Francesca Bernardini, PhD

Alliance Director

Francesca is a scientific director with more than 20 years of international experience in antibacterial R&D and AMR portfolio leadership across pharmaceutical, biotech and CRO environments. She most recently served as Vice President, In Vitro Biology and AMR Therapeutic Area Lead at Evotec (Lyon, France), where she led in vitro biology teams and oversaw operational execution of client programs, including resource allocation, contract scope definition, milestone tracking and sponsor communication.

Previously, at Polyphor (Basel, Switzerland) and Debiopharm (Lausanne, Switzerland), she worked directly with CARB‑X and other global AMR funders (NOVO REPAIR, Wellcome Trust, EU FP7, Innovative Medicines Initiative, Italian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) across the full project lifecycle, from grant applications and milestone design to portfolio governance and risk‑mitigated development planning. She has led microbiology and cross‑functional teams and overseen complex preclinical programs supporting first‑in‑human studies.

Francesca joins CARB‑X as Alliance Director. Her core interests are antibacterial discovery and preclinical development, portfolio and alliance management, and the design of investment‑grade development strategies that accelerate programs toward clinical studies. She holds a PhD in Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Methodologies and an MSc in Chemistry.