Nicola Wilsher is the Vice President, Early Development & Discovery DMPK and joined Astex in 2010. Nicola has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and preclinical development, having worked in academia, large pharma, CRO and biotech companies. Early in her career at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, UK, Nicola introduced higher throughput technologies to address the need for understanding DMPK properties earlier in the drug discovery process. Nicola has worked on numerous discovery and preclinical development projects in multiple therapeutic areas, with a focus on oncology and neurodegeneration. In 2004 Nicola joined the Institute of Cancer Research, UK to focus on the discovery of novel anticancer agents and contributed to the development of Abiraterone. Nicola attained an MSc in Biopharmacy at King’s College London and her PhD at Leicester School of Pharmacy.