Speakers

John Tallarico is an experienced drug discovery leader with a passion for building multidisciplinary teams and driving innovation across diverse therapeutic areas. He excels at guiding complex, cross-functional teams from strategy through implementation, inspiring scientists to tackle challenging problems and achieve breakthroughs in drug discovery. 

John brings a unique combination of scientific curiosity, leadership, and operational expertise. He has extensive experience in discovery strategies, organic synthesis, cellular pharmacology, target discovery and validation, chemical proteomics, phenotypic assays, high-throughput biology, and assembling high-performing scientific teams. He thrives in navigating ambiguity, simplifying complex problems, and energizing teams to deliver impactful results. 

He currently serves as Global Head of Discovery Sciences at Novartis, leading efforts to advance chemical biology and therapeutics. Previously, John held roles as Head of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, US Head of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics at Novartis, and Instructor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. He completed his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Boston College and a postdoctoral fellowship in Chemical Biology at Harvard University.