Dr Mihaela Ficu is a medicinal chemist specialising in oncology drug discovery, with expertise in small-molecule therapeutics, induced proximity modalities such as Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) and molecular glues, as well as Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs). She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (B) in the Molecular & Proximity Discovery (MPD) Laboratory at SAiGENCI, led by Dr Michael Roy.
 
Dr Ficu completed her PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, University of Manchester, where she developed novel PROTACs targeting cancer-associated proteins. Her doctoral research was incorporated into the therapeutic portfolio of a biotechnology startup and resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in targeted protein degradation. She subsequently served as a Senior Scientist at a clinical-stage biotechnology company, contributing to translational drug discovery programmes and the advancement of therapeutic candidates from early discovery towards clinical development.
 
Her expertise spans medicinal chemistry, structure-based drug design, computational modeling, and molecular biology, with experience applying artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the discovery and optimisation of therapeutic candidates. Across academic and industry settings in the United Kingdom and Australia, she has contributed to multidisciplinary drug discovery programmes in oncology and respiratory disease. Her current research focuses on the discovery of novel induced proximity therapeutics for oncology, while leveraging AI-assisted computational tools to accelerate hit identification and lead optimisation.