R&D + Strategic Partnering
for the Global Vaccine Industry

Holger Kissel Holger Kissel, Ph.D., serves as Senior Vice President Scientific Relations & Liaison at BioNTech. Being a part of the Company since 2013, he assumed this role in 2023. With an extensive background in business development and licensing, he is dedicated to advancing global health...

A passionate believer in science and the value vaccines bring to society, Charles has supported all phases of vaccine development and commercial activities for bacterial, viral, recombinant, and conjugated vaccines, as well as mRNA programs in development.  Charles leads a team of talented Reg CMC...

BRIAN DEAN ABRAMSON is a leading expert on vaccine law, and was the founding chair of the National Vaccine Law Conference. He teaches the subject as adjunct professor of vaccine law at the Florida International University College of Law, and at the University of Houston Law Center. He is the...

Dr. Navneet Bichha is a physician scientist from Nepal with a strong foundation in clinical medicine and public health, with a decade experience in vaccine research, policy implementation, and global health partnerships.  He currently serves as a Senior Program Officer at The INCLEN Trust...

Tom Mahoney is an experienced investor and philanthropist in the field of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, currently affiliated with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Tom's work is characterized by a deep commitment to public...

Victoria Standley is an experienced healthcare professional and public health advocate with over 18 years in service and leadership roles. She currently serves as an Immunization Program Specialist at Sanford Health, a large nonprofit health system serving 2.4 million patients across the Upper...

Professor Michael Good is a Principal Research Leader at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, Griffith University, Australia.  He heads the Laboratory of Vaccines for the Developing World.  He has developed candidate vaccines for the prevention of malaria and streptococcus and these have...

Raiees Andrabi is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Raiees Andrabi earned his PhD degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Biochemistry and performed his...

Tonya Colpitts is an accomplished professional with a proven track record in the global vaccine industry. Currently serving as Associate Vice President and Global Project Head for Vaccines at Sanofi, Tonya brings a wealth of experience and expertise to vaccine development and infectious diseaes...

Caroline is veterinarian and animal health strategy expert with over twenty years’ experience working in the animal health and nutrition sectors in the US, Europe and globally. She spent ten years at Zoetis where she served as Vice President of Commercial Development & Lifecycle Management for...

Hitesh Hurkchand is a global health and development executive with over 20 years of experience across vaccine financing, governance, partnerships, and health security. He has supported senior leadership and governing bodies on strategy, resource allocation, and performance oversight, working at the ...

After 11 years as a veterinary practitioner, Alasdair King joined the pharmaceutical industry.  He has taken many roles including technical adviser, pharmacovigilance manager, and government liaison.  He has been responsible for the development of avian influenza vaccine banks and led the company...

Dr. Raymond P. Goodrich is a distinguished biomedical researcher and innovator with over 37 years of experience in transfusion medicine, pathogen reduction technologies, and immunotherapy. He is a tenured professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State...

Dr Seth Berkley is an infectious disease epidemiologist and is currently serving as an advisor and Board member to numerous health and technology companies. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Pandemic Center at Brown University.  He previously was CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance from...

  Nikki Romanik, MD, is the co-founder of BioRadar Public Benefit Company, an AI-powered biosurveillance and early-warning platform designed to detect emerging biological threats before they escalate into global crises. She also serves as an Advisor to Network 20/20, a global leadership network...

Jim brings over three decades of experience developing and commercializing vaccines intended to treat or prevent diseases that impact children and adults around the world. During this time, he held significant leadership positions in the vaccine divisions of Pfizer, Novartis and Merck. Prior to...

Dr. Robert T Chen has been active in research of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases for over 40 years, mostly at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  He played key roles in modernizing the vaccine safety infrastructure in the U.S. and elsewhere, including the creation of ...

As Global Head of Research and Development for Adjuvant Systems at Croda Pharma, Dennis Christensen is leading the effort to expand Croda’s offering of new and innovative vaccine delivery systems, immunostimulators and combined adjuvant systems. He has for more than 20 years been working with...

