We support the next generation of scientists

ESACT Frontiers Program (EFP) is an initiative within the European Society for Animal Cell Technology focused on promoting career progression and active engagement of young generations to ESACT and to the field of Animal Cell Technology (ACT). With this, the next generation of ESACT scientists gets a platform to influence the development of the society and can give the young generation of scientists a voice in our community.

Facts about the ESACT Frontiers Program (EFP)

The ESACT Frontiers Group was founded in 2014 and is represented by a selected group of early career scientists and engineers from academic, governmental and private institutions.

Our mission is to provide opportunities for early career scientists to personally and professionally develop whilst actively engaging in, influencing and developing the animal cell technology community.

ESACT Frontiers will actively encourage the participation and interaction between Master, PhD students and post-doctoral fellow members of the Society with the goal of supporting training and career development.

EFP will also launch initiatives to challenge early-career researchers to promote academia-industry interaction and to support innovative and unconventional ideas helping to open ESACT to future trends of science and technology.

EFP Members

EFP was founded in 2014 and the group is constituted by early-career scientists and engineers from academic, governmental and private institutions. The current members of the group are:

• Valentine Chevallier, UCB (Brussels, Belgium)
• Hirra Hussain, CPI (Leeds, UK)
• Alexander Strasser, Miltenyi Biotec (Cologne, Germany)
• Nikolas Zeh, Asimov (Boston, USA)
• James Budge, University of Kent (Kent, UK)
• Nicolas Marx, BOKU (Vienna, Austria)
• Laetitia Aurand, KBI Biopharma (Geneva, Switzerland)

Previous EFP members:

• Claire Pearce (2019 – 2024), Independent (Boston, USA)
• Nuša Pristovšek (2019 – 2024), Novo Nordisk A/S (Måløv, Denmark)
• Bernhard Sissolak (2019 – 2024), Bilfinger Industrietechnik Salzburg (Vienna, Austria)
• Paulo Fernandes (2017 – 2022), Orchard Therapeutics (London, UK)
• Verena Lohr (2017 – 2022), Sanofi (Frankfurt, Germany)
• Igor Slivac (2017 – 2022), University of Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia)
• Ricardo Valdés-Bango (2017 – 2022), Curell Suñol – IP Attorneys (Barcelona, Spain)
• Emma Petiot (2014 – 2019), CPE-Lyon Engineer School (Lyon, France)
• Simon Ausländer (2014 – 2019), Roche (Penzberg, Germany)
• Ana Filipa Rodrigues (2014 – 2019), iBET (Oeiras, Portugal)
• Christopher Sellick (2014 – 2019), Kymab (Cambridge, UK)
• Mercedes Segura (2014 – 2017), ElevateBio (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Markus Heine (2014 – 2015) Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology
  and Experimental Medicine (Germany)

If you have exciting and innovative ideas, get involved in EFP activities!

Contact any Frontiers member and help to build the next generation of Animal Cell Technology researchers and professionals.

Your suggestions and ideas are very welcome. Contact us at frontiers@esact.org. We will do our best to accommodate them in our next initiatives.