2026 Speakers

Holy Akwar is a dedicated Science Advisor specializing in Veterinary Medicine and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) at the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS). With a strong background in veterinary science and a passion for combating AMR, Holy plays a crucial role in...

Dr. Angelidou is a Board-certified Neonatologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, MA), Principal Investigator and Clinical Lead at the Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She obtained her...

Hamilton Bennett (she/her) is the Executive Director of Health Security R&D and Partnerships at Moderna. In this role, Hamilton is responsible for the Global Public Health and Medical Countermeasures portfolio, driving collaborative research and development with a broad range of government and...

Maria Elena Bottazzi, PhD is an internationally recognized vaccinologist and global health leader advancing scalable vaccine innovations for neglected tropical diseases and emerging infections. She serves as Senior Associate Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of...

Dr. Luigi Buonaguro is the Director of the Innovative Immunological Models at the National Cancer Institute - IRCCS “Pascale ”, Naples – Italy. He is an expert in identification and characterization of tumor antigens for preventive/therapeutic cancer vaccine development. His focus is mostly on...

Michael C Caldwell MD MPH | Assoc VP Vaccine ResearchMeharry Medical College Michael C Caldwell, Assoc VP Vaccine Research, Meharry Medical CollegeDr. Caldwell is the Associate Vice President, Vaccine Research & Education at Meharry Medical College in Nashville TN.  He is Professor of Global...

Cristiana Campa is CMC External Intelligence and Innovation Lead, Drug Development and Supply, at GSK. She brings more than 20 years’ experience in Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) for biologics R&D and actively fosters dialogue with industry peers and regulatory agencies on...

Keira Cohen, MD, is an Executive Medical Director in Communicable Diseases at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine.  She received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed both Internal Medicine residency and...

 Dr. Cooke has over thirty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with a focus on vaccines.  He was previously CEO of NovaDigm Therapeutics, CEO of Mojave Therapeutics, COO at AVANT Immunotherapeutics, and SVP at Ology Bioservices. Prior to his leadership roles in the biotechnology...

Dr Karelle De Luca has been the Head of Research & Development at GALVmed since September 2023. GALVmed aims to make a significant contribution towards transformational change in the small-scale livestock health landscape by developing a portfolio of high impact  products and initiating a...

Mathieu Epardaud, PhD PositionSenior Scientist, INRAE & University of ToursCo-founder and Scientific Consultant, LoValTech📧 mathieu.epardaud@inrae.fr | mathieu.epardaud@lovaltechnology.com🔗 LinkedIn Short Narrative Dr. Mathieu Epardaud is an immunologist with over 25 years of ...

Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer DIRECTOR-GENERAL, HEALTH EMERGENCY, PREPAREDNESS & RESPONSE AUTHORITY (DG HERA) Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer leads the DG HERA in the European Commission. DG HERA’s primary mission is to counter vulnerabilities and strategic dependencies within the EU in relation to...

Rebecca Fish has over 30 years of senior leadership experience in the health sector, with a particular focus on vaccines and biodefense. She served as Senior Vaccine Policy Advisor to the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she...

Dr. Tim Fugmann is CSO and Co-Founder of Alithea Bio, a biotechnology company specializing in immunopeptidomics, HLA peptide mapping, and precision immunotherapy. He is an expert in mapping HLA-presented peptides using mass spectrometry and bioinformatics and has spent more than a decade advancing...

Pete joined LifeArc from Wellcome in Sep 2024 as Scientific Director in the Global Health team.  He's an Immunologist with >20 years in the life sciences, >12 years bridging R&D across academia and Industry and 8 years strategy, public/private partnerships and portfolio investment in...

Pascal Geldsetzer is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and a Biohub Investigator. His research focuses on identifying and evaluating the most effective interventions for improving health at older ages. In addition to leading several randomized trials, his methodological...

Dr Bassam Hallis OBE is the Deputy Director and the lead for the Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre. Bassam has over 35 years’ experience working with public sector, industry and academia in the development and evaluation of vaccines and therapeutics. He provides scientific and operational...

Dr. Danna Hargett is a recognized expert in infectious disease and immunology with an award-winning academic career as a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fellow at Princeton University and member of the American Society of Virology. For the past 10 years, she has worked as a subject matter expert...

