Melita Kaltak (born in 1994) holds a Master’s degree in Functional Genomics from the University of Trieste, Italy. In 2019, she relocated to the Netherlands to pursue her PhD degree, focused on antisense oligonucleotides targeting Stargardt disease type 1. This collaborative project, supported by the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant, involved ProQR Therapeutics and Radboud University. Throughout her doctoral studies, Melita developed antisense oligonucleotides for several common genetic variants associated with Stargardt disease. In 2023, and joined Astherna as Scientist in Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) and Toxicology. She earned her PhD degree in 2024 and now serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Astherna.
