Elard S. Koch, PhD is a senior Epidemiologist at MELISA Institute, based in the city of San Pedro de la Paz, Concepción, Chile.

Dr. Koch completed much of his training as an Epidemiologist and Researcher at the School of Medicine of the University of Chile and became the Head of Research at the Department of Family Medicine. First Koch’s mentor was Dr. Aída Kirschbaum Kasten, a leading immunologist and epidemiologist in infectious diseases with whom he obtained his Master’s of Science Degree. Koch had a strong interest and training in biostatistics and published a series of theory articles on the application of popperian logic models to clinical epidemiology. He won a scholarship to carry out his PhD under the guidance of Dr. Tomás Romero Carvajal cardiologist and professor of the University of San Diego, California. Dr. Romero was his mentor in epidemiology, clinical studies, and the basic science of cardiovascular diseases. Koch performed several investigations on physiology of exercise, high blood pressure, heart rate variability and cardiovascular risk factors, and founded the SFP study (San Francisco Project), a prospective observational cohort of Chilean population followed for 15 years. The SFP study was inspired by the original Framingham heart study and had a remarkable scientific production with numerous publications and awards, in addition to the training of various young researchers in epidemiology.

Dr. Koch continued his postdoctoral training with Dr. John Thorp Jr., Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Public Health from University of North Carolina, by conducting two large natural population experiments on maternal health determinants in Chile and Mexico.

Strongly drawn to developmental biology and maternal-fetal health, Koch and other scholars founded the MELISA Institute, a biotechnology corporation dedicated to researching ultra-early biomarkers of fetal health, and developing a prenatal therapy for Down Syndrome, a genetic condition caused by trisomy on chromosome 21.