Paraskevi Gkeka
Distinguished Scientist, Group Head CADD Sanofi
Dr. Paraskevi Gkeka holds an M.Eng. in Applied Mathematics, an M.Sc. in Mathematical Modeling, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, where she studied the interactions of peptides and nanoparticles with membranes using coarse-grained models. Following postdoctoral research in computer-aided drug design and molecular modeling, she joined Sanofi in 2016 as a Principal Scientist, contributing to the development of AI-driven enhanced sampling algorithms, binding free energy calculations, and machine learning applications in drug discovery. She has since advanced to Group Head of SMIRNA CADD (Small Molecules Interfering with RNA), where she leads AI-enhanced drug discovery initiatives with a focus on library design and molecular dynamics simulations.
Seminars
- Building HARIBOSS++, a curated RNA–small molecule binding database that accelerates rational design of RNA-targeted therapeutics
- Detecting binding sites in RNA ensembles with SHAMAN, enabling comprehensive druggability assessment across conformational space
- Parametrizing force fields for RNA dynamics to enhance the accuracy and reliability of computational predictions for drug discovery
