Fernando Garces, PhD, Director, Group Leader of Next Generation Biologics Engineering (NGBE), Protein TherapeuticsFernando is a recipient of the 2015 Scripps CHAVI-ID Young Investigator Award for outstanding contributions to the development of an anti-HIV-1 vaccine to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against this virus. His research career started when he was awarded an international PhD fellowship to join the University of Barcelona, Spain, in 2004. After finishing his PhD, he moved to the Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK, where he focused his postdoctoral research on proteins involved in the DNA Repair and target identification. In 2012, he joined the Professor Ian Wilson’s lab at The Scripps Research Institute, where he became an expert in understanding the molecular details that mediate the antibody-target interactions such as the gp160 glycoprotein located on the surface of the HIV-1 trimer. In 2016, Fernando joined Amgen, to solve high-resolution crystal structures of antibodies in complex with exciting cardiovascular and oncologic targets. Early 2017, Fernando Garces moves to the Biologics Optimization department at Amgen headquarters in Thousand Oaks to build a first-in-class Protein Engineering Team to deliver an industry leading workflow on Multispecific Antibodies.In 2021, Fernando joined Gilead as Director in Protein Therapeutics to build the Next Gen Biologics Engineering (NGBE). This will promote not only the expansion of Virology's portfolio, but also the ramping up of Oncology and Inflammation to address the many unmet needs for patients.