About
Sandra Lopez-Leon is a genetic pharmacoepidemiologist focused on studying the safety of new neuropsychiatric medications at all stages of drug development. She graduated from the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands with the degrees of Master in Science, Doctor in Science, and a Ph.D. in Genetic Epidemiology. In 2014, the United States Government recognized her as an outstanding researcher for her work focused on identifying genes associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Since 2013, she works at Novartis Pharmaceuticals as a pharmacoepidemiologist in the department of Quantitative Safety & Epidemiology under Global Drug Development. Dr Lopez-Leon conducts pharmacoepidemiological studies using large administrative claims databases, electronic health records and population registries to evaluate the safety of medications. Her research proficiencies include study design, research methodology, statistical analyses, meta-analyses and the interpretation of study results. In addition, she leads a work package in the IMI ConcePTION consortium, which aims to build an ecosystem for improved monitoring and communicating of the safety of medicine use in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Dr Lopez-Leon has authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific publications and four books. She peer-reviews for numerous journals, serves on the editorial board of BMC Research Notes, and is a member of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) and of the Psychiatric Genetic Latin American Consortium. Since 2019, she has been a Preceptor at Novartis for fellows training at the Rutgers Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Treatment Science (PETS).