Michael J. McConnell, MD PhD, is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Vaxdyn, S.L., a Spanish biotechnology company pioneering vaccines against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

McConnell earned a biochemistry degree from the University of Notre Dame and both his MD and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Michigan, before conducting research on vaccines and immunotherapies at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville.

He has led more than 20 research projects in bacteriology, published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and filed 7 patents in the field of infectious disease.

Since 2018, McConnell serves as a principal investigator at the Unit of Nosocomial Infections at the Microbiology National Center of the Institutes of Health Carlos III of Spain in Madrid, bridging academic research and biotech innovation.

Vaxdyn became the first Spanish biotech funded by CARB-X, receiving up to $7.25M to advance its lead vaccine candidate KapaVax, with additional backing from BARDA, the Wellcome Trust, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.