Annette, a global disruptor and Ph.D. in Biochemistry, has leadership experience in both the academic and pharma/biotech research enterprise in Italy, Belgium, France, and the USA. Intrigued by the observation that the path from great basic discoveries to equally great clinical benefit is bumpy and often inefficient, she joined the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF) to try to smooth this path for neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder. The team has built worldwide collaborative science networks to tackle complex problems, not one lab can solve independently. CTF is developing innovative platform trials in Europe and offers an R&D enabling platform to facilitate pharma and biotech involvement in NF. The platform is composed of a centralized data collection and integration platform, a patient registry, a key opinion leader (KOL) network, and a clinic network, to name a few. Annette feels very strongly about the unique niche role of disease foundations in the R&D ecosystem and involving the patient voice in every initiative. CTF sees patients as partners rather than victims. In 2018, CTF Europe was launched, and she is acting chair of the organization.