Affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Center for Antibody Technologies

Melisa Benard Valle is a biologist with a profound interest in snake venom function and composition, as well as antivenom evaluation and development. She completed her PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology, UNAM, in Mexico. As part of Dr. Alejandro Alagón's group, she made significant contributions to the characterization of Mexican snake venoms, particularly coral snakes. In 2021, she was awarded a Small Grant from the RSTMH to perform a stay at the Tropical Pharmacology Lab (DTU, Denmark), discovering antibodies against coral snake venom toxins. Later, she obtained a Fulbright Garcia-Robles Scholarship for a postdoctoral stay with Dr. Stephen Mackessy's lab at the University of Northern Colorado, USA, where she studied colubrid venom composition and mechanisms of venom resistance in snakes. She is currently a Eurotech (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Antibody Technologies of the Technical University of Denmark where her research focuses on the discovery of antibodies against snake venoms.