Ilaria Capua, DVM, PhD, is is Senior Fellow of Global Health, Johns Hopkins University - SAIS Europe, Courtesy Professor and director emeritus of the One Health Centre of Excellence at the University of Florida in the United States.

She is a virologist and former Italian parliamentarian (2013-2016) known worldwide for her studies in the field of animal-to-human transmissible viral infections and their pandemic potential. In 2006, in the face of the pandemic threat caused by the avian influenza virus, she chose to share the virus' genetic data on open-access, open source digital platforms. This decision helped redefine the policy of international organisations on the transparency of virus genetic data, optimising strategies to address global threats such as pandemics.

In 2007, she was named one of the 50 best scientists in the world by Scientific American and in 2008 she was included among the 'Revolutionary Minds' by the American magazine Seed for her leadership role in science politics.

“MY DRIVE TODAY IS TO EMPOWER NEW GENERATIONS TO DO A BETTER JOB THAN WHAT WE HAVE DONE WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH, NOT ONLY TO THE HEALTH OF PEOPLE BUT ALSO TO THE HEALTH OF ANIMALS, PLANTS, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FROM WHICH WE ARE DEPENDENT.

MY GIFT FOR YOU, SCIENTISTS THAT BELONG TO ALL THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, I AM SURE THAT YOU KNOW THAT SCIENCE IS BEAUTIFUL. SO, MY GIFT FOR YOU IS #BEAUTIFUL SCIENCE” #BeautifulScience

Edith Heard, Ph.D., is the Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) since 2019. EMBL is Europe's life sciences laboratory with more than 110 research groups dedicated to molecular biology, supported by 28 member states. Her lab is based at the EMBL headquarters in Heidelberg. She is a full professor at the Collège de France and holds the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory in Paris, France. She has been appointed the new Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick Institute in London starting in the summer of 2025.

A British geneticist, her discoveries in the field of epigenetics and her creativity in understanding how genes work have earned her the title of Science Visionary from the New York Times and the international l'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science 2020 award. She is an elected member of the Royal Society in the UK and the US National Academy of Sciences. In April 2021 she joined the Scientific Council of the World Health Organisation.

She was awarded the 2024 CNRS Gold Medal, one of France's most prestigious scientific awards, for her exceptional contributions to the advancement of her discipline, epigenetics, particularly on the inactivation of the X chromosome.

“‘GENEROSITY’ IS THE WORD I WOULD GIVE AS A GIFT TO YOUNG SCIENTISTS. IN OTHER WORDS, TRY TO SHARE THE SCIENCE YOU DO WITH OTHERS.”

Maria Leptin, PhD, is the President of the European Research Council (ERC), Europe’s major funding agency for fundamental research, as of 1 November 2021.

She is a full professor at the University of Cologne, Germany, and has served as Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) from 2010 to 2021. The European Research Council is the first pan-European funding body for frontier research in all disciplines. Since its start in 2007, more than 12,000 projects and over 10,000 researchers have been selected for funding, 9 of which won the Nobel Prize.

Passionate about fundamental research, she enjoys taking on new challenges and embracing new ideas. She runs two research laboratories in independent fields: Developmental Biology in Heidelberg (EMBL) and Immunology in Cologne (CECAD). She is an elected member of EMBO, the Academia Europaea and the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK. She is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society since May 2022 and an International member of the US National Academy of Sciences since 2023.

“I THINK THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO DO WHAT YOU ENJOY MOST AND TO DO IT FULL POWER AND FULL COMMITMENT. THE NEXT STEP WILL FOLLOW.”

Rana Dajani, PhD, is a Jordanian molecular biologist and social entrepreneur. She is among the most influential female scientists in the Islamic world and was included in the Women in Science Hall of Fame in 2015.

She is a full professor of Molecular Biology at Hashemite University, President of the Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World (SASTA), and President of the Jordan chapter of The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World.

She studies the epigenetic transmission of trauma, with a focus on resilience. In her book Five Scarves: doing the impossible - if we can reverse cell fate, why can't we redefine success? she advocates a possible paradigm shift to pursue gender equality and plays five roles: mother of four, educator, scientist, social entrepreneur and Islamic feminist.

