Anna Fryszkowska, Ph.D

Dr. Ania Fryszkowska is an experienced industrial leader and chemist with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Warsaw University of Technology and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Manchester. She has spent her entire industrial career in the pharmaceutical industry, advancing the use of engineered enzymes in drug discovery and manufacture. Ania currently leads the Bioreactions team within Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis in Basel, where she applies enzyme-based technologies across therapeutic modalities to accelerate discovery of new medicines —from small molecules to biomolecules and conjugates. Prior to joining Novartis, Ania spent over a decade at Merck & Co., USA, where she held roles including Director of Biocatalysis and Senior Principal Scientist. Her work there spanned enzyme cascade design, biocatalytic C–H activation, and site-selective protein modification, with applications in nucleoside, peptide, and insulin conjugate synthesis. Earlier in her career, she was a Senior Scientist at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories UK. Ania has co-developed several landmark enzymatic processes recognized in top journals: Science 2019, ACS Cent. Sci. 2021, Science 2022 , Cell Press, Curr Opin. Chem. Biol. 2020. Ania is passionate about green chemistry and sustainability, and actively mentors the next generation of scientists to develop cleaner, more efficient processes and technologies. Outside work, she enjoys modern art, ikebana, and traveling—having visited over 50 countries.