Violeta Yu

Violeta is a molecular pharmacologist who is passionate about improving the lives of patients. Violeta has over 20 years of drug discovery experience using innovative strategies to screen, study, and progress potential therapies in the areas of Neuroscience, Oncology, Inflammation, and Metabolic Disorders.

She has successfully advanced projects from discovery, screen, hit-to-lead, to preclinical candidate. She has worked on a diverse set of targets spanning ion channels (voltage and ligand gated), enzymes (including but not limited to kinases, histone modifying, nucleic acid modifying), and receptors. She is an effective team leader and engaged staff manager. Most recently, Violeta managed the ALS Neuroscience staff at Amgen and was responsible for creating and running all ALS projects. Prior to Amgen, Violeta was a Biologist at Merck Frosst and was part of the research team (Donald Nicholson’s lab) that discovered caspase-3 and its central role in apoptosis.

Violeta was educated in Canada at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto. Outside of work, Violeta cherishes time with family and volunteering in her community.