She founded the children's literacy NGO We Love Reading, for which she won the 2020 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award for the Middle East and North Africa.

Among other appointments, she has been a Richard Von Weizsacker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Germany, a Zuzana Simoniova Cmelikova Visiting Scholar at the University of Richmond, a Rita Hauser Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study , Harvard University, an Eisenhower fellow, a Fulbright visiting professor at Yale University, and a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge.

“DREAM AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND BELIEVE THAT NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING.”

Ionica Smeets, PhD, is a full professor of Science Communication at Leiden University, science journalist and columnist for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant and presenter on Dutch television.

After obtaining a PhD in Pure Mathematics, her career followed an atypical path. Because her interest was in improving the communication of science, she decided to do so from within academia and thus returned to academia in 2015. Her research group studies the foundations of science communication, languages and forms of scientific dissemination, with the aim of improving the communication and understanding of scientific issues by the non-specialist public and in this way improving the interaction between science and society.

She is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the Science museum of the city of Leiden, and was the head of the jury for the Libris Literature Prize in 2020. Together with Alex Verkade, Ionica created an action plan for The National Centre of Expertise on Science & Society of the Netherlands in 2023.

"MY ADVICE TO ANYONE IS TO TRY AND FIND GOOD MENTORS AND GOOD SUPERVISORS.”

Magdalena Skipper, PhD, D.Sc. (h.c) is Editor in Chief of Nature, one of the oldest world's leading multidisciplinary science journals. Elected in 2018, she is the first woman editor-in-chief in 150 years of the magazine. She is also Chief Editorial Adviser for Nature Portfolio.

A British-Polish geneticist, she started her editorial career at Nature Reviews Genetics, and has taken several roles at the Nature Partner Journals and at open access journal Nature Communications. Participating in the Agenda 2021 of the World Economic Forum in Davos in the debate on the consequences of the crisis from Covid-19, she stressed the need to improve science communication and scientific literacy, which according to her includes three aspects. The first is the knowledge of scientific fact; the second is the understanding of the scientific method, which implies that science is a constantly evolving process; the third is that science affects every aspect of real life.

She presides over the jury for the Nature Award for Mentoring in Science and the Nature Award for Inspiring Women in Science. She is a Fellow of the International Science Council.

“BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND IN THE CONTRIBUTION YOU CAN MAKE; IT SHOULD NOT MATTER VERY MUCH WHAT OTHERS MIGHT EXPECT OF YOU.”

Elisabetta Dejana, Ph.D., is an Italian cell biologist internationally renowned for her studies on the development of the healthy and pathological vascular system. She directs the ‘New strategies to inhibit tumor angiogenesis’ research unit at IFOM, the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan. She is a full professor of Pathology at Uppsala University in Sweden and held a professorship in the same field at the University of Milan from 2002 till 2020.

She ranks 20th among Italy's top scientists in biomedical sciences and is an elected member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. She received the Grand INSERM Award2018 as the only non-French scientist and the Ambrogino d'Oro 2020, an honour from the City of Milan. During her scientific career, she has dedicated considerable effort to improving scientific communication for the general public. She is strongly committed to promoting the careers of young researchers and supporting equal career opportunities for women and men.

“THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL JOB FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT LIKE THE DISCOVERY BUT ALSO ARE ABLE TO BE PATIENT, TO RESIST TO FRUSTRATION AND, IN ONE WORD, ARE ABLE TO BE PERSISTENT. THEN THE SURPRISE OF THE DISCOVERY IS INVALUABLE.”

Susan Gasser, Ph.D., is a molecular biologist internationally renowned for her studies on genome organization.

Since February 2021, she is the Director of the ISREC Foundation for Cancer Research and the new AGORA Translational Cancer Research Center in Lausanne. For 15 years she directed the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research and was full professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Basel. She is a visiting professor at the University of Lausanne since 2021.

