Dr. Riccardo Cortese was a Co-Founder, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, President & Chairman at Nouscom. He was also a Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Board Member at Okairos. He was an Angel Investor. He was the Founder and first Director of the Gene Expression Program at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg and founder and Scientific Director of IRBM, which subsequently became a subsidiary of Merck, Inc. He has coordinated the efforts leading to the development of several novel antiviral drugs and vaccines, which are now already on the market (ISENTRESS) or at various stages of clinical development. He has published in leading scientific journals including Nature, Science and Cell, on a range of topics in immunology, molecular medicine and drug discovery. Prof. Cortese is a full Professor of Molecular Biology at the Medical School of the University of Naples, and he is an elected member of several international associations, including the Académie Française, the Academia Europea and EMBO. He serves as an Independent Director of MolMed S.p.A. Prof. Cortese received his medical degree from the University of Naples, Italy and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, USA.