Dr. Veronique Birault FMedSci

Veronique Birault is Director of Translation at The Francis Crick Institute. Her career successfully spans industry and academia and she is one of the UK’s leading scientific translators. She has established the infrastructure to cultivate, support and manage translational activity together with human and capital resources to augment world-class academic medical science. She has enabled 11 spin-outs to translate Crick science into patient benefit across cell therapy, vaccines, medical technology and small molecule therapeutics.

Dr Birault is an accomplished senior leader, with extensive skills in developing innovative strategy and implementation.

She has created educational activities of national impact to support researchers to translate their work and facilitate connectivity.

Véronique has extensive expertise in therapeutic development gained over 20 years. Her work has contributed to the scientific understanding of the mechanism of action and role of unprecedented targets in the clinic such as a TLR7 agonist for asthmatic remission while leading the Allergic Inflammation Discovery Performance Unit at GSK and nebulised dornase alfa (Pulmozyme) for hospitalized COVID-19 patients while at the Crick.

Véronique is an accomplished senior leader, with extensive skills in developing innovative strategy and implementation. She has built substantial academia–industry partnerships delivering impact to medical research. Under Veronique’s leadership, the Crick has built three industrial programmes which enable scientists from academia and industry to work in close proximity, and have to scientific breakthroughs, publications and translational projects.

Prominent over her other activities, she has created educational activities of national impact to support researchers to translate their work and facilitate connectivity, for example, the Crick–BIA partnership to build the PULSE programme for young entrepreneurs. In addition, under her leadership, the Crick in partnership with the Knowledge Quarter, where she serves as Board director, created the first UK accelerator dedicated to supporting healthtech startups.