Leigh Anne Eller, Ph.D. is the Director of the International Laboratory Program (INLAP) and provides oversight and technical support to international laboratories conducting MHRP/EIDB studies. INLAP provides support for international laboratory activities including obtaining/maintaining accreditation (College of American Pathologist, ISO 15189, etc) and Good Clinical Laboratory Practices compliance, development and monitoring of laboratory budgets, development and implementation of laboratory components of clinical research studies, oversight of repository management and shipping, and providing technology transfer/capacity building. In addition, Dr. Eller and INLAP serve as key liaisons between the clinical research teams at the international sites and the laboratory investigators/cores and sections of MHRP/EIDB.
Dr. Eller joined MHRP in 1998, starting on the bench performing pre-clinical studies in mice and non-human primates to evaluate humoral and cellular immune responses of potential vaccine candidates. She was also involved in construction and characterizing Modified Vaccinia Ankara HIV-1 viruses for use as vaccines in human clinical trials. From 2003-2009, Dr. Eller was the Laboratory Co-Director for the Makerere University Walter Reed Project Laboratory (MUWRP), located in Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Eller completed her undergraduate degree at Yale University, Master’s degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and PhD at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.