Dr. Gekel has been working in the fields of marketing and business development in the life sciences industry (pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, diagnostics) for more than 10 years. During this time, she successfully steered projects on digital product marketing, risk analysis of R&D processes, business profitability and business development. She spent additional 5 years accelerating the businesses of 33 early-stage life science startups, enabling them to secure funds and investments, supporting multiple company foundations and the creation of workplaces. Through her many years of professional activity as well as through certified further education she has gained in-depth knowledge in the areas of management including project management, marketing, finance and life sciences innovations. As a scholarship holder of the German National Merit Foundation, Dr. Gekel studied biochemistry. She obtained her MSc degree from the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen doing glioblastoma research and has been later awarded a PhD from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen where she worked in the laboratory of Prof. Erwin Neher (Nobel Prize for Medicine & Physiology) on a neuroscientific topic.