She has been involved in guiding science policy and research institutions across Europe. Her numerous awards include the EMBO/FEBS and Weizmann Institute Women in Science Award. She is a strong advocate for women in science and chaired the Commission on Gender Equality of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

She was elected to the Académie de France, EMBO, Leopoldina, and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2022, she was named to the US National Academy of Sciences for furthering the understanding of genome stability.

“DO SOMETHING THAT YOU BELIEVE IN – SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU GROW AS A PERSON . TRUE SUCCESS IS A REFLECTION OF INTERNAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT .

Christine Mummery, Ph.D., is a full professor of Developmental Biology and heads pluripotent stem cell research at Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. She served as president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) for the year 2020-2021.

She pioneered studies on cardiomyocytes from human embryonic stem cells. She collaborates with engineers at the Technical University of Twente to develop heart-on-a-chip models, "artificial" human mini-hearts on microfluidic chips made from reprogrammed stem cells to study cardiac pathophysiology and test new drugs for cardiovascular diseases, as well as therapies targeted to individual patients.

She co-founded the European Organ on Chip Society and the Netherlands Human Disease Modelling Technology organization (hDMT.technology). She is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science (KNAW).

“DON'T WAIT AROUND HOPING TO BECOME VISIBLE BECAUSE IT RARELY HAPPENS: DECIDE WHAT 'THE LABEL ON YOU FOREHEAD' IS AND GO FOR IT.”

Giuliana Ferrari, Ph.D., is a full professor of Molecular Biology and Gene Expression Regulation at the San Raffaele University School of Medicine, Group leader of the Stem Cell Gene Transfer Unit and Director of GLP facility at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan.

Since the early 1990s she has pioneered the use of viral vector-mediated gene transfer techniques for the therapy of genetic diseases. Her research group has recently conducted with positive results one of the first clinical trials of gene therapy in adult and paediatric patients affected by beta-thalassemia, a genetic blood disease causing a chronic anaemia widespread in the Mediterranean area, accomplishing the clinical translation of gene therapy for beta-thalassemia.

In 2018, she received the prestigious Rosa Camuna Prize from the Regione Lombardia. In 2021, she has been nominated European Chair of the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) platform at EATRIS.

“MAKE GOOD SCIENCE, WITH PASSION, RESPECT AND RIGOR: YOU WILL SUCCEED AND YOU WILL NEVER REGRET YOUR CHOICE.”

Cristina Messa, MD, PhD is a physician and an academic, full professor of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Milan-Bicocca. She was the Minister of University and Research in the Italian Government with Mario Draghi (2021-2022) and was Rector of the University of Milan-Bicocca from 2013 to 2019, the first woman to lead a Milanese university.

Named among the Inspiring Fifty, the 50 leading women in technology in Italy in 2018, she is an expert in nuclear medicine and radiological sciences, with a focus on neurodegenerative and neoplastic diseases. Her objectives include promoting the enhancement of research and innovation as a strategic foundation of institutional activity, encouraging the internationalisation of the Italian research system and making technologies and solutions available and accessible to improve the healthcare system and the health of the citizens.

“THE MESSAGE I WANT TO GIVE AS A GIFT TO YOUNG ASPIRING SCIENTISTS IS: NEVER GIVE UP!”

Asifa Akhtar, PhD, is the Director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) in Freiburg, Germany, where she also leads the Department of Chromatin Regulation. In July 2020, she was elected Vice President of the Max Planck Society, Germany’s premier research organization dedicated to basic research. She is the first international female Vice President and the first female Vice President in the Biology and Medicine Section of the Society.

Born in Pakistan, she studied in the UK and continued her scientific career in Germany. She is an expert in epigenetics and chromatin regulation. Research in her laboratory focuses on the study of a biological process called "dosage compensation," a mechanism that ensures the proper balance of sex chromosome gene expression in the two sexes, a key aspect of an organism's development.

In 2021, she received the Leibniz Prize, the most prestigious research award given in Germany. She was elected as a member of EMBO in 2013 and of the National Academy of Science Leopoldina in 2019. She is the winner of the 2024 FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award.

