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

Paul Offit, M.D.

Director, Vaccine Education Center, Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

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

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 and Member, Co-Director LJI Center for Vaccine Innovation

KATHRYN M. EDWARDS, M.D.

Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Pediatrics

WALTER A. ORENSTEIN, M.D.

Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Epidemiology, Global Health, and Pediatrics, Emory University.

RICHARD B. KENNEDY, PH.D.

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

DEREK O' HAGAN, PH.D.

Senior Advisor Vaccines R&D, Senior Fellow at GSK

Ofer-Levy, PH.D.

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

Ralph S. Baric, PH.D.

Ralph S. Baric, PhD is the University of North Carolina William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine. He earned a BS in Zoology and a PhD in Microbiology from North Carolina State University. He performed postdoctoral research in virology and immunology at the University of Southern California before joining the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Baric’s research focuses on the pathogenesis and emergence mechanisms of RNA viruses, focusing on coronaviruses, flaviviruses and noroviruses. His group has made seminal contributions in virus genetics, identifying host susceptibility genes that regulate virus pathogenesis and emergence, and studying mechanisms of virus cross species transmission, pathogenesis, and virulence. His laboratory participated in the development of several antiviral drugs (remdesivir, molnupiravir), therapeutic antibodies and vaccines (Moderna, Janssen) targeting the SARS-CoV2 virus which is responsible for the COVID19 pandemic. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and American Society for Virology. He is a Harvey Weaver Scholar from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and an Established Investigator from the American Heart Association. He served as chair-elect and subsequently the chair of ASM Division T, RNA viruses. He was a finalist for the World Technology Award, a senior editor for PLoS Pathogens, and member of the Journal of Virology editorial board. He served as a standing member of the NIH VirB study section from 2005-2009 and NIH CMIA study section (2020-2024). He received the Innovation/Inspiration Award for UNC Faculty Research, the Lifetime achievement award from the Triangle Business Journal, Norma Berryhill Distinguished Lecturer, the UNC System’s O. Max Gardner Award recipient and the North Carolina’s Governor’s Award recipient. He is a fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology and elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the Congressional Biomedical Research Congress in early 2020, Baric updated the House of Representative members and staffs regarding the dangers of the SARS-CoV2 pandemic, including research priorities and strategies to mitigate risk.

University of North Carolina, William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health and Microbiology and Immunology in the School of Medicine

Alexander Bukreyev, PH.D.

Distinguished Professor of Virology and Vaccinology, University of Texas Medical Branch

Farshad Guirakhoo, PH.D.

Chief Scientific Officer, Expres2ion Biotechnologies

Robert O. Dillman, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer, AIVITA Biomedical, Inc., Clinical Professor of Medicine, UC Irvine

Denise L. Faustman, M.D., PH.D.

Director of Immunobiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, M.D., PH.D.

Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, MD, PhD, is the Executive Vice President and Head of Research & Development (R&D) with the responsibility of evaluating opportunities for our early and late-stage pipeline, ensuring the company is maximizing the tremendous potential of Novavax’s proven technology, including the Matrix-M™ adjuvant. She has more than 20 years of experience in vaccines and global public health, and throughout her career, has contributed to discovery, development and commercialization efforts.

Dr. Draghia-Akli has previously served at Johnson & Johnson, as Global Head of Global Public Health R&D, delivering groundbreaking innovation to address climate-related, emerging and entrenched health threats, such as Dengue, coronaviruses, antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis and leprosy. At Merck, she contributed to advancing innovative vaccines against Ebola, pneumococcal disease and human papillomavirus. She also worked with the European Commission, supporting programmatic, legislative, regulatory and policy issues in research and innovation. She was also responsible for securing start-up funding and grants at Advisys, Inc. (now Inovio Pharmaceuticals). Dr. Draghia-Akli focused on human genetics and advanced therapies research, notably on rare diseases. As scientific co-founder and research lead, her team delivered the first gene therapy product approved for animal applications in 2007.

Over her career, Dr. Draghia-Akli has authored many scientific publications and served on numerous boards and committees to help shape thinking on vaccine and public health issues.

Dr. Draghia-Akli received a baccalaureate in mathematics and physics from I.L. Caragiale Lycée, an MD from the University of Medicine Carol Davilla, and a PhD in human genetics from the University of Medicine Carol Davilla and undertook additional doctoral and post-doctoral training at University Rene Descartes and Baylor College of Medicine, respectively.

Executive Vice President, Head of Research & Development, Novavax

Michel De Wilde, PH.D.

Michel De Wilde holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has a long and successful career in Vaccine Research and Development. He currently consults for the vaccine community and is member of a number of Advisory Boards.

From 2001 till June 2013, Michel De Wilde was Senior Vice President, Research & Development, at sanofi pasteur where he drove the development and licensure of a number of products.

