Rita Balice-Gordon

Rita Balice-Gordon, Ph.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of Muna Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on developing novel therapeutics for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Previously, Dr. Balice-Gordon served in senior leadership roles at Sanofi, Inc., most recently as Global Head of Rare and Neurological Diseases.

Prior to joining Sanofi, Dr. Balice-Gordon led the psychiatry and pain drug discovery portfolios as Vice President in the Neuroscience and Pain Research Unit at Pfizer, Inc. Earlier in her career, Dr. Balice-Gordon was Professor of Neuroscience and Chair of the Neuroscience Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where she currently holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neuroscience.

Dr. Balice-Gordon has authored more than 100 scientific papers, received numerous accolades for her work in the field of neuroscience, including election as a Fellow of AAAS, and has chaired or served on many NIH, national and international committees. She received her B.A. degree in Biological Sciences from Northwestern University, her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of Texas at Austin, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.