Academic Lead:  Dr. Irina Meln, EVI: Dr. Irina Meln is a Project Coordinator at the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), with a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Heidelberg, experience in big data analysis and bioinformatics, and over 10 years of experience in managing projects across different areas of research, health care and in pharma. She is a GPM-certified project manager with a completed EBC*L-business certification. 

Industry Lead:  Jeanne Egar, GSK: Jeanne Egar completed her MSc in Physiology and Biophysics from Dalhousie University, after which she transitioned into project management. Over the past 10 years, she has developed and honed her skills in the public sector managing large research projects, primarily in the area of rare disease drug development - eventually becoming the Director of Operations for the Scientific and Clinical Hub of Orphan Drug Discovery at Dalhousie University. Most recently she worked for Canada’s federal health research funding agency, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Genetics as Assistant Director developing  and implementing strategic initiatives.

Jeanne recently joined GSK as Manager of Scientific Collaborations to coordinate external scientific collaborations for R&D in Siena, Itlay.