From 1978 till 2000, De Wilde was at SmithKline Beecham Biologicals (now GSK Vaccines) where he held positions of increasing responsibility. He played a key role in the development of several new vaccines, most notably the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine, as well as GSK’s Malaria vaccine.

MDW Consultant, LLC

Prof. Alessio Lanna, Ph.D. is the Founder of Sentcell. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University College London on Medical Research Council-Ph.D. studentship (2011-2016) and then continued as a Sir Henry Wellcome Trust Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (2016-2019). He currently holds an Honorary Professorship at UCL in recognition of paradigm shifting research in the field of cellular ageing and T lymphocyte senescence. He was the first to identify a hitherto unknown, multi druggable pro-ageing sMAC complex and the anti-ageing mechanism of telomere vesicle transfer at the immune synapse between APCs and T lymphocytes. He keeps on refining and sculpting the discoveries in the field of immune senescence. His mission is to make Sentcell a first in class compound making firm that will reverse or delay the ageing course of life. Lately, Alessio discovered the first functional cure to HIV applying T cell rejuvenation principles.

Professore Ordinario, University College London, Sentcell ltd (UK), CEO

Andrea L. Cox, PH.D.

Andrea L. Cox is a Professor of Medicine and Oncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. She earned her Ph.D. studying T cell immunology at The University of Virginia. She subsequently completed an M.D. and then Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease training at Johns Hopkins. Clinically, she specializes in the treatment of patients with hepatitis virus infections and HIV. As a member of the Viral Immunity and Pathogenesis Center in the Division of Infectious Diseases, she investigates human immune responses to hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), SARS-CoV-2, dengue virus, respiratory syncytial virus, and HIV, including mechanisms through which these viral infections stimulate and evade immune responses. She focuses on immune responses to vaccines against viral pathogens, including in immunocompromised populations, and in HCV vaccine development. She is the PI of a U19 investigating mechanisms of spontaneous HCV control to direct rational development of an effective HCV vaccine and is the co-director of the Johns Hopkins SARS-CoV-2 Pathogenesis and Immunity Center. She was the principal investigator on the first prophylactic HCV vaccine trial implemented in an at-risk population and is the lead immunologist on an ACTG trial of HBV vaccines in people living with HIV. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Professor of Medicine and Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Ling CHEN, M.D., PH.D.

Dr Ling CHEN received his medical degree from Shanghai Medical College in 1984. He received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University School of Medicine, USA in 1992. Dr Chen completed his postdoctoral training in 1994 at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, where he then served as an Instructor from 1994 to 1996. From 1997 to 2001, Dr Chen was a Senior Research Fellow at Merck Research Laboratories, where he championed MRK Ad5-based AIDS vaccine, which entered clinical trials worldwide. From 2008 to 2012, Dr Chen served successively as VP for R&D China at GSK and Sanofi-Pasteur China Vaccine R&D. He is also a Hornored Investigator and was the founding Director General (2004-2008) of the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr Chen has over 200 publications in infectious diseases, vaccine research and cancer research. He has been instrumental in the development of an adenovirus vectored SARS-CoV-2 nasal vaccine, which has completed a Phase I clinical trial and an Investigator Initiated Trial. His recent research interest include mucosal vaccines, human antibody response and antibody repertoire, and developing novel shark-derived nanobodies as antiviral agents.

Professor, State Key Lab of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical University 

SHON REMICH, M.D.

Dr. Shon Remich is a passionate physician-scientist who has dedicated more than 25 years of his career to public and global health. He has been at the forefront of some of the largest public health challenges of the last century. During his 23-year military career, he completed board certification in Pediatrics and postdoctoral programs in Clinical Pharmacology (Georgetown/Walter Reed) and Allergy/Immunology (Walter Reed/NIH). He completed two overseas postings in Kenya, totaling eight years, where he directed the clinical development of both drugs (GMP IV artesunate) and vaccines (RTS,S) as countermeasures for malaria. During his second posting, he led the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for the Department of Defense.

Upon returning to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (D.C.), he directed the Translational Medicine department and Bioproduction facility and chaired the military’s largest Institutional Review Board. As the director of Translational Medicine, his team conducted multiple clinical trials for complex and debilitating diseases (HIV, Anthrax, Malaria, Hantavirus, Plague, Shigella, E. coli, and Influenza), including the first Ebola vaccine (VZV-Ebola) trial in the U.S.

After his military career, he joined Pfizer's clinical development team, supporting the U.S. licensure of the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine (Ticovax) and later played a key role in the development of the nation’s first COVID vaccine (Comirnaty). He then joined the vaccine business unit at Takeda to support the EMA approval of Qdenga, a dengue vaccine. After a short time at BioNTech, where he led its latent viral program, Dr. Remich joined a newly formed biotech company, Ovax. Ovax is committed to developing solutions to address the current epidemic and public health emergency related to overdose deaths.

