Danila Branca

Danila Branca, Director and Head of Peptide Therapeutics at IRBM, where she oversees the company’s peptide research strategy and leads multidisciplinary teams dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative peptide-based medicines. She began her industrial research career at Merck Research Laboratories in Pomezia, where she gained extensive experience in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery before joining IRBM in 2010. Since then, she has played a pivotal role in establishing and expanding IRBM’s peptide drug discovery capabilities. With more than 20 years of experience in industrial drug discovery, Danila has led peptide research programmes from target validation through candidate selection, with particular expertise in peptide medicinal chemistry, macrocyclic and constrained peptide design, structure-activity relationship studies, and translational drug discovery. Her contributions include the advancement of enlicitide (MK-0616), an orally bioavailable macrocyclic peptide