A former researcher and manager in the pharmaceutical industry (Novartis), Oreste Ghisalba has headed the Review Panel of the NCCR Plant Survival since 2002. An expert in biosynthesis of natural substances and applied enzymology, this University of Basel PhD graduate in chemistry/microbiology became lecturer at the ETH Zurich in 1983 and professor of biotechnology at the University of Basel in 1999. Among other things, Oreste Ghisalba has several mandates linked to scientific policies in Switzerland: Swiss National Science Foundation, CTI (Swiss Confederation's Innovation Promotion Agency) and Swiss academies of sciences. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Swiss Centre for Technology Assessment TA Swiss. In 2008, he founded his own life science support company, Ghisalba Life Sciences GmbH.