Trained as a biochemist at the Johns Hopkins University, the US National Institutes of Health and Duke University, Bill Hausdorff’s vaccine career started at the US Agency for International Development and Centers for Disease Control in Washington DC and Cairo, Egypt, where he worked to catalyze...

Mahesh Kumar is Senior Vice President, Global Biologics in R&D. He is responsible for the vaccines pipeline globally. In addition, he is also responsible for livestock genetics and precision animal health. He is based in Kalamazoo and oversees R&D activities in the US, EU, China, Brazil and ...

Walter Straus is Vice President in Clinical Safety and Risk Management at the Moderna, supporting vaccine research and development. He is a physician and epidemiologist with more than 30 years of combined experience in research in government and industry. Dr. Straus served as an Epidemic...

Vic is the Co-Founder and Principal Growth Partner of Blu Zone Bioscience & Supply Chain Solutions and a retired U.S. Army officer with over 27 years of service in biotechnology and healthcare logistics. He previously served as Chief of Staff at the Walter Reed Army Institute of...

Prashant Yadav is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is a globally recognized expert in healthcare supply chains and has published extensively on health product manufacturing, procurement, and distribution. Yadav’s writing has appeared in major print...

Dr. Geetha Srinivas received her D.V.M.(BVSc) degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Bangalore, India. She completed her M.S. in Virology and Immunology at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, the Maryland Campus of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary...

Walid Abdelwahab is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Montana’s Center for Translational Medicine (CTM), where he leads the formulations group. With a Ph.D. in Chemistry and extensive experience in vaccine development and pharmaceutical research, he focuses on translating...

Karen Abram has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Indiana University, and is a Research Scientist I at Simtra BioPharma Solutions in Bloomington, IN.  Karen is a member of the Development and Pre-Commercial Services team, offering contract development services including formulation...

Dr. Erin Abramsohn brings 20 years of public service experience to her role as Executive Director of the Infectious Disease Prevention Network (IDPN), including 15 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Throughout her career, she has led cross‑sector collaborations between...

Alicia Adams is the Executive Director of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Inc. (“FCAAP”). Incorporated in the State of Florida as a 501(c)(6), FCAAP is member-based organization that promotes the health and welfare of Florida’s children and supports pediatricians and...

Precious Adeniyi is a digital health and health systems professional with a background in bioinformatics, specializing in the translation of health policy and scientific innovation into real-world clinical delivery. His work examines how digital infrastructure, clinical workflows, and data systems...

  Dr. Akwar is the Science Advisor for Veterinary Sciences and AMR at the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS). He leads the development and implementation of technical initiatives designed to generate evidence on AMR mitigation and enhance preventive health...

Hansilla Alaigh is the Founder and CEO of Global Action Alliance, an AI tech company pioneering the next generation of strategic intelligence. With 14+ years in biotech and pharma leadership, she drives R&D strategy and stakeholder management across medical devices, vaccines, and...

Areeje is a Virology Scientist at Microbiologics Inc. She holds a PhD in Microbiology with a specialization in virology. Her doctoral research focused on virus–host interactions, with particular emphasis on the positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus Brome mosaic virus. She further expanded her...

James C. Appleby, BSPharm, MPH, ScD (Hon), Gerontological Society of America James C. Appleby is the Chief Executive Officer of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, clinical practice, education, and policy in the...

Dr. Joann Diray Arce is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Affiliate Faculty at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She serves as Lead of the Data Management and Analysis Core (DMAC) within the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she...

Deborah Atherly, PhD, BScPharm, is the Global Head of Policy, Access, and Introduction at PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access (CVIA). She leads PATH’s global work to accelerate equitable vaccine access and introduction, shaping strategy and guiding technical portfolios across vaccines...

Dr. Sujuan Ba is an internationally recognized leader in cancer research, dedicated to advancing scientific innovation and global collaboration to accelerate progress against cancer. She is the President and CEO of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), which funds...

