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...

Louis Ates leads the preclinical development of tuberculosis vaccines at BioNTech.   With a previously academic background in both the microbiology and immunology of mycobacterial infections, he now translates that knowledge into novel antigen design and vaccine testing strategies.   

Adriana Bastidas, MD, Head of Medical at P95 Julius Clincal. Adriana is an experienced vaccine and drug safety physician with a proven track record in various pharmaceutical companies for more than 17 years, including GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, Mithra Pharmaceuticals, CureVac and Bavarian Nordic. At ...

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...

Dr. Biering-Sørensen has an outstanding academic and research background. He earned his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 2011 and completed his Ph.D. at the same institution in 2015. He subsequently obtained a Master of Public Health from Harvard University in 2018 and a Master...

Holding a PhD in Immunology from Lyon 1 University, I am a Senior Principal Scientist at Sanofi with over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. I have developed extensive expertise in preclinical and translational research, driving the development of innovative vaccines.

Lajos Bognár is currently the WOAH Sub-Regional Representative in Brussels. He has been the chief veterinary officer of Hungary for 8 years and 19 years the delegate of Hungary to the WOAH. He was responsible for the official control of the whole food chain in Hungary: animal health 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...

Innovative Drug Product and CMC leader with ~25 years of experience across pre‑clinical to late‑stage development and launch. Expertise spans formulation, biopharmaceutics, advanced analytical development, fill/finish, and manufacturing of biologics, including peptides, proteins, multi-specific...

Ajoy Chakrabarti has PhD (Biochemistry; University of British Columbia) and MBA (Cornell) degrees. He has over 30 years of diverse product development experience in both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He joined the Gates Foundation (GF) in 2016, working across multiple polio vaccine...

 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...

Benjamin has obtained his PHD in Immunology from the University of Liège, and a MBA from Solvay Business School (Brussels). After a few years in academic research, in Europe and in the USA, he transitioned to the Biotech industry.For the last 23 years, Benjamin has been mostly active within...

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...

Frédéric Debellut, MSc, is a senior health economist for the Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access at PATH where he is responsible for the design and conduct of economic analyses with the objective to generate and translate economic evidence that informs donor investments, global policy and...

Maria Dutarte is the Executive Director of the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) since 2020. Maria has previously worked for the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) coordinating patient involvement in a number of training initiatives and scientific projects. She has...

Gonçalo Farias is heading the analytical and innovation Hub at Aptar Pharma in France. Gonçalo holds a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Lisbon and a PhD in Pharmacy and Pharmacology from the University of Bath. During his doctoral studies, he specialised in the...

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...

Tony Fonk is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SpotSee, a global leader in condition-monitoring technologies that help organizations protect high-value and sensitive products throughout the supply chain. Since joining SpotSee in 2015, Tony has led the company’s evolution from a provider...

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...

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. Gillard is a Medical Doctor with a training in internal medicine and has more than 18 years of experience in the clinical development and registration of prophylactic vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline. He has contributed to the development of the human rotavirus vaccine, pandemic influenza...

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...

Holger Hannemann has worked in the field of infectious diseases since 2006. After completing his training in molecular mycology at the University of Erlangen, he held a number of academic research positions focused on host–pathogen interactions, with particular emphasis on human cytomegalovirus and ...

Karin Hardt, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and MSc in Public Health, is a Director in Clinical R&D at J&J, with expertise in prophylactic vaccine development. She currently contributes to the development of a vaccine for the prevention of invasive Escherichia coli disease and previously served as...

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...

Joe Keenan leads the regulatory and commercial activities for Daicel Life Science's needle-free jet injector device.  Joe has over 25 years experience in the med pharma industry.  During his career, he has sheparded over 30 surgical and drug delivery devices through the FDA and EMA, while...

Sandy Kimber, PhD is a Research Leader within IQVIA Laboratories' Preclinical Research team, specialising in infectious diseases and translational drug discovery. With a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Sussex and more than 20 years of experience across academia, pharmaceutical...

Ben Knappett is Senior Product Manager for the Sunny Suite, Unchained Labs’ automated microfluidic nanoparticle synthesis instruments, used primarily for LNP encapsulation in drug delivery, vaccines, and gene therapy applications. Ben received his MChem degree from Durham University, and completed...

Jeroen Kortekaas obtained his PhD from Utrecht University, focusing on vaccine development against Neisseria meningitidis. He subsequently joined the Central Veterinary Institute (now Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, WBVR) in Lelystad, The Netherlands, where he led vaccine research on...

