Melissa Lezameta

Melissa has 7 years of experience scouting, conducting due diligence and translating technology from leading life science institutions. Most recently she was a Senior Business Manager at the Crick Institute, London, where she managed LifeArc funded projects and supported scientists in the translation of their research. She previously worked as a Translation Executive at Cancer Research UK where she led technical and commercial evaluation of novel cancer research to ensure intellectual property was appropriately secured and developed/licensed.

Melissa spent nine years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she completed her postdoc within the Drug Discovery Team at Geron Inc, a start-up focused on targeted cancer therapies. She worked as a consultant associate for Campbell Alliance (now Syneos Health) and then joined the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) office of Innovation, Technology and Alliances as a licensing officer. There she evaluated emerging technologies with a view to either licensing or spinning them out. Following her role at UCSF, Melissa was Director of Business Development for Nanomolar Inc. At Nanomolar she established partnerships with industry and academia and was a main contributor to the company’s strategy.