Jonathan Heeney is an international leader and a renowned expert in the field of immunology and vaccine development. With over three decades of experience in academia and industry, he currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at DIOSynVax, a cutting-edge biotechnology company focused on...

 Stijn Hollemeersch, MD, is a Global Medical Director with over 20 years of experience in Medical Affairs across vaccines, infectious diseases, and immunology. He has held both country and global roles at companies including GSK and Gilead, working closely with healthcare...

Joshua Hunt is Head of Agile Delivery fat Digital Health and Care Wales, the national digital organisation for NHS Wales. His teams build and run national systems used across all seven Welsh health boards. Much of Joshua's career has centred on immunisation. He is responsible for the Welsh...

Ashraf Ibrahim is a visionary leader and innovator in the field of biotechnology and vaccine development. As the Founder and CEO of Vitalex Biosciences LLC, he brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the global vaccine industry. With a background in molecular biology and a passion for...

Jayasree K. Iyer is the CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation, where she leads its mission to drive change in global healthcare by engaging pharmaceutical companies to expand access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries. With expertise in addressing complex issues like drug...

Andrew oversees the Vaccine Centre team that covers both routine, outbreak and COVID-19 vaccines. Andrew joined Supply Division from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where he had several different roles, most recently leading the health supply chain team as well as the Foundation’s vaccine...

Dr Emilie Karafillakis, is an Assistant Professor and the European Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the Vaccine Confidence Project™, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Antwerp. She is a senior social scientist with more than 10 years of...

Teresa Lambe is the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology and a Professor of Vaccinology & Immunology at the University of Oxford. She is leading a research group which improves human health by controlling disease through vaccination – stopping epidemics before they become pandemics. Prof Lambe is ...

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...

Stephen Lockhart DM, FFPM, FMedSci. I qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford in 1980.  After working around the UK in hospital medicine and research, I joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1986.  For over 30 years I have been engaged in global vaccine clinical R&D in...

Mats Lundgren, PhDChief Scientific OfficerAbera Bioscience AB   Dr. Mats Lundgren is a leading authority in vaccine discovery and development, with over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. His diverse background encompasses a wide range of roles, from scientist to vice...

Dr. Alessandro Manenti graduated in Biology obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in 2009 and a Master’s Degree in Molecular Evolution in 2013 at the University of Siena. He worked for six months in a big company in the field of Life Sciences (Novartis). In November 2013, he won a competition for PhD...

Peter Marks received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University and completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He has worked in academic settings teaching and caring...

Dr. Jinte Middeldorp is a neuroscientist and Head of Department at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC), where she leads research on brain aging, neuroinflammation, and the interaction between infectious diseases and the nervous system. Her work focuses on understanding how systemic...

Kazumi Noguchi  is Chief of the Clinical Development Section in the Clinical Development Department at The Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University (BIKEN). She has been involved in the clinical development of vaccines, with a particular focus on intranasal influenza...

Dr. Kate O’Brien is the Director of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) Department at the World Health Organization (WHO). In this role she is responsible for leading WHO’s vaccine and immunization strategy and implementation to advance the vision of a world where...

Mónica works as Advocacy and Policy Director at GSK's CMC Global Regulatory Affairs. She is a medical biologist by training and holds a MSc in Molecular Biology and a PhD in Bioscience Engineering. Monica has over 19 year's experience in the pharmaceutical sector where she has held...

Dr. Ligia Pinto is the director of the Vaccine, Immunity and Cancer Directorate at the Frederick National Laboratory. She has worked in the area of immunology of infectious diseases, cancer and vaccines for the last 38 years, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. She completed her Ph.D. in...

Miguel Prudêncio completed his PhD by the University of East Anglia (UK) in 2000, followed by a post-doctoral period at the University of Leiden (NL). In 2004, he initiated his research careeer in the field of malaria, at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM, PT), now the Gulbenkian Institute for...

As Chief Executive Officer of Hilleman Laboratories, a joint venture between Merck & Co and Wellcome Trust, Dr. Raman Rao leads the charge for providing effective, affordable and impactful solutions for infectious diseases and global public health, especially for low- and middle-income...

Meta Roestenberg is an infectious diseases clinician, professor in Human Models for Vaccine Development at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. She is head of the Leiden University Center for Infectious Diseases (LUCID), a large department with 400+ employees tasked with the...

