Michaela Kneissel is Global Head of the Musculoskeletal Disease Area (MSD) at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. MSD consists of 110 scientists based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The mission of MSD is to restore mobility in disease and old age by targeting musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. Thus MSD pursues the identification of therapies for muscle wasting and weakness, neuromuscular diseases, bone disorders as well as for tendon and joint degeneration and injury. Michaela Kneissel received her doctoral degree from the University of Vienna, Austria. She performed part of her Ph.D. work at the Hard Tissue Research Unit, University College London, UK and was postdoctoral fellow at the Radiobiology Division, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA before joining Novartis in 1996 where she has held positions of increasing responsibility. Michaela Kneissel currently serves on scientific and industrial advisory and editorial boards of societies and journals in the field musculoskeletal research.