Amelia Karlsson

Amelia Karlsson, PhD, is a senior project management specialist in the Regulatory Strategy and Product Development Program at RTI International. In this role, Dr. Karlsson supports a portfolio of research programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and her work focuses on scientific program management support for antibody countermeasure and vaccine development platforms and products. With almost a decade of program and project management experience, she is a key member of a team of scientists working to develop new products to address the critical unmet public health need for new therapies. 

Currently, Dr. Karlsson is the Domain Lead: Study Design and Analysis Consultancy for the Research and Development of Vaccines and Monoclonal Antibodies for Pandemic Preparedness (ReVAMPP) Coordination and Data Sharing Center (CDSC)—funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. For the project, she oversees the Animal Models Working Group and provides both project management and subject matter expert support to two interconnected teams, including Administration and Leadership (expertise in network governance, compliance, regulatory oversight, program management, and communications) and Data Management and Analysis (expertise in infectious diseases, vaccine and antibody development, data management and sharing, IND-enabling study design, statistical analysis, and technology systems). In addition to this work, Dr. Karlsson provides project management for 10 different investigators for R61 and R33 product definition grants for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Catalyze Product Definition Program. Her responsibilities include tracking project milestones and risks, taking detailed project notes, managing risks and mitigation strategies with the project team, and communicating directly with project officials.  

Prior to joining RTI in 2023, Dr. Karlsson worked as a Senior Scientific Program Leader at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, housed under Duke University School of Medicine. While at Duke, she worked on projects involving therapeutic platform development (Duke DARPA Pandemic Prevention Platform) and immunological assessments and pre-clinical model studies in support of the Duke Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center. She also oversaw all aspects of the NIH-constructed Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory Animal Models Unit, which designs and runs pre-clinical/IND-enabling animal models of BSL2/3 and Select Agent infectious diseases (mouse, ferret and hamster).