Dr Christian Desaintes is a policy officer who has served at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission since 2001. He currently leads efforts to advance New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) in biomedical research and regulatory testing. Over the years, he has played a pivotal role in shaping European research programmes, from the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) to Horizon Europe, covering areas such as radiation protection, systems biology, microbiome, stem cells, emerging epidemics, and alternatives to animal testing. Christian Desaintes holds an agronomist engineering diploma from the Catholic University of Leuven, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Free University of Brussels, and a diploma in bioinformatics from the Pasteur Institute. His research has led to significant contributions in understanding the molecular pathways activated by oncogenic human papillomaviruses and exposure to ionizing radiation.