Melissa Crisp

Melissa Crisp, Ph.D. is a Senior Director of Automation & Screening Technologies at Eli Lilly and Company in San Diego, where she leads a team advancing biologics drug discovery through innovative automation strategies and screening platforms. With over 20 years of experience spanning academia, pharma, and biotech, Melissa has developed state-of-the-art platforms, including high-throughput systems for protein expression, cell culture, and bioassay screening. Her team’s work has accelerated therapeutic discovery across multiple large molecule programs and continues to evolve through continuous improvement, AI initiatives, and an expanding repertoire of automated solutions. Melissa earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of Florida College of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training at Scripps Florida, specializing in ultra-high-throughput small molecule screening for the NIH MLPCN initiative. A passionate advocate for scientific innovation and collaboratio