“WHAT REALLY KEEPS ME GOING IS MY RESEARCH TEAM. IT IS JUST BRILLIANT TO WORK WITH YOUNG AND MOTIVATED SCIENTISTS.”

Francesca Mattiroli, PhD, is a group leader at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the Netherlands, leading the laboratory of Chromatin Structure and Dynamics since 2018.

She describes herself as "a structural biologist with a love for chromatin", the complex of DNA and proteins that makes up chromosomes and encodes for genetic and epigenetic information in human cells. Using a combination of biochemistry and molecular and structural biology approaches, her group studies how this information is faithfully transmitted during cell division. This process is crucial for preventing cellular transformation that leads to diseases such as cancer.

She is a winner of the European Research Council Starting Grant 2019, the prestigious funding for young researchers from the European Research Council. She was elected EMBO Young Investigator in 2023.

“TURN THE DIFFICULTIES INTO OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPLORE NEW AVENUES AND TO CONTINUE LEARNING."

Conchita Vens, Ph.D., is a Medical Radiobiologist and a Reader in Translational Radiobiology at the School of Cancer Science at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

She studies DNA damage repair mechanisms in both healthy and neoplastic cells, particularly in response to ionizing radiation. Her research focuses on how to exploit DNA repair defects in cancer cells to improve cancer therapies. Strongly committed to supporting radiation oncology, she is an active member of international and national radiation oncology societies. She is a lecturer in local and international oncology degree courses.

“BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO FOLLOW YOUR INTUITION, CAUTIOUS ENOUGH TO SCRUTINIZE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS AND HUMBLE ENOUGH TO NEVER STOP LEARNING.”

Geneviève Almouzni, PhD, is Director of Research exceptional class at the CNRS and principal investigator of the Chromatin Dynamics team at the Institut Curie in Paris. She was director of the Research Center at the same Institute from 2013 to 2018 and has been its honorary director since then.

She is a world leader in understanding the organisation and function of the genome during development and disease, particularly in cancer. Constantly striving to expand the boundaries of scientific knowledge, she is co-chair of the LifeTime Initiative, a European research platform that uses innovative technologies aimed at tracking, understanding and treating human cells at the time of disease. She is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the French Academy of Sciences and the European Research Council since 2019, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

She has been awarded the 2024 l'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International award "for her seminal contributions to understanding how DNA is packaged with proteins inside the cell nucleus."

“IF THERE IS SOMETHING I’D LIKE TO TELL TO YOUNGER PEOPLE THAT WANT TO GO INTO SCIENCE, THIS IS: ENJOY IT! THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF IT.”

Nina Cabezas-Wallscheid, PhD, is a Group Leader at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) Freiburg, Germany.

She is passionate about the biology of haematopoietic stem cells, an extremely rare population of bone marrow cells that produce billions of new blood cells every day. Her studies have identified dietary habits that promote healthy blood stem cells. The ultimate goal of her research is to develop innovative therapeutic strategies for haematological diseases, such as leukaemia.

In 2021 she was selected by EMBO for the Young Investigator Program, the programme to support young European researchers. She was awarded the prestigious European Research Council Starting Grant in 2017 and Consolidator Grant in 2024.

“OPTIMISM AND PERSISTENCE ARE MY KEYWORDS. ENJOY AND CELEBRATE LITTLE ACHIEVEMENTS!”

Giovanna Iannantuoni is the Rector of the University Milano-Bicocca and Full Professor of Economics, Milan, Italy.

She is one of the ten female Rectors among eighty-four Rectors in Italy. "For an inclusive, innovative and international university" are the words that guide her rectorate. In 2023 she has been elected President of the Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI).

Intrigued by the Game Theory, she focused her research on mathematical models of strategic interaction between people applied to economic behavior, on political economy decisions and microeconomics.

“CURIOSITY, AWARENESS AND COURAGE. THESE ARE THE WORDS I WOULD LIKE TO ADDRESS TO ASPIRING SCIENTISTS AND TO ALL WOMEN: BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE.”

