Tobias Schmelzle earned an MSc from ETH Zurich, a PhD from the Biozentrum at University of Basel (TOR signaling, advisor Mike Hall) and completed his postdoctoral studies on 3D breast cancer models at Harvard Medical School (advisor Joan Brugge).
Having started in Novartis Biomedical Research Oncology in 2007 in the Target Identification and Validation (TIDVal) group, Tobias worked on several early programs and co-lead the global TIDVal group, which completed large-scale functional genomics campaigns, such as project DRIVE. Prior to embarking on his current role in 2021, Tobias was also a Drug Discovery Biology Group Leader serving on the local Oncology Leadership Team and a Project Team Leader of the YAP/TEAD LMW program (clinical development candidate NVP-IAG933). At current, Tobias is the Head of Oncology Drug Discovery in Basel and collaborates closely with the Oncology Radioligand Therapy group, while as a member of the global Novartis Biomedical Research Oncology Leadership Team contributing to the strategy and portfolio across multiple cancer indications and therapeutic modalities.