Michael Baker is the Director of Health Care Policy at the American Action Forum. Michael leads AAF’s health care research and analysis portfolio, including prescription drug pricing policy, Medicare and Medicaid payment rules, the Food and Drug Administration, and employer-sponsored insurance...

Pierre is a pharmacist trained in France (Pharm.D.) with 10+ years of experience all along the healthcare spectrum: Big Pharma (market access & pricing), Biotech consulting, R&D Research Labs/academia, Retail Pharmacy, Hospitals, and Global Health philanthropy. Since joining the Wellcome...

Giulia is an investor at Adjuvant Capital, a life science venture capital firm investing in promising technologies for high-burden public health challenges. Giulia has a background in business, finance, and public health. She started her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan in London...

Dr. Nishank Bhalla, CEO of Advanced Virology, is an experienced molecular virologist with extensive experience in the creation and use of reverse genetics systems for virus stock production. He previously worked as a scientist at the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). While at ATCC, he...

Katell Bidet Huang is the head of Translational Medicine at Transgene, where she focuses on characterizing the immune responses after treatment with viral-vectored individualized cancer vaccine and oncolytic viruses. She has a scientific background in virology and immunology and a particular...

Dr. Binas has a professional background in lipid metabolism, metabolic physiology, and stem cell biology. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biophysics from Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, then earned his PhD in Cellular Biochemistry at the Central Institute for...

Dr Charles Bodjo is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from École Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon and Faculté de Médecine Université Claude Bernard, Lyon (France), holding a Master of Science (MSc.) Bacteriology-virology from University of Abidjan-Cocody (Côte d’Ivoire) and a PhD in Virology from...

Rebecca Bradford MBA, MS, PMP, is a senior public health and biomanufacturing leader with more than two decades of experience advancing U.S. and global health security. As Senior Vice President of Federal Solutions at ATCC, she oversees strategy and growth for government programs supporting...

Ashley Brate, Ph.D., is an immunologist and Associate Director at SeromYx Systems, specializing in the systems-level characterization of humoral and cellular immune responses. Her work centers on multiplexed antibody profiling and Fc-effector analysis to identify immune signatures that guide...

Dr. Amelia Burke-Garcia is a leading health communications scholar and practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating programs that improve public health—particularly through strategies that strengthen vaccine confidence. She directs NORC’s Center for...

Maya Cabot, PhD, is Associate Director of Virology at Integral Molecular, where she leads the development, optimization, and transfer of reagents and assays used to evaluate therapeutic antibodies and vaccine responses. She has directed the launch of multiple viral reagent product lines and has led ...

Ale has extensive experience as a Medical Affairs leader within Pfizer, originally joining via Wyeth in 2007 as the Southern Cone Vaccines Medical & Scientific Affairs Head. From there, Ale has served increasingly broader roles, including as the Medical & Scientific Affairs Head for Latin...

Adriane Casalotti is the Chief of Government and Public Affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), whose mission is to improve the health of communities by strengthening and advocating for the country’s over 3,300 local health departments. There she leads the ...

Dr. Cristina Cassetti is a Senior Scientific Advisor to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Foundation Biotechnopole of Siena (FBS) on global strategies for research on Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Prior April 2025, she was...

With a multifaceted background in the clinical trial industry, Mia brings expertise in site operations and technology. Currently, Mia serves as Director of Business Development at CRIO, a leading eSource technology provider. She works with sponsors, CROs, and research sites to implement and...

Dr. Enrique Chacon-Cruz.Mexican-born medical doctor with a degree from Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, and further specializations in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases from the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School in...

Dr. Wilbur Chen is the Frank M. Calia, M.D. Endowed Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is the Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Director of the UMB Travel Medicine Practice. The Travel Medicine Practice is a not-for-profit travel clinic...

Grace Chen is a Principal Scientist at Merck, known for vaccine analytical research & development and process improvement using computer technology. With over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she is a patent holder and peer-reviewed author of multiple manuscripts. She has...