Simona Rondini is the Head of Bacterial Vaccine Development and Senior Project leader at GSK Vaccines Institute for Global Health (GVGH) in Siena (Italy). Simona holds a PhD in Microbiology awarded by the Swiss Tropical Public Health Institute in Basel, and conducted postdoctoral studies at the...

Anna Saernefaelt is a seasoned professional in the field of vaccine development and manufacturing, currently serving as Global Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) Lead at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). With over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and...

Dr. Delphine Saragoussi is Head of Pharmacoepidemiology Vaccines within Patient Safety and Pharmacovigilance at Sanofi, in the greater Paris metropolitan area. She is a physician specialized in public health and social medicine and offers more than 20 years of applied experience in epidemiology and ...

Melanie Saville, MBBS, is PATH’s Chief Scientific Officer. She leads PATH’s product development division, which includes a global team dedicated to the development, introduction, and scale of vaccines, medical devices, and diagnostics. Dr. Saville is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences...

Anja Schreijer is a medical specialist in infectious disease control who has worked for various national and international governments, WHO and ECDC. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she chaired the National Consultation on Infectious Disease Control, which was responsible for making scientifically...

Hanneke Schuitemaker, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer at Valneva, Austria, with responsibility for pre-clinical and translational R&D for prophylactic vaccines against infectious diseases. Before joining Valneva, she served for almost 14 years as the Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and...

As Professor in molecular virology my R&D focus is on the design, development and deployment of viral pseudotype based neutralisation assays for influenza, coronavirus and other emerging viruses, and I have received funding from the MRC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Innovate UK, the ...

Hamid Trimech is a talented process engineer passionate about vaccine manufacturing.  For over 8 years in the vaccine industry, Hamid has led numerous projects involving the design, construction, and qualification of drug substance manufacturing facilities. Throughout his activities, he has...

Sebastian Ulbert is a molecular biologist specialized in immunology and infectious disease research. He is deputy director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Leipzig (Germany) and part of the Fraunhofer Society, Europe´s largest organization for applied...

As an Associate Director in Sanofi’s mRNA Center of Excellence, I am engaged in an exciting quest for clinical acceleration of novel patient-focused mRNA-LNP vaccines, leading efforts to shorten their bench-to-bedside timeline in the context of R&D, analytics, and Phase-1 GMP. A biologist by...

Nico Vandaele obtained a PhD in Business Engineering, Operations Management and Operations Research in 1996. Being a professor at KU Leuven since then, his research focus was on (bio-pharma) supply chains. In the last decade, the focus was on embedding the supply chain in broader health...

Dr. Veterinary Medicine, virologist, active in global networking in human and animal health, vaccines and diagnostics, global disease control, one health, public affairs with EU, WHO, Asian and African authorities and experienced in vaccine translational development. CV in brief: Research...

Charlotte Vernhes is a bioengineer with 15 years of experience in vaccine research and development, spanning immunogenicity assessment, translational science, innovation management and public-private partnerships. Charlotte has played a pivotal role in European initiatives on RSV, where she focused ...

Dr. Walker is Executive Vice President and Head of Research & Development and previously served as Novavax’s Chief Medical Officer. A specialist in internal medicine and pulmonary and critical care medicine, Dr. Walker has more than 30 years of experience in drug and vaccine development within...

Saul Walker is the Director of Public Partnerships at CEPI, leading collaboration with international and regional partners to advance shared objectives on rapid vaccine development and equitable access for emerging epidemic and pandemic pathogens. He also works to ensure CEPI’s develops respectful...

Richard White is a Prof in Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the TB Modelling Group, TB Centre, Vaccine Center and Math Modelling Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was awarded a PhD in infectious disease modelling in 2006, led the establishment of the LSHTM’s Centre...

Dr Wilson is a physician by background, having received a distinction in his medical degree from Cardiff University. As a military sponsored undergraduate, he went on to complete his junior doctor years at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and it was then he developed an interest in clinical research...

Gavin graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Biochemistry in 1996 before studying for a D.Phil. within the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cellular Immunology Unit with Professor Neil Barclay at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. He initially worked on CD200 (formally...

Y. Tony Yang, ScD, LLM, MPH is an endowed professor (with tenure) in Health Policy and the Associate Dean for Health Policy and Population Science at the George Washington University School of Nursing. He also holds a joint appointment at the Milken Institute School of Public Health in the...