Maria Rescigno, PhD is a full professor of General Pathology and serves as Vice Scientific Director and deputy pro-rector in charge of research at Humanitas University in Milan. She is also a group leader at Humanitas Research Hospital, where she directs the Unit of Mucosal Immunology and Microbiota.

An immunologist and entrepreneur, she is one of the leading international experts on the Microbiota (the billions of microorganisms that live in symbiosis with our bodies). Her research focuses on the development of new cancer immunotherapy strategies based on the use of bacteria to stimulate an anti-tumour response. Her group has identified an intestinal bacterial strain that plays a protective role against colorectal cancer. In 2016, she founded Postbiotica, a startup exploiting bacteria-derived products as new drugs for inflammatory diseases.

She has been an elected member of EMBO since 2011. Her book for the general public Microbiota, a secret weapon of the immune system was published in 2021. in 2024.

In 2024, she received the "Women in Cancer" award from The Pezcoller Foundation and has been elected to the Academia dei Lincei, one of the oldest academies of science in Europe, founded in 1630.

“MY MAJOR DRIVE IS TO THINK THAT PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING FROM THE DISEASE, CANCER, AND TO DO SOMETHING FOR THEM.”

Graziella Pellegrini, PhD, is a full professor of Applied Biology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and director of the Cell Therapy Programme at the Stefano Ferrari Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

She loves the idea of being able to use cell cultures to reconstruct damaged parts of a human being. She pioneered the use of epithelial stem cells in medicine and is internationally known for developing cell therapy protocols for the treatment of patients with skin and eye burns. For these discoveries, which have helped cure hundreds of patients, she was awarded the prestigious Louis-Jeantet 2020 Prize in Geneva and the Lombardy is Research 2018 Prize from the Lombardy Region. She is co-founder and R&D director of the biotech company Holostem Terapie Avanzate.

“YOU ONLY LEARN FROM ERRORS. THE MOST SENSATIONAL DISCOVERIES COME JUST WHEN THINGS GO DIFFERENTLY FROM HOW YOU ENVISIONED THEM.”

Maria A. Blasco, PhD, is is the Director of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid, where she is also the head of the Telomeres and Telomerase Research Unit.

For over twenty-five years her studies have focused on demonstrating the importance of telomeres in the prevention of cancer and age-related diseases. Telomeres are the structures that protect the ends of our chromosomes, essential for genomic stability and whose length shortens with age.

During her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Carol W. Greider (Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009) at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, she isolated one of the essential genes coding for telomerase, the enzyme that maintains telomere length. Since then her work has been at the forefront of telomere biology. Among other awards, she has received the EMBO Gold Medal. She is an elected member of EMBO and has served on its board.

”THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWLEDGE”.

Fiona Watt, PhD, is a world leader in stem cell research and regenerative medicine. Since January 2022, she is Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and a group leader at EMBL Heidelberg. EMBO is the European intergovernmental organisation comprising more than 1800 leading life science researchers, including 90 Nobel Prize winners.

She has been director of the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at King’s College London, UK, from 2012 to 2022 and was on secondment as executive chair of the Medical Research Council from 2018 to 2022.

She made fundamental discoveries about the genes and mechanisms controlling self-renewal and differentiation of skin stem cells. She is an elected member of EMBO, the Academia Europaea and the US National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the UK Royal Society (FRS) and Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2016, she received the FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award.

One word Fiona gives as a gift to young aspiring scientists is: “BOLDNESS”

Titia de Lange, PhD, is the Director of the Anderson Center for Cancer Research and a Leon Hess Professor at the Rockefeller University in New York City, where she directs the Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics.

She is a Dutch scientist who has been fascinated by telomeres - the protective elements at the ends of chromosomes - since the beginning of her career, when she was one of the first researchers in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Harold Varmus to isolate the telomeres from human chromosomes. Research in her laboratory focuses on understanding how telomeres protect chromosome ends from the DNA damage response and the role of telomeres in cancer.

She is an elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in the UK.

“FOR YOUNG GIRLS WHO WANT A CAREER IN SCIENCE, MY ADVICE WOULD BE: FORGET ABOUT BEING A NICE GIRL."