RUTH CHENG, Ph.D. President and CEO | Member, Board of Directors (ex-officio) Dr. Cheng is a visionary leader and experienced global executive leader with decades of experience in life sciences innovation and business strategy, with a strong scientific foundation in biology and biomedical...

Dr. Ghania Chikh, Senior Director, Vaccine Development, brings extensive experience to her senior leadership role at Acuitas Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Chikh has spent much of her career working with vaccines and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology. In fact, her PhD thesis was focused on...

Linda D. Chilin is an accomplished research scientist with expertise in translational diagnostics, infectious disease research, and therapeutic development. She is an Associate Research Scientist at Athari BioSciences, where she leads CLIA validation studies and contributes to cancer drug...

Helen Cho, PhD is the Head of global R&D of Samyang Biopharm Corporation and President of Samyang Biopharm USA Inc. In 2024 Samyang celebrates a century of business growth and expansion in the sectors of Chemical, Packaging, Food and Biopharmaceutical. R&D of Biopharmaceutical division is...

Kimberley brings more than 25 years of experience within the pharmaceutical industry. Throughout her career, she has worked in clinical management, project management and project oversight roles. She is currently responsible for the career development and performance management of a project...

CHRIS COLWELL is Vice President, International Government & Regulatory Affairs at the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). He leads a team responsible for developing USP’s position international public policy and regulatory affairs issues related to its mission to improve global health through...

Pär Comstedt, PhD, is Vice President of Infectious Disease Vaccines at Evaxion. He leads the company’s portfolio of bacterial and viral vaccine programs, developed through the proprietary AI-immunology platform. With 20 years of experience in vaccine R&D, Pär has contributed across...

Aaron B. Cowley is the Chief Scientific Officer at Recipharm Advanced Bio where he provides scientific/technical oversight. He has more than 20 years of experience in discovering and developing manufacturing processes for enzymes and live biotherapeutics, and in developing, optimizing, and...

Dr. da Silva Antunes earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in 2010 and joined La Jolla Institute for Immunology in 2012. Since 2016 in Alessandro Sette's lab, he has investigated T cell immune response mechanisms against emerging pathogens of global health significance, including...

Mr. Damon has been a leader in the BioTech and MedTech industries for more than 30 years. Steven currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Micron Biomedical. Micron leads the world in administering vaccines and drugs with its innovative needleless, pain-free microarray technology, in clinical...

Heath Damron is Director of the Vaccine Development Center (VDC) at West Virginia University and Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Montani Biotechnologies, Inc. He works in pre-clinical vaccine development, and the VDC collaborates with industry to evaluate experimental vaccines, including ...

Dr. de Jongh has a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and was awarded a doctorate in Biotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Furthermore, he was awarded an affiliated associate professorship at DTU in 2017. Dr. de Jongh has 20 years ...

Jeanelle de Villiers is a clinical research leader and regional executive with more than two decades of experience delivering complex Phase I–IV clinical trials and real-world data programs across Africa and globally. Her career spans global oversight roles, operational leadership, and hands-on...

Kari Delahunty, MBA, brings more than 20 years of life sciences leadership experience, with a focus on operations, strategy, and management. She joined AMR Clinical from Shearwater Health, where she served as President, Life Sciences. Prior to that, she served in various roles of increasing...

Darin joined Moderna in 2019 as the Head of Immunology in the Infectious Disease Research Group.  During his time at Moderna, Darin has led many efforts to develop novel vaccines using Moderna’s mRNA platform as well as the research efforts to further develop the mRNA platform and to understand key ...

Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, Professor of Pediatrics Emerita at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, has led many of the pivotal clinical trials of vaccines licensed in the past several decades and has played a major role in their implementation.  She graduated from the University of Iowa College of...

