Dr. Stanley A. Plotkin is Emeritus Professor of the University of Pennsylvania. Until 1991, he was Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Virology at the Wistar Institute and at the same time, Director of Infectious Diseases and Senior Physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For seven years he was Medical and Scientific Director of Sanofi Pasteur, based at Marnes-la-Coquette, outside Paris. He is now consultant to vaccine developers and non-profit research organizations.

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Medicine. His bibliography includes over 800 articles and he has edited several books including a textbook on vaccines. Dr. Plotkin has received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Rouen and the Complutense University of Madrid, He also has received the French Legion of Honor. Dr. Plotkin developed the rubella vaccine now in standard use throughout the world, is codeveloper of the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine, and has worked extensively on the development and application of other vaccines including anthrax, oral polio, rabies, varicella, and cytomegalovirus

Consultant and Emeritus Professor of the University of Pennsylvania, Vaxconsult, LLP

Sir Andrew is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford and an honorary consultant paediatrician (infectious disease and immunology) at Oxford Children’s Hospital. He received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to Public Health and the Order of Medical Merit from the Federal Republic of Brazil in 2022.

His research includes the design, development and clinical evaluation of vaccines including those for typhoid, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus, plague, pertussis, influenza, rabies, coronavirus and Ebola. His work on pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines has been used in global public health policy. His studies on typhoid both using the human challenge model and in field sites supported the WHO prequalification of a new typhoid conjugate vaccine and WHO recommendations for its use in countries with a high burden of disease with more than 50 million vaccinated since 2021. He was the chief investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020 in 24,000 participants in UK, South Africa and Brazil, which led to authorisation of the vaccine for use in more than 180 countries with over 3.5 billion doses distributed and award of the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 2022. He has supervised 48 PhD students and his publications includes over 600 manuscripts. He chairs the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, was a member of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (2016-2022). He chaired the European Medicines Agency scientific advisory group on vaccines (2012–2020). He received the Bill Marshall Award of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Disease (ESPID) in 2013, the ESPID Distinguished Award for Education and Communication in 2015 and the Rosén von Rosenstein medal in 2019 from the Swedish Society of Medicine, the James Spence Medal from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 2022. He is chair of the Knoop Charitable Trust and is a trustee of the Jenner Vaccine Foundation, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ashall Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity and Director of Oxford Vaccine Group

Dr. Jay A. Berzofsky was appointed Chief, Vaccine Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, in 2003, after being Chief, Molecular Immunogenetics and Vaccine Research Section, since 1987. He graduated Summa cum Laude from Harvard (1967), and received a Ph.D.-M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM). After interning at Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined NIH in 1974. Dr. Berzofsky's research has focused on antigen processing/presentation, epitope structure, cytokine and regulatory cell control of T cell function and avidity, NKT cells, and translation to the design and clinical trials of vaccines for AIDS, cancer, and viruses causing cancer. He has 521 scientific publications. He was elected President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1993-94), a member of the Association of American Physicians, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Distinguished Alumnus of the Year for 2007 by AECOM. He was elected Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the AAAS for 2007-2008. He received the NIH Director’s Award and the NCI Merit Award in 2008, another NCI Director’s Merit Award in 2011, and a Career Award “for his important contribution to tumor immunotherapy” from the European Academy of Tumor Immunology in 2018.

Chief, Vaccine Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute

Dr. Alessandro Sette has devoted more than 35 years of study towards understanding the immune response, measuring immune activity, and developing disease intervention strategies against cancer, autoimmunity, allergy, and infectious diseases. Dr. Sette is currently a Member and Head of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Division of Vaccine Discovery as well as chair of the Institute's Center for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Sette has a doctorate in Biological Sciences from the University of Rome and did postdoctoral work at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, Colorado. In 1988, Dr. Sette joined Howard Grey, M.D. at the newly founded Cytel, in La Jolla, and was also appointed as an adjunct assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute. He founded Epimmune in 1997, where he served both as Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer until 2002, when he joined LJI.

