Our Board of Directors
Aled edwards, chairperson
Aled is the founding and current CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a charitable open science research organization. He is a Professor at the University of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Oxford and McGill University. He trained as a protein biochemist at McGill University (with Peter Braun) and at Stanford University (with Roger Kornberg). In 2015, Aled was elected a Senior Ashoka Fellow for his social entrepreneurship.
ELS Torreele, director
Els Torreele is a medical innovation & access researcher and advocate. A Bioengineer and PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Free University Brussels (VUB), she became involved in pharmaceutical, science and access policy issues in 2000 through the lens of neglected diseases as co-chair of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hosted working group that incubated the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). She joined DNDi as founding member in 2003, spearheading R&D projects from discovery to clinical development, and advocacy for affordable access and innovation. A major outcome from that period is the development of fexinidazole, a new drug for sleeping sickness. From 2009-16, she was the director of Access to Medicines and Innovation at Open Society Foundations’ (OSF) Public Health Program, fostering civil society activism around innovation for access globally. She rejoined MSF to lead their Access Campaign from 2017-mid 2020. She’s a Science Fellow at the VUB, and Visiting Policy Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public purpose (IIPP) at University College London.
Kate Williams, Director
Dr. Kate Williams is the Scientific Director of the Krembil Foundation. After receiving her BSc from Queen’s University, she went on to complete her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at McMaster University. Her doctoral research focused on the neural basis of age-related and neurodevelopmental vision loss. Kate works closely with Mark developing strategies for the Foundation’s research investments and advises on new funding opportunities. Kate believes that a fundamental understanding of brain function and disease is necessary to advance treatments and therapeutics. For that reason, investing in basic science is of the utmost importance for advancing medical treatments; a philosophy shared with Mark Krembil. In addition to developing, guiding and implementing a strategic funding plan, Kate advises on and solicits new funding opportunities, as well as performs ongoing management of the Krembil Foundation’s medical research portfolio. She invests their time understanding the gaps in scientific knowledge in the Foundation’s areas of interest. She strives to maintain a continuous dialogue with the research community by building relationships with researchers, key opinion leaders, universities, foundations, and research institutes, to increase the Foundation’s knowledge of local and national research strengths and stay abreast of research developments and initiatives.