Robert (Bob) K. Ernst, Ph.D. is the Dr. Paul and Mrs. Jean Corcoran Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis at the University of Maryland -Baltimore and a Distinguished University Professor. He is also a co-founder of the biotechnology companies Pataigin and...

Jay Evans, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific & Strategy Officer (CSSO) of Inimmune Corporation (Missoula, MT) and Director of the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana. Before joining the University of Montana, Dr. Evans spent 16 years with GSK...

Dynamic R&D executive with a PhD in Biology and strong scientific foundations in oncological therapy. Over more than 20 years at HIPRA, I have progressed from researcher and project leader in Animal Health to creating and heading the Companion Animal R&D group. Since 2022, I serve as...

Dr. Temi Folaranmi is Vice President and Therapeutic Area Lead for Vaccines Medical and Clinical Affairs at GSK in the United States. In his current role, he provides strategic leadership to a team of physicians, pharmacists, epidemiologists, and health outcome scientists engaging with various...

Sunil Gairola is the Exécutive Director and Board Member at Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. Experienced in several functions of quality control, quality assurance and clinical bioanalytics of vaccines and biosimilars.  Involved with product development leadership teams for newer vaccines and...

Dr. Rikhav Gala is a pharmaceutical scientist with extensive expertise in vaccine research, drug development, and advanced formulations. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Industrial Pharmaceutical Sciences and currently leads innovation programs at Pfizer, where his work focuses on translating...

Lauren is a reporter at POLITICO, with a focus on the FDA and pharmaceutical policy. She writes about how the world-renowned agency green-lights medical products and ensures their safety — and how they're ultimately adopted by American consumers. Her coverage spans from childhood vaccines to...

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is a renowned surgeon, author, and public health innovator. He holds the John and Cyndy Fish Chair in Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is the Samuel O. Thier Professor of the Practice of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He was Assistant Administrator for Global...

Pascal Geldsetzer is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. He has won an NIH New Innovator Award to investigate the feasibility of applying causal effect estimation techniques from the social sciences to clinical research questions. As...

Rebecca Gentile is a Director in Biologics Analytical Research and Development (BARD) for Merck & Co., Inc.  She directs a lab of analysts to complete validation for separations assays, bioassays, and compendial testing in support of Merck's biologics pipeline, and to execute the assays to...

Dr. Susan Gerber is Senior Medical Director, Adult and Respiratory Viral Vaccines, US Medical Affairs, GSK.  Before joining GSK, Dr. Gerber was at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where she served as Associate Director of Antimicrobial Resistance in the Division of...

Gregory Glenn is a visionary leader and accomplished scientist with over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical development. As the Chief Executive Officer of Pinion Immunotherapeutics, he drives the company's mission to develop treatments for chronic inflammaory disease and cancer...

​​​​​​Dr. Christina K. Go earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University studying membrane protein interactions in T cell activation. Following her dissertation, she completed a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in immunology...

Alejandra M. Hermosilla Gonçalves, MD, is a Senior Manager of U.S. Medical Affairs at Bavarian Nordic, where she leads strategy initiatives across vaccine‑preventable diseases, including mpox/smallpox, chikungunya, and other emerging infectious threats. With more than seven years of clinical...

Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin is the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Faculty Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. She is a sought after thought leader and public voice on matters of constitutional...

Dr. Girija Goyal is an immunologist working with the organs-on-chips and diagnostics platforms to design better in vitro models of the human immune system to develop new immunotherapeutics and derisk vaccines. Her research has reached the real world as these in vitro models are now used at...

Marion Gruber is the Vice President for Public Health and Regulatory  Science at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).  In this role she is leading the development and execution of IAVI’s public health and regulatory science efforts to advance IAVI’s product development programs in...

Rosane Cuber Guimarães is the General Director of Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz, with over 25 years of experience in vaccine development, production, and regulatory affairs. She played a leading role in the strategic planning, regulatory negotiations, and large-scale production that enabled the launch of...