Chief Medical Officer, OVAX Inc

Shahin Gharakhanian, MD, DPH

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) or taking leadership roles and responsibilities in Clinical Development & Medical Affairs.

Executive Medical Expertise and Collaboration with CEOs of biotechnology companies to assure overall Corporate Development. Expertise/member in Scientific Advisory Boards (SAB) or Boards of Directors (BOD) for biotechnology companies. Office bases in Cambridge MA, USA & Paris Region, France.

Pharmaceutical Medicine ● Infectious Diseases, Member, IDSA: Infectious Diseases Society of America, Shahin Gharakhanian MD Consulting LLC, CIC: Cambridge Innovation Center

Stephen L. Hoffman, MD

Chief Executive and Scientific Officer, anaria Inc.

Eui-Cheol Shin, MD, PH.D.

Eui-Cheol Shin is a Professor at Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea. Eui-Cheol Shin’s laboratory investigates T cell responses in human viral disease and cancer with a focus on cytotoxic T cells. His lab is particularly interested in ‘T cell-mediated immunopathogenesis’, ‘senescence of T cells’, ‘reinvigoration of exhausted T cells’, and ‘immune responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection’. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his research has focused on ‘functional characteristics of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells following infection, vaccination, and breakthrough infection’. Eui-Cheol Shin received his M.D. (1996) and Ph.D. (2001) from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea, and his postdoctoral training (2002 – 2007) from NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Eui-Cheol Shin has been elected a Fellow of the Korea Academy of Science and Technology (2019) and a Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine of Korea (2024).

Professor, Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Chun Fang Shen, PH.D.

Dr. Chun Fang Shen is a principal research officer and project leader with the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, National Research Council of Canada (NRC), where he leads and manages internal research projects and industrial collaboration & contracts in the field of cell culture process development and manufacturing of viral vaccines and therapeutic viruses.

Dr. Shen received his PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Western University in Canada before joining the Animal Cell Technology group at the NRC in Montreal as a research scientist. During more than 25 years with the NRC, Dr. Shen has made significant contributions to the development, optimization and scale-up of batch, fed-batch and perfusion cell culture processes for the production of viral vectors and vaccines, including development of the first industrial grade suspension Vero cell culture and commercialization of a rabies vaccine.

Principal Research Officer and Project Leader, Cell Culture Scale-up, Life Sciences | NRC Human Health Therapeutics Research Center, National Research Council Canada

Richard Osei-Yeboah, MPH, Ph.D. | Research Fellow

Dr Richard Osei-Yeboah is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Health at the Usher Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His research primarily focuses on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory viruses including human Metapneumovirus (hMPV) and Parainfluenza (PIV) and their impact on various populations. Notably, he has investigated RSV and hMPV-associated hospital admissions across different populations and socioeconomic groups in Scotland and across Europe, highlighting disparities in health outcomes. Additionally, Dr Osei-Yeboah has explored comorbidities and patient outcomes in the context of HIV burden in patients accessing care in public facilities in Cape Town, South Africa using routine health records. He has also conducted HIV and sexual and reproductive health-focused research in Ghana, providing valuable insights into public health challenges in these areas. His work contributes significantly to understanding and addressing global health issues, particularly in relation to infectious diseases and their socioeconomic determinants.

Centre for Global Health, The University of Edinburgh

Prakash-K-Bhuyan, MD, PhD

Dr. Prakash Bhuyan is an infectious disease specialist with over 20 years of experience in academia and industry. Most recently, Prakash was Chief Medical Officer at Aerium. Before Aerium, he served as the Head of Clinical Development for Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca, organizing and managing the teams that developed COVID solutions (Vaxzevria™ and Evusheld™), as well as RSV and influenza-focused products. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, at Inovio Pharmaceuticals leading the product development of a novel HPV therapeutic into Phase 3, achieving pivotal trial success.

Prakash held vaccines and biologics leadership roles at Pfizer and Merck which resulted, respectively, in Trumenba™ becoming the first vaccine licensed in the US for the prevention of Meningococcal B disease and Vaxelis™, a pediatric hexavalent vaccine that makes complete childhood vaccination achievable, moving into Phase 3 development with subsequent US and EU licensures. Prakash earned an MD and PhD in Immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a Specialization in Internal Medicine from Emory University, and a Sub-specialization in Infectious Disease from the University of Pennsylvania.

Chief Medical Officer, Aerium

Mark A. Emalfarb is the founder and CEO of Dyadic, as well as a member of its Board of Directors. Since founding Dyadic in 1979, he has led its transformation from producing ingredients for stone-washing jeans to developing and commercializing specialty enzymes and the proprietary C1 fungal technology platform. An inventor with over 25 biotechnology patents, Mr. Emalfarb has also forged strategic research, development, and marketing partnerships globally. He holds a B.A. from the University of Iowa (1977) and brings decades of industry expertise to his leadership role.

