Dr Candice Soares de Melo

Dr Candice Soares de Melo is a medicinal chemist with over a decade of experience in TB and malaria drug discovery. Her current role as Chief Investigator and Project Lead at H3D is to provide scientific and strategic leadership to multidisciplinary team to deliver pre-clinical candidates for malaria.

Candice received her BsC degree in Chemistry from The University of Cape Town (2003), her Hons degree (2004) from The University of Stellenbosch and her MsC degree in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from The University of Cape Town (2006). At the end of 2006, she was awarded NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) WOTRO fellowship to carry out her PhD at The Radboud University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands under the supervision of Professor Floris Rutjes. Her research involved the total synthesis and biological evaluation of the natural product Febrifugine and derivatives as potential antimalarial agents. After defending her PhD thesis (2010), Candice returned to Cape Town where she carried out three years as a postdoctoral medicinal chemist at H3D, working on TB drug discovery programs as part of the South African Tuberculosis Innovation Initiative (SATRII). With a passion for global health, she transitioned from a medicinal chemist and Project lead role, into a Malaria Portfolio Leader. She is actively involved in the Malaria Drug accelerator (MalDA) and part of H3D Operations committee (OPSCOM).