Panelists:

Dr Carlos Paya MD PhD is a virologist and immunologist. Dr. Paya spent nearly a decade at the Mayo Clinic-Rochester, including his role as professor of medicine, immunology and pathology, and Vice Dean of the clinical investigation program. After receiving his medical and doctorate degrees from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid Medical School, Dr. Paya completed his speciality training in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, USA. He was a research scientist in a post-doctoral position at Institute Pasteur in Paris and completed the advanced management program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Dr Paya gathers more tan 20 years of experience in the invention and development of new therapies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry in the USA. Dr Paya has held positions as Vice President of R&D at the multinational Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, President of Elan in San Francisco, and currently CEO of Immune Design in Seattle, a company that was bought by Merck last year.

Dr Nerea Irigoyen PhD is a molecular virologist and a research group leader at the Division of Virology of the University of Cambridge, UK. After obtaining a degree in Pharmacy at the University of Navarra (Spain), Dr Irigoyen carried out a PhD at the National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC, Madrid). Since 2010, Dr Irigoyen has been working in Cambridge where she specialized on retrovirus and coronavirus non-canonical viral protein translation, a mechanism involved in how the virus multiply inside our cells. In September 2018, Dr Irigoyen established her own group working on flaviviruses, especially Zika virus. During the last few months, Dr Irigoyen has also focused on antiviral therapies against SARS-CoV-2. Dr Irigoyen is a founding member of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU), and former member of its board of directors where she got involved on international relationships with public and private institutions.

Chair:

Dr Eduardo Oliver PhD is a researcher in experimental therapies at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid. After receiving his Pharmaceutical and PhD degrees from the University of Valencia, Dr Oliver specialized in the experimental search of new therapies against cardio-pulmonary vascular diseases at Imperial College London, UK. Dr Oliver is an external lecturer of the Master’s Degree on Research and Rational Use of Medicines at the University of Valencia since 2013. Dr Oliver is the Ambassador of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU) in Spain and former President. He is a member of the expert panel of Cotec Foundation in Spain on expatriate scientific networks. Additionally to his daily research work, Dr Oliver is an ongoing collaborator of Radio Exterior-Radio Nacional de España (RNE) ´Punto de Enlace´ where he regularly interviews Spanish scientists abroad.