Leticia is the Senior Vice President of Chemistry at MycRX, an oncology biotech company working on first-in-class small molecule drugs against the oncoprotein Myc. Leticia has over 20 years of drug discovery and development experience in oncology, Huntington’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Related Dementias from her work in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and nonprofit sectors. She is an accomplished scientist and senior executive with a proven track record of discovering and advancing innovative therapies towards patients. Most recently, Leticia was the Senior Director of Drug Discovery and Early Drug Development for the Tau Consortium, where she led the progression of a large portfolio of therapeutic and biomarker programs toward clinical development for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. Prior to that, Leticia was Director of Medicinal Chemistry and Computer-Aided Drug Design for the Cure Huntington's Disease Initiative (CHDI), a foundation following a biotech model to develop therapeutics for Huntington’s Disease. At CHDI, Leticia led multiple therapeutic programs that delivered clinical candidates through the IND stage. Prior to CHDI, Leticia held leadership positions in pharma and biotech (Lymphosign, MDS Proteomics, and Amgen) working in oncology.
Leticia received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from The State University of New York at Stony Brook and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Scripps Research Institute. Leticia has been a member of scientific advisory and steering committees for the Structural Genomics Consortium, The Chemical Probes Portal, and NIH’s Illuminating the Druggable Genome. She holds an adjunct appointment at UCLA, Department of Neurology. She is currently a Scientific Advisory Board member for Grove Biopharma and the PTEN Foundation.