Katie McCauley, PhD is Head of Portfolio Strategy and Discovery Biology in Disease Area X at Novartis, where she leads early R&D activities supporting multiple therapeutic areas. Her work brings together portfolio strategy, exploratory biology, and in vitro pharmacology to shape early drug discovery and guide high‑quality scientific and resourcing decisions.

In her current role, she leads the development of scalable, decision‑ready assay platforms across the drug discovery continuum, and is accountable for identifying, evaluating, and advancing emerging scientific opportunities that inform future portfolio direction.

Katie earned her PhD in molecular biology from Boston University and completed postdoctoral training in systems biology and single‑cell genomics at Harvard Medical School. She joined Novartis in 2019 and has previously led drug discovery projects and portfolios across respiratory and fibrotic diseases.