CEO, Dyadic International, Inc.

Thomas Breuer MD, MSc, is GSK’s Chief Global Health Officer, leading the Global Health team, a non-commercial group with a ring-fenced budget and more than 200 people, where success is measured by health impact not financial return. In this role, Thomas is responsible for Global Health R&D, which is developing new medicines and vaccines against high-burden infectious diseases in lower income countries and for Global Health Access & Capability activities, which are pursuing equitable access to GSK’s portfolio and pipeline. Before taking on his current role, Thomas led GSK’s Vaccines Development Organization for a decade and has been instrumental in the development and licensure of many of GSK’s vaccines. More recently, he was the Chief Medical Officer for GSK Vaccines. He began his career in internal medicine and public health. After six years in patient care he worked at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, before joining the German Public Health Institute (Robert Koch-Institute) as Head of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in Berlin.

Chief Global Health Officer GSK

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

Director, Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Palese’s interest is in the area of RNA-containing viruses with a special emphasis on influenza viruses. He was a pioneer in the field of reverse genetics for negative strand RNA viruses, which allows the introduction of site-specific mutations into the genomes of these viruses. In recent years, most of the efforts by Palese have been directed at developing a Universal Influenza Virus Vaccine. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a shift in directions as work on mucosal, live COVID-19 vaccines has become central to the efforts by Palese.

Horace W. Goldsmith Professor, Department of Microbiology, Professor, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Senior Director, Systems Immunology, BioNTech US Inc.

Roberto holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Science and, after two post doctoral fellowships at the NIH and Utrecht University, he moved to Novartis here in Siena. During his career 17 years career in industry, he has developed a strong expertise in carbohydrate chemistry and glycoconjugate vaccines. He has contributed to 17 patents and he has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Over the last years he has served as a Conjugation Platform Leader, Discovery Project Leader, and most recently, Vaccine Development Leader. In those roles he has given a strong contribution to develop vaccine candidates against bacterial and fungal targets, from discovery to early clinical development, successfully transitioning various novel candidates in clinical phase. From December 2025 he has joined as Senior Project Leader GSK Vaccine Institute for Global Health with the mission to develop vaccines for low and middle income countries.

Director – Senior Vaccine Project Leader, GSK Vaccines for Global Health (GVGH)

Dr. Becca Flitter serves as the Director of Immunology at Vaxart, based in San Francisco, where she leads a team focused on advancing mucosal vaccine development through in preclinical research and clinical trials. Dr. Flitter received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research expertise lies in vaccine development, mucosal immunology and host-pathogen interactions.

Director, Immunology, Vaxart, Inc.

Young Jun Seo, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Chemistry, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea

Dr. Young Jun Seo is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Jeonbuk National University, where his research focuses on synthetic biology and medicinal chemistry. His laboratory is particularly dedicated to the chemical modification of mRNA vaccine structures from an organic chemistry perspective. Ongoing projects include targeted modifications of the 5′ cap structure, 5′ untranslated region (UTR), coding sequence, 3′ UTR, and the poly(A) tail. The primary goals of his research are to enhance transcription and translation efficiency, as well as to modulate immunogenicity for therapeutic purposes. A major application of his mRNA vaccine research is the development of novel anticancer agents.

Dr. Seo earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) in 2006. He conducted postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, USA (2007–2010), followed by a research appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory (2010–2012). He currently serves as a faculty member at Jeonbuk National University.

Professor, Department of Chemistry, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea

Dr. Morrison is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) and the American Academy for Microbiology. She is a past Associate Editor for Science Advances, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Virology. She has served as the Program Chair for the American Society for Virology, the Chair of the Microbiology Test Committee for the National Board of Medical Examiners, and the Chair of Division T of the American Society for Microbiology. She has over 100 publications concerning RNA virus entry and assembly as well as vaccine development.

University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Dr. Sardesai founded Geneos Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on personalized immunotherapies for cancer. The company is founded on the vision of democratizing n of 1 cancer treatments that are clinically efficacious, and also can be manufactured in a time-efficient, and cost-effective manner. The company’s treatments identify specific genomic changes in the cancer cells of each patient relative to their own normal cells and train the patient’s own immune system to kill their cancer cells. His expertise spans broad aspects of biopharmaceutical development particularly as related to infectious disease vaccines and cancer immunotherapies.

Dr. Sardesai received his PhD in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the recipient of the Shils-Zeidman Award in Entrepreneurship. He was awarded fellowships at the Scripps Research Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Sardesai received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Dr. Sardesai has authored over 120 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has been granted multiple patents.

President & CEO, Geneos Therapeutics