Yuta Kunishima is a researcher at The Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University (BIKEN). BIKEN is a leading vaccine manufacturer in Japan, producing the largest number of vaccine products in the country, including influenza, measles, rubella, Japanese encephalitis, and...

Mr. LaBarre is an experienced global health expert with 28 years of Medical Technology experience across the innovation value chain including product development, clinical and implementation research, regulatory strategy, and market analysis. He has held key business development roles at prominent...

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 ...

Hans (JPM) Langedijk is a Biochemist by training and received his PhD in 1993 at the University of Amsterdam and has focused on structure – function relationships of viral surface proteins. Hans has spent more than 13 years with Janssen Vaccines of Johnson & Johnson in Leiden, The...

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...

Laurent Muschel is the Director-Deputy Head of HERA since March 2023. From September 2018 to February 2023, Laurent Muschel was the Director for Internal Security in DG HOME, European Commission. His Directorate dealt with police cooperation (including Europol), counterterrorism, organised crime...

Dr. Hironori Nakagami is a Professor at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine specializing in cardiovascular medicine, vascular biology, gene therapy, and aging research. After earning his M.D. from Nara Medical University and Ph.D. from Osaka University, he conducted research in Japan and...

Kazumi Noguchi is an Assistant Manager in the Clinical Development Section at The Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases of Osaka University (BIKEN). BIKEN is a leading Japanese vaccine manufacturer and research organization dedicated to the development, production, and supply of vaccines and...

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...

Dr. Rolando Pajon is a Cuban-born scientist and biophamaceutical executive. Dr. Rolando started as a scientist in vaccine research but soon moved into development, clinical evaluation and licensing of vaccines and immunotherapies. He has led diverse teams, some as big as 80 members, across...

Anthony Pajot is a global vaccine leader bringing over 25 years of international experience across the full value chain — from R&D and clinical development to commercial strategy, market access, and general management. He has held senior leadership roles at Sanofi, Eli Lilly, and the Institut...

Puck is an epidemiologist with experience in TB Epidemiology, with a special focus on TB vaccine research. Puck is Associate Director, Epidemiology at IAVI. In this role, her primary focus is on epidemiological research to support IAVI’s TB pillar, including the late-stage development of...

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...

Adam has a Master’s Degree in Chemical- & Biochemical Engineering. He has extensive experience from the pharmaceutical industry, before moving to Sani Membranes where Adam became a Product Specialist and the main responsible for Sani Membrane's Pharma & Biotech customers helping them...

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...

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. Saluja is the Head of Clinical Development at International Vaccine Institute (IVI), whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for Global Health. He has 20 years of experience working in industry, academia and resource-limited settings in both...

After receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia, USA, Gautam held academic faculty positions at the University of Florida, Mayo Clinic and Hamilton College before moving to pharmaceutical industry. During the 27 years that Gautam spent in pharmaceutical  discovery 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...

Cornelius Schmaltz is currently the Strategic Science Adviser at the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (DG HERA, European Commission). Since 2006 he has held various positions at the European Commission in the area of health research and innovation and from 2019-2024 as...

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...

Dr. Callum Scott is Senior Vice President of Development at Scancell Ltd., where he leads the strategic and operational delivery of the company’s development portfolio, including CMC, Regulatory Affairs, Nonclinical Development, Clinical Supply, Programme Management, and cross-functional...

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...

Thomas is Director of Bioinformatics and AI/ML at Evaxion, where he leads the development of Evaxion’s AI-Immunology™ platform for designing vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases. Prior to joining Evaxion in 2016, Thomas acquired his PhD in Immunological Bioinformatics from the Technical...

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 ...

International vaccine and animal health system expert with 19 years of experience advancing veterinary science andpolicy through technical leadership, programme delivery, and capacity development across Africa and Europe. AsWOAH's Programme Officer for Vaccine and Vaccination at headquarters...

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...

Amanda Williams is Chief Executive Officer of the International Society for Respiratory Viruses (ISRV), a global scientific society dedicated to advancing research, education, collaboration, and public health action across the field of respiratory viruses. She assumed the role of CEO in December...

Eleanor Wilson, MD MHS is an Executive Director of Clinical Development and Head of the Influenza programs at Moderna Therapeutics. In this role, she applies her experience in clinical trials, translational medicine, and infectious diseases to improving options for protection from seasonal and...

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...

Dr. Chung-Yi Wu is the CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors of CHO PHARMA INC., where he leads the development of innovative glycoengineered biologics and glycoconjugate vaccines. Since joining the company in 2019, he has been instrumental in advancing CHO PHARMA's proprietary...

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...