Dr. Sette is a leader in the field of T cell epitope-MHC interactions, beginning with his contribution to the discovery of the biological function of MHC in the mid 80s to mid 90s. From those studies he and his collaborators further developed the notion that different MHCs have distinct binding specificities that can be used to predict epitopes. The Sette group also discovered and characterized how MHC variants can be grouped according to broad common functional specificities (MHC supertypes), greatly facilitating epitope classification, characterization and understanding the basic rules of epitope-MHC interactions. At the same time, several studies have outlined the fine specificity of different closely related alleles, in some cases clearly associated with predisposition to disease resistance or susceptibility.

The laboratory is defining in chemical terms the specific structures (epitopes) that the immune system recognizes, and uses this knowledge to measure and to define the immune signatures associated with productive/protective immunity versus deficient immunity/immunopathology. The laboratory’s broad disease focus is ranges from HIV, HBV, HCV and emerging diseases to dengue viruses, malaria and tuberculosis.

Furthermore, Dr. Sette’s team has adapted the methods and techniques developed in the context of infectious disease to understand the T cell response to common allergens. These efforts have resulted in the discovery of previously unknown human T cell epitopes that may be key in the initiation of allergic responses, and to the development of biochemical and bioinformatic tools that have been used to map the human T cell response to a large panel of common allergens.

Finally, Dr. Sette has overseen the design and curation efforts of the national Immune Epitope Database (IEDB), a freely available, widely used bioinformatics resource, since its inception in the early 2000s. The IEDB catalogs all epitopes for humans, non-human primates, rodents, and other vertebrates, from allergens, infectious diseases, autoantigens and transplants, and includes epitope prediction tools to accelerate immunology research around the world.

Professor, Center for Autoimmunity and Inflammation, Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Dr. Ofer Levy was born to and raised by the artist Benjamin Levy and music composer Hannah Levy in New York City, where he graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. After graduating from Yale College (B.S., Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry), Dr. Levy entered the Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program at New York University School of Medicine. There he earned his PhD under the mentorship of Drs. Peter Elsbach and Jerrold Weiss, characterizing neutrophil-derived antimicrobial proteins and peptides including bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and cathelicidins. Inspired by his wife Sharon’s example, he chose Pediatrics and completed both residency and fellowship (Infectious Diseases) at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is currently Professor at Harvard Medical School as well as principal investigator, staff physician and the Director of the Precisions Vaccine Program in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital. The Precision Vaccines Program is an academic program that fosters international collaboration between academia, government, and industry for development of vaccine formulations optimized to protect vulnerable populations. Dr. Levy’s laboratory is focused on modeling vaccine-induced human immune responses in vitro using a variety of platforms including three-dimensional microphysiologic systems as well as global molecular (“OMIC”) approaches to accelerate and de-risk development of vaccines optimized for populations with distinct immune responses, including those at the extremes of age who suffer the most infections. He currently leads or co-leads multiple NIH/NIAID-supported studies, including (a) an Adjuvant Discovery Program contract, leveraging robotic and immunologic approaches to discover, characterize, and formulate novel small molecule adjuvants that may enhance vaccine responses of vulnerable populations such as infants and older adults; (b) an international Human Immunology Project Consortium effort employing systems biology to define biomarkers of neonatal vaccine immunogenicity and (c) a project on Immune Development in Early Life (IDEAL). Dr. Levy also serves on the U.S. FDA Vaccines and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) and has appeared in major media including CNN, FoxNews, Scientific American, National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts along with his wife Dr. Sharon Levy and their three children.

Staff Physician & Principal Investigator, Director, Precision Vaccines Program, Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital Professor, Harvard Medical School

Hanneke Schuitemaker, Ph.D., is the Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine at Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V. She has been in this role since 2010 and oversees Janssen’s viral vaccine programs including investigational vaccine candidates for HIV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Ebola, Zika, Influenza and COVID-19. In addition, she is a Professor of Virology at the Amsterdam University Medical Center.

