Jason Cross

Institute Director, Structural and Computational Drug Design, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Jason is a drug discovery leader and functional group head specializing in small molecule design, with a proven track record of advancing three therapeutic programs into the clinic and securing over 35 issued US patents. Bridging extensive experience across both industrial and academic ecosystems, he advises organizations on driving technical transformation and deploying high-impact solutions.

Currently focused on the next generation of biopharma infrastructure, Jason specializes in designing and building autonomous drug discovery platforms that integrate AI, physics-based modeling, and advanced laboratory automation to seamlessly orchestrate the entire Design-Make-Test-Analyze (DMTA) cycle. A champion of platform-centric discovery, he combines deep technical expertise in structural biology and computation with strategic leadership to help companies transition from manual, bespoke research to scalable, automated engines.