Prof Dirkje Postma graduated with a degree in medicine in 1978. She specialised in pulmonology. In 1984 she obtained her PhD-degree with a thesis entitled Reversibility of chronic airflow obstruction. In 1998 she got appointed as full professor Pathophysiology of the respiration at the University of Groningen. She has co-authored over 600 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet.  

One of the results of her research is that asthma and COPD can be distinguished from each other. Prof Postma and co-workers found out that genetic variants occurring in people suffering from allergies also occur in people suffering from asthma and those with a higher risk of myocardial infarctions. These links between these conditions have led to new insights in how to treat those conditions. 

Dennis Burton, Prof of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, in the United States. He has a BA in chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in nuclear magnetic resonance in biology from Lund University! Moreover, he is the Scientific Director of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Neutralizing Antibody Consortium and Neutralizing Antibody Center, Director of The Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) at Scripps, and a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, Boston, USA.  

Prof Dennis Burton has published more than 350 papers in scientific journals. He has received numerous awards including the Jenner Fellowship of the Lister Institute and a Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology. His research is focused on infectious disease, in particular the interplay of antibodies and highly mutable viruses, notably HIV. He is interested in the potential of broadly neutralizing antibodies to inform vaccine design. 

Prof Melissa Little, an Australian scientist and academic, currently Theme Director of Cell Biology, heading up the Kidney Regeneration laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She is also a Prof in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia.

In January 2022, she became CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine reNEW, an international stem cell research center based at University of Copenhagen, and a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands. 

Prof Little is internationally recognized both for her work on the systems biology of kidney development and for her pioneering studies into potential regenerative therapies in the kidney. In 2015, Prof Little and her team at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute produced the world’s first kidney in a dish. Known today as kidney organoids, this research has become a foundation of ongoing work to find a regenerative solution for kidney disease. 

Björn Eriksson took over as Director General of the Swedish Medical Products Agency in 2021. He is a Swedish cardiologist who defended his thesis in 1999 on neurophysiological mechanisms behind angina pectoris and after that has worked with clinical work, drug development and administrative management in healthcare.

Björn Eriksson has been Director of Healthcare at the Region Stockholm. He has extensive experience of leading large organisations, including positions as Regional Director in Jämtland Härjedalen, and as CEO at Skåne University Hospital. Björn Eriksson has also worked with drug development at Astra Zeneca and in 2013 served as Head of the Medicine and Thorax Division at Uppsala University Hospital.