She is an associate professor of Genetics at the University of Verona. Since 2016, her research focuses on developing and implementing innovative genomic technologies and approaches for the analysis of genomes and the identification of genetic variants, both in humans and in plants.

In 2019, she founded Genartis, a startup offering services in the field of personalized genomics and DNA sequencing, with the goal of transforming academic findings into useful tools for medical diagnostics. During the pandemic emergency of 2021, Geneartis created the first genetic test that assesses the risk of developing severe symptoms from Covid-19. The test can identify a particular DNA region inherited from Neanderthals and associated with severe Covid-19.

“ONLY YOU CAN MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE! "
WORK TIRELESSLY FOR IT!”

Titia Sixma, Ph.D., is a group leader leading the Structural Biology laboratory at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, member of the Oncode Institute and professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

She is a structural biologist, an expert in the study of biological macromolecules that govern vital functions within cells and are important in cancer. Using a combination of crystallography and biochemistry methods, her group studies the form and function of proteins involved in DNA damage repair, providing fundamental knowledge for the design and synthesis of anti-cancer drugs. She is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), the Academia Europaea and the EMBO. 

“IN PRACTICE IT IS ALWAYS THE IMMEDIATE PUZZLES THAT ARE MOST EXCITING.”

Emmanuelle Passegué, PhD, is the Director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (CSCI) and Alumni Professor of Genetics & Development at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) in New York City. In 2020, she was President of the International Society of Experimental Hematology (ISEH).

She is internationally recognized for her work on the biology and aging of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells that produce all of our blood and immune cells. Failure of stem cell functions as they get older is a big risk for developing anemia, immune disorders, and blood cancers. By investigating how hematopoietic stem cells regulate blood production throughout life, Emmanuelle Passegué and her team aim to help develop new therapies to treat blood cancers and other diseases related to aging.

“SCIENCE IS A LITTLE BIT LIKE A MYSTERY NOVEL: YOU TRY TO FIGURE OUT THE MYSTERY. "

Michela Serresi, PhD, is an associate research scientist in Molecular Oncology at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association and team leader, BSIO-Female Independence Awardee at the Berlin School of Integrative Oncology in Berlin, Germany.

She is a molecular biologist, experienced in applying cutting-edge genomic technologies, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system, to cancer research. Her studies focus on metastasis, the most common and serious complication in cancer patients, and are aimed at identifying the genes that induce lung cancer cells to spread to distal organs and understanding their mechanism of action. Knowledge of these mechanisms is crucial for 'identifying high-risk patients and developing personalised therapies'.

She is an awardee of the BSIO Female Independence Award, the prestigious prize for young female cancer researchers and, among other awards,she obtained a Research Grant from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

“FOLLOW THIS PATH ONLY IF YOU ARE PASSIONATE, CURIOUS, MOTIVATED, PATIENT AND COMMITTED BECAUSE THIS JOB REQUIRES A DEEP PASSION FOR SCIENCE. "

Susan Galbraith, MD PhD, is is Executive Vice President and Head of Oncology Research & Development from initial discovery through late-stage development at AstraZeneca in Cambridge, UK.

A clinical oncologist by education, she has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development. Her approach has successfully led to the development of four new cancer drugs, now approved worldwide. Among them, two have established themselves as first-in-class drugs for lung cancer (NSCLC, osimetrinib) and advanced ovarian cancer (olaparib). She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion and actively acts as a mentor to promote the career advancement of young female researchers.

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research in 2021.

“BEING AN ONCOLOGIST AND TREATING A LOT OF PATIENTS WITH CANCER, MY JOB IS TO REALLY CHANGE HOW WE TREAT CANCER.”

Anna-Pavlina Haramis, PhD is senior research Grant Advisor at ‎University Medical Center in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

A Developmental Biologist, during her academic career as a group leader and assistant professor at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and at Leiden University, she used zebrafish, a small transparent fish, as an experimental model to study the role of genes involved in processes that regulate organism development and in cancer. In 2018, with the desire to stay close to science and to contribute to the advancement of cutting edge biomedical research, she took a new direction in her professional career. She became Research Funding Advisor at the University of Amsterdam and subsequently she moved to Leiden University Medical Center and to UMC Utrecht.

