Dr. Maria Fe Lanfranco Gallofre is a Health Specialist in the Translational Research Branch at the National Institute of Aging (NIA). She assists with drug discovery and preclinical drug development portfolios and translational infrastructure programs. Dr. Lanfranco also curates publications for the Alzheimer’s Disease Preclinical Efficacy Database (AlzPED).
Dr. Lanfranco has a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Texas Medical Branch. After graduating, her research was diverse, from biophysical properties of protein allostery to neuroinflammation and the APOE genotype effects on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2018, Dr. Lanfranco started veering her career away from the bench and toward grant writing, funding, and fostering innovation. To further her interest in drug research and development and how to get a drug from clinical trials to the market to improve patients’ health, Dr. Lanfranco took the Mini-MBA in BioPharma Innovation (Rutgers Business School, 2020), and the Certificate in BioBusiness (Georgetown University, 2021-2022). There she learned concepts on commercialization, market fundamentals for life scientists, intellectual property, product-oriented discovery, and regulatory affairs.