Elena Di Daniel is a neuroscientist with over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research focussed on CNS disorders. She earned her PhD in Biology from University College London, where she investigated the mechanism of action of mood-stabilizing drugs. Following her doctoral studies, she has held senior scientific roles at GSK, Takeda and UCB, developing therapeutics for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. She has also integrated stem cell technologies into a range of neuroscience discovery projects. Dr Di Daniel was Head of Biology at the Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute at the University of Oxford, investigating novel dementia targets and applying phenotypic and target-based screening approaches to identify new molecules. She is currently Senior Director in CNS Early Development at Astex Pharmaceuticals.

Sandra Macaskill is Senior Director, Academic Partnerships Alliance Lead at AstraZeneca, where she manages strategic relationships with academic partners. Since joining in 2021, her work has spanned studentship and fellowship programmes and alliance management for several European sites.
Sandra trained as an analytical chemist and holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. She then completed two industry-funded postdoctoral positions, with Oxonica and Philips, developing DNA diagnostics based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. She went on to advise healthcare clients on technology assessment, due diligence and market assessment at Cambridge Consultants. She then joined the Royal Society of Chemistry, where she initially led the Business Intelligence insights team and later the team responsible for Research Grants, RSC Prizes and Awards, and scientific conference strategy.