Professor Alash’le Abimiku, is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE) at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), and a Professor at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. She has over two decades of establishing laboratory infrastructure and science in Nigeria with long-term collaborations with the United States. Prof Abimiku’s research focuses on the role of HIV subtypes in disease pathogenesis using mother-to-child models and on the effects of co-infections, such as tuberculosis, on HIV pathogenesis as a successful and funded independent researcher. Prof Abimiku has trained a cadre of Nigerian scientists and is internationally recognized for her leadership in HIV research, and in promoting laboratory diagnostics and medicine in Africa. She played a significant role in the past as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) HIV vaccine advisory committee and the African AIDS Vaccine Program. She currently serves as a Scientific Advisory Group member for the WHO R&D Blueprint for preparedness and response for potentially epidemic diseases and serves on the international scientific advisory group for the University of Cape Town. She is the current Chair of the Board of Directors of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM).