Chairs and Speakers – P

Anna Teresa Palamara
Main position/role: Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Italian National Institute of Health (ISS); Full Professor of Microbiology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Anna Teresa Palamara is Full Professor of Microbiology at Sapienza University of Rome and, since June 2021, Director of the Department Infectious Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS). She’s member of the Scientific Board of the “Institute Pasteur Italia-Cenci Bolognetti” Foundation, Rome. Since 2006 she was member of National Health Council, Ministry of Health and from 2014 to 2018, she was appointed as President of Section III (Health and Ptevention) in the same Council. From 2013 to 2019 she was the President of italian Society of Microbiology and she’s currently the President of the National Board of italian Professor of Microbiology. Her research interests are mainly focused on microrganisms/host interactions, molecular mechanisms underlying microbial related diseases, innovative antimicrobial strategies, and, more recently, genomic and epidemiological monitoring. She is author of more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Susanna Palkonen is the Director at the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA). Her role at EFA is to support and lead the team and facilitate the work of the Board, in collaboration with EFA’s Deputy Director. Susanna has worked in the allergy, asthma and COPD patient movement for over 15 years, and since 2002 for EFA. She studied social policy and her expertise in EFA disease areas, advocacy, stakeholder collaboration, fundraising and integration of patient perspective has built over the years. As EFA, she is a member of many initiatives, such as the Horizon 2020 Scientific Panel for Health and as EPF, of the European Medicines Agency Patient and Consumer Working Party and has co-authored several papers with scientific partners in the field of allergy, asthma and COPD. Being a patient with allergic rhinitis and atopic eczema, she is passionate about health and prevention from patients’ perspective and that patients have a say in health, environment and research policy.

Mene was appointed as Executive Vice-President, R&D BioPharmaceuticals in January 2019 and is responsible for BioPharmaceutical R&D from discovery through to late-stage development covering Cardiovascular, Renal, Metabolism, Respiratory, Immunology, Microbial Science and Neuroscience areas. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice-President of AstraZeneca’s Innovative Medicines & Early Development Biotech Unit and Global Business Development. Since joining AstraZeneca in 2010, Mene has led the transformation of R&D productivity through the development and implementation of the “5R” framework resulting in a greater than four-fold increase in success rates compared to industry averages. In parallel, he has championed an open approach to working with academic and other external partners, changing the nature of academic industry collaboration.

Luís Pereira de Almeida, is a tenured associate professor at Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra. His research is developed at CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra Portugal where he is Principal Investigator and President. Luis also coordinates the Center for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CIBB). Luis did his PhD (1998-2003) in the Gene Therapy Center of Lausanne CHUV, Switzerland with Profs Patrick Aebisher and Nicole Déglon and spent short sabbatical leaves at CEA, France(2005), and at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT-2010) and has been vice-president of the Portuguese Society for Stem Cells and Cell Therapy (2013-2015). Luis leads a talented research group focused on gene and stem cell therapy approaches for brain disorders, particularly Machado-Joseph disease/spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, which has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers (g-scholar h-factor=46). Luis mentored 12 pos doctoral fellows and 17 PhD students and coordinated/participated in over 30 research projects, such as the transnational projects Synspread and ModelPolyQ within the European Joint Programme for Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND), and presently including ViraVector – a Research Infrastructure for production and experimentation with viral vectors that integrates the national roadmap of scientific infrastructures, and the European iMi project ARDAT (Accelerating Research and Development in Advanced Therapies).

He studied Medicine in Cologne and became head of the Charité Institute for Physiology in 2001 working on microcirculation, endothelium, tumore vascolature, blood rheology, and angiogenesis. He chaired the Council for Basic Cardiovascular Science and the basic section of the Congress Programme Committee in the ESC. He was awarded the Malpighi Award of the ESM, the Poiseuille Gold Medal of the Society of Biorheology, and the Silver Medal of the ESC. He was President of the Biomedical Alliance in Europe and CEO  of the Berlin Institute of Health. In the 2015 he became dean of the Charité and 2021 President of the World Health Summit.