Dr Vanessa Melhorn

Vanessa Melhorn is a senior expert and scientific coordinator responsible for the project management of various scientific projects in the Department of Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany by facilitating the timely production of deliverables, the effective management of team members and achieving the work schedules.

She studied Biology in Braunschweig and did her PhD at the Institute of Virology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH).

She then worked as the administrative coordinator of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre 900 at the MHH before starting as a scientific project manager in the Department of Epidemiology at the HZI in 2017. In April 2020, she moved to the scientific coordination area of the department and has since led the “Strategy, Administration and Coordination” team.

As scientific coordinator, she is responsible for developing and monitoring the department’s research strategy. In the area of project management, she is responsible for the personnel and budget controlling of the department’s intramural and externally funded projects and contributes to project reports as well as new and follow-up applications.

She also leads the work package ‘Data Management’ in the EU-funded project ‘EU Vaccines Hub’ as well as the work package ‘Coordination’ of the EU project CORESMA as well as other projects of the department such as the project iVacc, which investigates multi-omics big data in the general population based on a digital mHealth cohort.

Since October 2024, she has been acting team leader of the "Adaptive Infectious Disease Diagnostics" team in the Department of Epidemiology, focusing on the advancement and refinement of serological assay methodologies.