Celebrating 25 Years of the Biomedical Research Symposium

“From Caspases to Urocortins: A Career Built on Scientific Curiosity, Flexibility & Opportunity“

Fiona L. Scott, PhD is Vice President of Lead Generation Biology and Neuroendocrinology Strategy at Neurocrine Biosciences, where she leads multidisciplinary drug discovery and clinical development teams, and helps shape research strategy across neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, inflammation, and metabolic disease. During her time at Neurocrine she has contributed to the advancement of more than 15 development candidates and has built a robust and sustainable Endocrinology pipeline with four new mechanisms and polypharmacology molecules currently in clinical development.

Fiona received her Ph.D. in from Monash University in Australia and joined Guy Salvesen’s lab at the Burnham studying the molecular mechanisms of caspase regulation, before transitioning to biotechnology and drug discovery. She was one of the earliest scientists at Receptos, where she helped build the company’s drug discovery capabilities and served as biology lead for programs and was the biology lead in the team that discovered and developed ozanimod (ZEPOSIA®), now an approved medicine for multiple sclerosis and ulcerative colitis. Throughout her career, she has remained passionate about translating fundamental biology into medicines, building high-performing scientific teams, and developing the next generation of scientists and scientific leaders.