Florian Nigsch

Director Data Science at Novartis Biomedical Research

Basel, Basel, Switzerland

About

Experienced professional in drug discovery and biomedical research focused on impacting drug discovery projects through planning of experiments, analysis and integration of data, continuous communication with project teams. Specialties: - Building and leading a team of data scientists - Bio/Chem/Informatics (various -omics analyses, experimental design, high performance computing, method development/implementation, large scale data integration) - Communication across boundaries (discipline, language, timezones, personalities) - Impacting projects through pragmatic solutions

Experience

  • Director Data Science at Novartis Biomedical Research
    Sep 2022 - Present · 3 yrs 11 mos

    Leading a team of 25 drug discovery data scientists across bioinformatics and cheminformatics, working on early target identification, LMW and genetic screening, most omics technologies and their integration, as well as method internalization and development (statistics, ML, AI) to enable data-driven decision making.

  • Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) (13 yrs 8 mos)
    • Associate Director Data Science
      Apr 2021 - Sep 2022 · 1 yr 6 mos

      Leading a global (Basel & Cambridge, MA) team of 15+ data scientists in the area of early drug discovery, with a focus on target identification, characterization of model systems (in vitro, in vivo, clinical) and project progression.

    • Associate Director & Senior Principal Data Science
      Jul 2020 - Apr 2021 · 10 mos

    • Senior Investigator I
      May 2018 - Jul 2020 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      - Preclinical research on non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), integrated data analyses to identify novel targets and biomarkers from in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies. - Data science team lead - Internal and external collaborations

  • University of Cambridge (3 yrs 3 mos)
    • Postdoctoral researcher
      Sep 2008 - Dec 2008 · 4 mos

      Postdoctoral research on computational toxicology and cheminformatics

    • PhD student
      Oct 2005 - Sep 2008 · 3 yrs

      PhD in cheminformatics entitled "Computational Prediction of Molecular Properties for Drug Discovery"

  • Visiting PhD student at Unilever
    Oct 2006 - Dec 2006 · 3 mos

    Cell-based (Caco-2) and cell-free (PAMPA) assays to measure intestinal permeability.

  • MCR President at Robinson College MCR
    Oct 2005 - Oct 2006 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Responsible for all operations of the graduate society.