Michael Hafran, MD, has over 20 years of clinical experience which began with serving as an Air Force physician after Sept. 11th. Following a 4-year overseas tour, he returned to the Midwest to assist various hospital organizations in the development of urgent care services. During this time, he...

Professor Jonathan Heeney, DVM DVSc PhD ScD FRCPath FRCVS, is an internationally recognized expert in zoonotic viruses, immune correlates and integrating these into next‑generation vaccine designs to vastly improve vaccine efficacy against variable viruses. With over 25 years experience, his work...

Jon Heinrichs is Vice President and head of Discovery Science at IAVI, based in New York City. His responsibilities include advancing broadly neutralizing antibodies for HIV prevention and leading IAVI’s three laboratories, based in La Jolla, CA, Jersey City, NJ, and New Delhi, India. Prior to...

Antonio serves as a Project Oversight Senior Director within the PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific with a focus on respiratory, infectious diseases and vaccines.   Antonio brings over 23 years of experience in clinical research, covering several areas such as clinical...

Allison Hill, PharmD, RPh, serves as Director, Professional Affairs at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), where she leads initiatives that advance sustainable patient care services.  Her portfolio includes immunizations as she represents APhA on numerous immunization coalitions and work...

Rico Hinrichs is an expert in the Analytical Development Group at IDT Biologika, holding a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. With more than 9 years of hands-on experience, he has developed deep expertise in advanced and specialized technologies. His work focuses on PCR technologies...

Janet is CEO of NorthX Biologics AB, a Swedish national innovation hub and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for advanced biologics in Sweden. She has a PhD from Leiden University, an executive MBA from Hult International business school in London and is associated...

With more than a decade of experience in clinical trial patient recruitment across diverse and complex therapeutic areas, Stefanie builds enrollment strategies that deliver across both small independent sites and large multi-site networks. She has scaled high-impact recruitment teams, launched...

As the Government Affairs Director, Lecia Imbery is responsible for developing and implementing effective policy and government affairs strategies and campaigns in support of Vaccinate Your Family’s strategic goals, mission, and vision.Lecia brings with her more than 20 years of experience in...

Juanjo is a biochemist, microbiologist, and business developer in biotechnology. He’s the CEO and principal investigator in Vaxdyn, a vaccine developer headquartered in Spain. With support from CARB-X, the European Commission, and private investors, Vaxdyn has developed a unique vaccine technology...

Clarisse Ingabire is a Livestock Specialist at the World Bank, based in Washington, D.C., where she leads efforts to advance One Health, climate-smart livestock, and sustainable animal health systems. She plays a central role in driving policy dialogue, technical assistance, and investment...

Prof. Ken J. Ishii, M.D., Ph.D., currently Director for Int. Vaccine Design Center, The Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, has 27 years of experience in Vaccine R&D since 1998 including 7 years as a IND reviewer at US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 15 years as a basic...

Dr. Jonathan L. Jacobs is Senior Director of Bioinformatics at ATCC, where he leads the organization’s digital biology strategy, oversees the Sequencing & Bioinformatics Center, and directs development of authenticated reference genomes and high‑quality ’omics datasets through the ATCC Genome...

Mazhar Jaffry is the CEO of Revival Research Institute and a healthcare leader with more than 33 years of experience spanning clinical care, research, and healthcare innovation. A longstanding advocate for patient-centered care, his career has been defined by a commitment to advancing medical...

Dr. Swapan K. Jana is a Ph. D. (Engg.), M. Tech. in Biochemical Engineering, B. Tech. in Chemical Technology, Post Graduate in Operations Management. BEST Scientist & Employee award from Sanofi Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India. Appreciation & Excellent Cash Award from CEO, Serum...

Dr. Lloyd Jeffs joined Cytiva as part of the acquisition of Precision NanoSystems (PNI) in 2021. At PNI, Lloyd helped establish the Biopharma Services team that is responsible for developing and executing custom programs to meet the clinical manufacturing needs of Cytiva’s Nanomedicine...