Hanneke Schuitemaker is a medical biologist by training, received her Ph.D. in Medicine in 1992 at the University of Amsterdam and worked for more than 20 years on the pathogenesis of HIV-1 infection, first at Sanquin (1989-2007), the blood supply foundation in the Netherlands, where she was the Chair of the department of Clinical Viro-Immunology (1998-2007), and then at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (2008-2010), where she was the Chair of the Department of Experimental Immunology. From mid-2003 to mid-2004, she worked as a visiting scientist at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She successfully trained more than 30 Ph.D. students and co-authored more than 340 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

VP, Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine, Janssen Vaccines and Prevention B.V.

Dr. Karin Bok is the Director of Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health. She provides expertise for the preclinical and clinical development of several preparedness and response medical countermeasures, including preventive and therapeutic products against Ebola, Zika, Nipah, Influenza, and Coronavirus. Karin collaborates with government colleagues and external stakeholders to prepare and accelerate the response to an infectious disease emergency and advance the study of preventive measures that target unmet medical needs. She is currently part of H-CORE (former Operation Warp Speed) contributing to accelerating the development and testing of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in the US. She is also part of the senior team working on the advanced development of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies for HIV, as well as universal influenza and RSV vaccines.

Previously, Dr. Bok was a Senior Vaccine Scientific Advisor at the National Vaccine Program Office, within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. Dr. Bok led the vaccine safety portfolio and advised on vaccine research and development issues. She also directed research and policy studies on vaccines administered to pregnant women. Karin represented NVPO and HHS in several executive scientific advisory committees, such as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC, FDA), the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV, HRSA), and the Task Force on Research Specific to Pregnant Women and Lactating Women (PRGLAC, NICHD) to name a few.

In addition, Dr. Bok has more than 20 years’ experience working on research and discovery programs, leading her own scientific studies focused on vaccines, antibody products, antivirals, diagnostics, and virus evolution of gastrointestinal viruses.

Her international scientific experience includes managing and conducting research through Argentina’s national gastroenteritis surveillance program, the clinical testing of the rotavirus vaccine, and the reimplementation of the National Smallpox Vaccine Program.

Acting Deputy Director, Director of Pandemic Preparedness and Emergency Response, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health

Swati Gupta, DrPH, MPH, leads IAVI’s Emerging Infectious Disease product portfolio and the organization's epidemiology work. She has a particular focus in leveraging IAVI’s recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (rVSV) platform and expertise to expand product development efforts beyond HIV, including leading the vaccine development programs for other emerging infectious diseases such as Lassa Fever, Marburg, and most recently SARS-CoV-2.

Previously, Gupta was an executive director with Merck Vaccines, where she worked on the development of innovative partnership models to address cross-cutting issues related to vaccine science and technology. As part of this role, she worked with key external stakeholders to facilitate accelerated Ebola vaccine development efforts to enhance preparedness for the ongoing public health crisis and for potential future outbreaks.

From 2000 to 2014, Gupta was in the Department of Epidemiology at Merck Research Laboratories where she led a number international, prospective cohort studies in support of vaccine and infectious disease products in development, including research on diseases such as HIV, HPV, influenza, dengue, and C.difficile. From 1998 to 2000, Gupta worked as a scientist in HIV Surveillance at the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (British equivalent of the U.S. CDC) in the U.K. She has also worked at the Bureau of Tuberculosis Control at the New York City Department of Health.

Gupta holds a doctorate in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Master of Public Health in infectious disease epidemiology from Yale University School of Medicine.

VP, Emerging Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, IAVI

Dr. Dan Barouch received his Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is currently the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, and part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery. His laboratory focuses on studying the immunology and virology of HIV-1 infection and developing novel vaccine and eradication strategies. His group has also applied their vaccine expertise to preclinical and clinical studies of other infectious diseases of global significance, including Zika virus, tuberculosis, and most recently SARS-CoV-2. His recent work contributed to the development of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is now being rolled out in the United States and throughout the world. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.

