Smriti Iyengar, Ph.D., is Director Preclinical Screening Platform for Pain (PSPP) program, and Program Director, in the Division of Translational Research, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, USA. She is an adjunct Senior Research Professor in the Departmentsof Anesthesia and Cinical Pharmacology, Indiana University School of Medicine. She was formerly at Eli Lilly and Company, and prior to that at G.D. Searle and Company, Schering-Plough Inc. and Ciba Geigy. She is a neuroscientist with extensive research experience focused on neuro-disorders including pain and headache. Her drug discovery expertise includes target, lead and clinical candidate identification and characterization as well as translational and clinical development, regulatory strategy, launch and commercialization. Her postdoctoral training was at Rutgers University as a Charles and Johanna Busch Fellow in the Dept. of Physiology and Neuroscience, on central regulation of opioid function and central regulation of neuroendocrine function in