Melanie Joy, PharmD, PhD, FCCP, FASN

Melanie Joy, PharmD, PhD, is a tenured professor at the University of Colorado, serving as Director of Innovation and Commercialization in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She previously spent 16 years as a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chaple Hill Kidney Center where she directed the clinical development of new therapeutics.  She is a clinician-scientist with expertise in translating science to solve vexing clinical problems. She is also committed to training the next generation of scientists through educational efforts in preclinical and clinical drug and biologic development, innovation and entrepreneurship, renal pharmacology and toxicology and encouraging her trainees to “think outside the box”. Dr. Joy is a founder of Katharos, Inc., a start-up focusing on developing new technologies for kidney diseases. Over her 30-year career, she has contributed to the development of multiple drugs, biologics, and devices, many of which are now commercial products for patients with kidney diseases.  Dr. Joy has participated in numerous innovation and entrepreneurship programs at CU, served as Director of Education for the SPARK/REACH program, Chancellor’s Committee on Innovation, and President’s Workgroup on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She also established and leads the Academic Center of Excellence for Model-Informed Drug Development, a public-private partnership with Certara, Inc. Dr. Joy’s laboratory is NIH funded and focused on biomarkers of therapy efficacy and toxicity, kidney injury secondary to therapeutics, precision medicine approaches in renal medicine, and preclinical and clinical development of therapeutics and medical devices. Dr. Joy’s prominence in her field has resulted in nomination and leadership of several important committees of professional societies and recently contributed to the development and execution of a NIH workshop on precision medicine in nephrology clinical studies.