William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, Director, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Weiner directs a translational molecular immunology research team focused on creating novel immunotherapy approaches for disease prevention and treatment using synthetic nucleic acid technology. Accomplishments of the team and collaborators include the first clinical studies of DNA vaccines, with a focus on advances in gene optimization and electroporation (EP)-mediated DNA delivery. Their work has revitalized the field, rapidly and safely moving new advances into human studies. These include the world’s first Zika vaccine, the first MERS vaccine, an advanced Ebola Vaccine, and a novel HIV vaccine, among others. Additionally, the Weiner laboratory has helped to develop immunotherapy approaches that are currently in clinical testing for HPV-associated cancer, prostate and other cancers. The first clinically efficacious therapeutic DNA vaccine for HPV cervical intraepithelial neoplasia CIN) has moved into a Phase 3 trial (REVEAL). Weiner and his lab have received several awards/honors for their accomplishments, including the Vaccine Industry Associations Outstanding Academic Research Laboratory (2015 & 2016), being named one of the Top 20 Translational Research Laboratories of the Year (Nature Biotechnology 2016, 2017 & 2018) and the 2014 Stone family Award for Cancer Research. Weiner was named one of the nation’s top 40 most influential vaccine scientists in 2014, received the 2011 NIH Directors Translational Research Award and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2011 and a fellow of the International Society for Vaccines, for which he served as president from 2018 to 2020. Weiner is an avid trainer, advisor and advocate for students, fellows and junior faculty as he is highly committed to developing the careers of young scientists.

Weiner received his B.S. in biology from Stony Brook University, N.Y., and his M.S. in biology from the University of Cincinnati. He then earned a Ph.D. in developmental biology with a focus on molecular immunology from the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. Weiner joined the University of Pennsylvania as a research fellow in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, where he rose through the ranks to become Professor. He held a second appointment from The Wistar Institute from 1990 to 1993. At Penn, he served as co-chair of the Tumor Virology Program of the Abramson Cancer Institute and as chair of the Gene Therapy and Vaccine Training Program.

Executive Vice President, The Wistar Institute, Director, Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center

Dr. Kate Broderick is the Chief Innovation Officer at Maravai LifeSciences, leading their Office of Science and Innovation. Dr. Broderick has a broad background in product development in the DNA therapeutic and drug delivery field. Prior to joining Maravai in 2022, Dr. Broderick spent 15 years at Inovio Pharmaceuticals, and has served as a principal investigator for a variety of grants and awards from government agencies and non-profits, including the National Institutes of Health. She received her PhD from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and completed her post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego.

Chief Innovation Officer, Maravai LifeSciences

Gary Kobinger, PhD, is the new Director of the Galveston National Laboratory, one of the largest active biocontainment facilities on an academic campus. Dr. Kobinger has co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and accumulated more than 20 years of experience working in or managing high-containment laboratories. His research presently focuses on developing and testing new vaccine platforms and immune treatments against pathogens of high consequences to global public health. Serving the international community, Dr. Kobinger sits on several committees.

Director, Galveston National Laboratory

Dr. Omer has conducted studies in the United States, Guatemala, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Australia. Dr Omer’s research portfolio includes epidemiology of respiratory viruses such as influenza, RSV, and - more recently - COVID-19; clinical trials to estimate efficacy of maternal and/or infant influenza, pertussis, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines; and trials to evaluate drug regimens to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Moreover, he has conducted several studies on interventions to increase immunization coverage and acceptance. Dr Omer’s work has been cited in global and country-specific policy recommendations and has informed clinical practice and health legislation in several countries. He has directly mentored over 100 junior faculty, clinical and research post-doctoral fellows, and PhD and other graduate students.Dr. Omer has published widely in peer reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet, British Medical Journal, Pediatrics, American Journal of Public Health, Science, and Nature and is the author of op-eds for publications such as the New York Times, Politico, and the Washington Post.

