Damian Purcell is Professor of Virology and Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory at the University of Melbourne and Head of Industry Partnerships at the Peter Doherty Institute. He has a PhD in Medicine in 1987 from University of Melbourne. He was President of the AVS from 2011 – 2015, Executive Committee Member of the ACH4 since 2000, and Governing Councillor of the International Retrovirology Association since 2017. He is a founding board member of the Australian RNA production consortium and Chairs the steering committee of the “Advances in mRNA Science” annual meeting in Melbourne.