Merchant has been appointed a member of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Advisory Council and the Cures Acceleration Network Review Board for the National Institutes of Health. She is a Senior Advisor to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and a member of the Wellcome Trust Science Review Panel.