Dr Omer has received multiple awards –including the Maurice Hilleman Award by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases for his work on the impact of maternal influenza immunization on respiratory illness in infants younger than 6 months-for whom there is no vaccine. He has served on several advisory panels including the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee, Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria -Vaccine Innovation Working Group, and WHO Expert Advisory Group for Healthcare Worker Vaccination. He has also served as an academic affiliate of the Office of Evaluation Sciences –formerly known as the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team.

Founding Dean, Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern

Dr. Berlanda Scorza is Vice President for Global Health R&D Vaccines and GVGH Institute Director. GVGH is a key component of GSK’s commitment to Global Health, dedicated to developing effective and affordable vaccines for neglected infectious diseases that affect communities in low- and middle-income countries.

Prior to joining GSK in 2020, Dr. Berlanda Scorza was a Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Senior Director for vaccine development at PATH, where he led programs to develop seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines.

Previously, he was a senior scientist at Chiron and Novartis Vaccines, where he contributed to the development of a replicon RNA vaccine, a cell cultured influenza vaccine (Flucelvax) and a bacterial vaccine platform (GMMA). Dr. Berlanda Scorza received his Ph.D. from the University of Milano Bicocca and completed his post-doctoral studies at Imperial College London.

VP, Global Health R&D Vaccines Head and GVGH Institute Director, GSK Vaccines Institute for Global Health

Dr. Kennedy earned his B.S. degree in Microbiology from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in Immunology from Mayo Clinic with postdoctoral training in immunogenetics and vaccinology. Dr. Kennedy is a Professor of Medicine and the Co-Director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group. He has over 140 peer-reviewed publications in journals including: Lancet Infectious Diseases, the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Frontiers in Immunology, 8 book chapters, and has participated in well over 100 scientific posters, abstracts, and presentations at national and international vaccine, virology, and immunology meetings. He is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Vaccine: X and an Associate Editor at Vaccine. He is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and the American Society for Microbiology. He has served as an ad hoc reviewer on dozens of NIH study sections and has participated in multiple international review panels (e.g., Wellcome Trust, Research Councils UK, Science Foundation of Ireland, European Research Council).

Dr. Kennedy has 4 R01 grants from NIH funding his work on viral vaccine immunology. He is also the PI of a CDC contract using single cell technologies to evaluate the T cell response to influenza vaccination and is a site PI for one of three NIAID Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers. Dr. Kennedy’s research emphasis is on understanding the factors driving the tremendous diversity in human immune responses to vaccines against viral pathogens including: influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, SARS-CoV-2, smallpox, varicella, and zika. His group focuses on the role of host genetic variation, age and immunosenescence, nutrition, and other factors on the development and maintenance of immunity following vaccination. The laboratory employs systems biology and vaccinomics approaches to better understand the complex interactions that occur during the development of vaccine response with the goal of predicting and controlling vaccine-induced immune responses. Dr. Kennedy also investigates the use of peptide-based vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, vaccinia, Mpox, influenza, and zika virus.

Professor of Medicine, Co-Director, Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group

Sue Ann is Professor of Global Health and Vaccinology at University of Oxford and University of Siena, where she is the Head of the Institute for Global Health. In over 25 years of experience, she has contributed to the development of more than 20 globally licensed vaccines and pharmaceuticals. Vaccines she has worked on including Rotavirus, HPV, PCV and Covid-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives worldwide, reduced long term sequelae and disabilities and thus contributed to global health, one of her key missions and goals. Sue Ann was part of the development of the first vaccine that gained Emergency Use Listing by WHO, the new oral type 2 polio vaccine.

Sue Ann is one of the Principal Investigators of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine clinical development. Sue Ann was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE, for services to Sciences and Public Health in 2021 by Queen Elizabeth II, and also appointed Commander of the Federal Republic of Brazil.

She has been contributing to teaching and capacity building in different areas, created the first Master in Vaccinology and Drug Development worldwide and published extensively on vaccinology and public health.

Sue Ann has been recently appointed as member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Market Access for Vaccines (TAG-MI4A).

Professor of Global Health and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford and the University of Siena