She published in the highest-ranking scientific journals, including Nature and Science. She is recipient of prestigious personal fellowships and research grants, such as the Vidi Research Grant from NWO, the Dutch Science Research Council - Life Sciences.

"YOUR INQUISITIVE MINDSET WILL ALWAYS STAY WITH YOU AND IS APPLICABLE TO A WHOLE RANGE OF CAREERS, BOTH IN ACADEMIA AND BEYOND. “

Antonella Ronchi is a professor of Genetics at the University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB) in Milano since 2007. Her studies focus on genetic mechanisms that control human hematopoiesis, the continuous process of cellular development and differentiation that produces all blood cells. In particular, her research group has characterized several genes and molecular networks that regulate the production of red blood cells (erythropoiesis) under physiological and tumor conditions.

Committed to fostering international collaborations and scientific training of young researchers, she is the coordinator of two Marie Skłodowska-Curie Initial Training Networks of the European Community, one being the HEM-ID, focused on Hematopoietic Cell Identity and the second being the ARCH project, focused on Aged-Related Changes in Hematopoiesis.

“BE OPEN-MINDED AND READY TO TAKE UP OPPORTUNITIES.”

Nonia Pariente, PhD, is since March 2020 Editor in Chief of PLOS Biology, the PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences.

Trained as a molecular biologist, following a postdoctoral training in virology she grew into an editorial career ultimately becoming Editor in Chief of two leading scientific journals in the Life Sciences, first Nature Microbiology and since 2020 PLOS Biology. PLOS initially launched as the Public Library of Science is a not-for-profit publisher that has pioneered and continues to transform the Open Access movement.

Nonia Pariente leads a new phase of PLOS Biology, renewing its commitment as a catalyzer for the adoption of Open Science practices while expanding the scope of PLOS Biology to all four corners of the Life Sciences. From the start, her drive has been “to help science advance and to help scientists communicate their stories.”

“DO NOT THINK THAT ACADEMIA IS THE ONLY CAREER OPTION IN SCIENCE - DON’T BE AFRAID TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. LIFE CAN BE VERY FULFILLING ON THE OTHER SIDE”.

Mina Gouti, PhD, is a group leader at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association in Berlin, leading the Stem Cell Modeling of Development and Disease laboratory.

She is an expert in the field of central nervous system development and stem cell research. She uses human pluripotent stem cells to create three-dimensional cell structures called organoids: miniature, simplified organ-like structures grown in a lab dish that closely resemble aspects of human organs. She is one of the pioneers in the development of organoids for the study of neuromuscular diseases.

She was selected by EMBO for the Young Investigator Program and was awarded the European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2020 and a ERC Proof of Concept Grant in 2023. She has an interest in communicating stem cell research to the public using a combination of science, art and literature.

“THE SKY IS YOUR LIMIT… DO NOT TRUST PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO PUT YOU OFF.”

Ji-Ying Song, M.D .Ph.D. is a medical doctor and anatomo-pathologist of laboratory animals at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. After graduating in Medicine with a specialisation in Surgical Pathology in Suzhou, China, she obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam and then continued her scientific career in Europe.

For the past 20 years, she has been working with a group of specialized technicians and closely collaborating with researchers in the characterisation of experimental, Genetically Engineered Mouse Models for the study of different forms of cancer, helping to elucidate the functions of genes involved in tumour development.

"FIND YOUR PASSION AND DO WHAT YOU ARE GOOD AT.“

Leila Akkari, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and junior group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam and a junior member of the Oncode Institute, a virtual group of cancer research laboratories based in the Netherlands.

Originally from North Africa and the Middle East, she has worked and lived in several countries around the world, driven by her passion for science. She is interested in studying the complex interactions between cancer cells and healthy cells in tumours. Her research focuses on the role of immune system cells in neoplastic growth, therapy resistance and recurrence in malignant brain and liver tumours, with the aim of manipulating these cells to develop personalised anti-cancer treatments.

