Selection Committee

Dr. Ann Mills-Duggan joined the Wellcome Trust in 2010 and worked in a number of roles the most recent of which was Head of Translation. Prior to joining the Trust she spent over twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry, latterly with UCB and previously with GlaxoSmithKline and GlaxoWellcome, working in research, licensing, alliance management and life science investing. Ann is a graduate of the University of Bath and earned her PhD at Imperial College, London. Dr Mills-Duggan is currently an independent consultant based in London and, in addition to her role on the GHIT Selection Committee, works with a variety of other organisations including the RIGHT Fund in Korea.

Dr. Naoto Uemura has a broad background in clinical pharmacology, especially early clinical development studies such as FIH/POC trials to guide critical decisions.  He currently serves as PI for various clinical trials in Oita University Hospital where he leads Clinical Pharmacology Center.  Dr. Uemura in the past served as director and senior principal scientist at Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Merck Research Laboratories, planning, executing and analyzing early development programs. Currently Dr. Uemura is a full professor in Oita University Faculty of Medicine and co-appointed as an adjunct professor at Osaka University Hospital Department of Medical Innovation and as Clinical Development Director at RIKEN Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms.

Dr. Ralf Clemens is a leading expert in vaccinology with over 30 years of experience in global vaccine development at Takeda, Novartis and GSK, where he was responsible for technology transfers and business strategies for developing countries. Dr. Clemens developed and brought to licensure over 25 different vaccines and has published extensively on vaccines and public health. He obtained his medical degree from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany), and an Executive Management degree from the Wharton Business School (Philadelphia, USA). Dr. Clemens currently serves on multiple advisory, supervisory and scientific boards for biotechnology companies and international organizations such as IVI, AREF, AERAS and BMGF.

Dr. Duncan leads the Gates Foundation's drug discovery program across a number of therapeutic areas including tuberculosis, malaria, helminth infections and diarrheal disease. Prior to joining the Foundation, he spent 16 years in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as Director, Diseases of the Developing World at GlaxoSmithKline. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, earned his PhD at the University of Glasgow, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Ken Ishii is currently Professor at Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo as well as Professor of the Laboratory of Vaccine Science at the Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University in Japan. Until 2018, he was Director of Center for Vaccine and Adjuvant Research at National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition. Prof. Ishii obtained M.D. and a Ph.D. from the School of Medicine, Yokohama City University, Kanagawa, Japan. He is further qualified with his years of experience in vaccine research supported by numerous books and over 190 periodical publications over 20,000 citations since 1998 including 7 years as a IND reviewer at US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), two years as Managing Director at Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), and over 20 years as an immunologist and vaccinologist.

Timothy Jinks was appointed the Head of Infectious Disease Interventions in 2021, where he leads Wellcome’s work in advancing R&D for therapeutics and diagnostics, alongside research to support solutions for antimicrobial resistance. In his previous role, he designed and led Wellcome’s strategic priority area for combatting drug-resistant infections, deploying a budget of over £250 million. Before that, he was responsible for a portfolio of Wellcome projects to support early-stage product development, which covered therapeutics, diagnostics and devices across several therapeutic areas, particularly infectious diseases and oncology. Prior to joining the Trust in 2012, he accumulated over a decade of industry experience both in biologic therapeutic R&D and latterly as a consultant providing business development, licensing and commercial research services. He is a chemist-turned-molecular biologist, who holds a BS Chem from the University of Georgia and a MA and a PhD from Princeton University. In his academic career, he acquired extensive academic research experience at Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the MRC National Institute for Medical Research.

Dr. Hiroo Koyama has over 20 years of drug discovery experience in the US pharmaceutical industry both in a major pharma (Merck) and a biotech environment, where his effort was focused on medicinal chemistry for metabolic disorder, inflammatory disease, and rare disease programs. Since 2013, he’s been leading his medicinal chemistry group at RIKEN Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms, collaborating with more than a dozen universities and research institutions in Japan. He received his BA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and postdoctoral training at MIT chemistry department.

Dr. Karen Menge has more than 25 years of experience in the health care sector spanning the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. She earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Biochemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and was a post-doctoral fellow at Agouron Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, she served as Vice President & Chief Scientific Officer at ChromaCode, Inc., and previously in diagnostics leadership at Novartis Vaccine & Diagnostics, and Nanogen, Inc. Over the course of her career, she has led the development and deployment of new multiplex molecular technologies enabling simpler testing paradigms for complex tests. She has also managed programs in low-middle income countries to support clinical research for pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, and for the improvement of public health. She is currently an independent consultant in San Diego, California.

Dr. Gerd Michel served as Chief Scientific Officer at Vela Diagnostics, where he had also been Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer. Previously, he was Senior Technology Officer at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics and spent more than 18 years Abbott Labs, most recently as Director of Medical and Scientific Development for Europe, Middle East & Africa. He has held advisory posts at WHO, OECD, the German National Blood Advisory Board, and the Wellcome Trust. He obtained his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and has received numerous industry and academic awards.

Dr. Schmatz has over 30 years of drug discovery and development experience in pharmaceutical research. He has a proven track record in managing large research teams across diverse therapeutic areas toward the successful delivery of pipeline compounds in infectious diseases, oncology and diabetes. He served as Vice President of Infectious Disease Research at Merck for more than a decade and as Merck Research Site Head in Japan. He has been an active participant in global health initiatives for over 25 years, working with the World Health Organization (WHO), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He currently Chairs MMV’s Scientific Board and consults for Biotech and Pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Tidén is a Medicinal Chemist and a Project Leader, with over 25 years international experience. Working in Sweden and in the UK as an Associate Director at AstraZeneca she has a track record of success in leading and delivering research projects in a number of therapeutic areas, e.g. Infection, CNS, Respiratory and Inflammation. During the past eight years Dr. Tidén has worked as an independent consultant to academia, SMEs and large Pharma both in leading projects and performing due diligences. She has acted as an evaluator and is currently an advisor to the Wellcome Trust, UK, and is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for CD3, Belgium. Dr. Tidén achieved her MSc and earned her PhD from Stockholm University, Sweden, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dr. Rieko Yajima is the Director of Drug Discovery Innovation at Stanford SPARK. At SPARK, she works with researchers and a community of volunteer industry advisors to de-risk the science in drug discovery and diagnostic projects, and to identify the quickest path to the clinic. She has a Ph.D. in chemical biology and served as a science policy fellow at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Her previous roles include being an Associate Program Director at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC, where she advised the scientific community on interdisciplinary research collaboration, implementation, and evaluation, and being a Research Scholar at the Center for Design Research at Stanford.