In 2020, she was selected by EMBO for the Young Investigator Program, the programme to support young European researchers.

“THE GRATIFYING FEELING OF HAVING SOLVED ONE PIECE OF A GIANT PUZZLE IS UNIQUE.”

Anke Sparmann, PhD, is a scientific editor and writer. She has been a scientific writer at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA based Infection Research in Würzburg, Germany, since 2021. Additionally, she works as a scientific editor at Life Science Editors.

Fascinated by the molecular basis of life, she earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA. Her postdoctoral research at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam focused on chromatin dynamics in neural stem cell di! erentiation. Transitioning from academia, she began her editorial career at The EMBO Journal. After a short stay at Nature Communications, she became a senior editor at Nature Structural & Molecular Biology in 2014. Acknowledged for her expertise in science communication, scientific writing, and publishing, she provides crucial support to researchers in grant applications, manuscript preparation, and the publication process.

“THE WORD I CHOOSE TO GIVE AS A GIFT TO YOUNG SCIENTISTS IS ‘TRUST’.

Alessandra Biffi, MD is is a pediatric hematologist and stem cell transplant physician, specialized in studying gene therapy approaches to treat childhood genetic diseases. She is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Padua and the chief of the Pediatric Onco-hematology Unit at Padua Hospital.

Her studies focused on lysosomal storage genetic diseases. In particular, her research on metachromatic leukodystrophy, a very severe neurodegenerative disease, progressed to advanced clinical development. Since 2015, she has been the director of the gene therapy program at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer Center in Boston, USA. She returned to Italy in 2018, where she is actively involved in gene therapy studies for neurological genetic diseases, hemoglobinopathies, immunodeficiencies and cancer.

"THE CONTINUOUS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE FROM THE LABORATORY BENCH TO THE PATIENT'S BEDSIDE AND BACK IS THE KEY TO NEW DISCOVERIES AND THERAPEUTIC OPPORTUNITIES."

Karlene Cimprich, Ph.D., is Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford - USA. Karlene was invited speaker at the EMBO scientific conference "The DNA damage response in cell physiology and disease", where she shared her newest results on the molecular mechanisms which safeguard the integrity of our DNA.

One word that Karlene gives as a gift to young aspiring scientists:

“PERSEVERANCE – FIND A PROBLEM YOU LOVE, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, THINK BIG AND STICK WITH IT. IT WON’T BE EASY, BUT IT CAN BE SO REWARDING. “

Madalena Tarsounas, Ph.D., is Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at CRUK/MRC Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology, UK. Madalena was photographed at the EMBO Conference "The DNA damage response in cell physiology and disease", which she organized in Cape Sounio, Greece.

Agata Smogorzewska, M.D., Ph.D., is Head of the Laboratory of Genome Maintenance and Associate Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York City, USA.

She has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar from 2016 to 2021 and has been elected to American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in 2016.

Research in Agata’s laboratory is focused on DNA repair. In particular, ”Using Fanconi anemia and other genetic diseases as a backdrop, her research aims to elucidate the pathways that protect organ function and prevent cancer, with a focus on those that replicate and repair DNA”.

Agata was invited speaker at the EMBO scientific conference The DNA damage response in cell physiology and disease, where she shared her newest results on the molecular mechanisms which safeguard the integrity of our DNA.

“FIND AN AREA THAT EXCITES YOU, AN AREA THAT HAS MANY MYSTERIES, AND WORK HARD TO SOLVE THEM.”

Serena Pozzi, Alessia Abbiati, Erika Bruno, and Valeria Viola are
students of the Master Degree Course in Biology at the University Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.

PASSION, THOROUGHNESS, DISCIPLINE, CREATIVITY AND CURIOSITY ARE THEIR KEY DRIVERS IN SCIENCE

AS A RESEARCHER, I KNOW THAT THERE ARE SO MANY WOMEN WHO ARE LEADERS IN SCIENCE, WHO ARE POWERFUL, BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL. IT IS ABOUT MAKING THEM VISIBLE.