Dr. Jiang currently is a project director/supervisory research microbiologist in Division of Viral Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research interests include epidemiology, virology, immunology and vaccinology of ...

Dr. Johansson earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Lund University (Sweden) in 2023, where he studied virus–host interactions in HIV-1 and HIV-2 infections. In 2023, he joined Professor Alessandro Sette’s laboratory at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, where he combines computational...

Anne Kasmar is an Infectious Disease–trained physician–scientist with more than 15 years of experience leading clinical and translational research across academia, philanthropy, and the biotechnology sector. Her work centers on strategic clinical development for vaccines, biologics, and novel...

Chase Kempinski, PhD, is a synthetic biologist and biotech entrepreneur focused on enabling scalable, next-generation vaccine adjuvants. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Enepret, Inc., and EVAX, Inc., where he leads the development and manufacturing of renewable, yeast-derived triterpene oils for...

Larry Kerr, PhD is Deputy Vice President, Global Health & Multilateral Affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). He leads PhRMA’s engagement on global health issues, developing and implementing strategies, alliance development, diplomatic engagement...

Kevin P Killeen, PhD is the President of 2K Biologics LLC, a biologics consulting company.  Dr. Killeen has extensive training in the fields of molecular biology, microbiology, protein chemistry, immunology, and vaccinology.  His undergraduate BS degree is from Stonehill College (biology and...

Dr. Hyo Joon Kim is the Chief Operating Officer of 3H Bio Co., Ltd. and Emeritus Professor at Hanyang University in Korea. Dr. Kim earned his Ph.D. from Osaka University and furthered his expertise through postdoctoral training at MIT’s Center for Cancer Research. His pioneering research focuses on ...

Dr. Hun Kim is the President of Global Business at SK Bioscience. His role is to oversee the company’s product and platform portfolio in a comprehensive perspective from R&D to commercialization through global alliance and external innovation.Dr. Hun Kim started his biopharmaceutical career in...

Mark S. Klempner, MD, is the executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics and professor of medicine at UMass Medical School. Dr. Klempner joined UMMS in July 2012 from the Boston University School of Medicine, where he served as associate provost for research, Conrad Wesselhoeft Professor of...

Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, is the 2026 Immediate Past President of the AAP.Dr Kressly is a general pediatrician and clinical informaticist. She received her medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine and served her residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Her clinical...

Chris Larkins is Senior Vice President, Global Operations at CSL, with more than 30 years’ experience in pharmaceutical operations, quality, and supply chain leadership, specialising in vaccines, biologics, and sterile manufacturing. His career spans senior roles across...

Senior Researcher at the Vaccine Development Laboratory, Butantan Institute. She specializes in molecular biology applied to vaccine development, mainly using ​​recombinant BCG technology and has participated in several of the Brazilian genomic projects with over 150 papers published and several...

Rakesh Lothe is Senior General Manager at Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., now the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally, exceeding 1.5 billion doses annually, including Polio, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hib, BCG, recombinant Hepatitis...

Dr. Nicolette Louissaint serves as the Chief Policy Officer for the Healthcare Distribution Alliance. In this role, she leads the organization’s work to build policy solutions that reinforce the role of pharmaceutical distributors in the healthcare ecosystem.She previously served as the executive...

Dr. Brooke Luck is an Interdisciplinary Scientist at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s (ASPR) Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), who leads the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness-Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium). The BioMaP-Consortium...

Experience Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist with significant clinical trial experience including directing multiple "investigational vaccine clinical trials. Principal investigator for several multi-site investigational NIH clinical trial networks (International Maternal Pediatric...

Angela Luttick is a virologist with more than 20 years’ experience in the discovery, development and commercialisation of novel drugs. Well accustomed to leading multidisciplinary teams and experienced in the generation and integrity of key discovery-stage biological data required for the...

Shelly Malhotra leads the effort to ensure future access to IAVI’s innovations and crafts external engagement and resource mobilization strategies to support IAVI’s core mission. She drives external affairs for fundraising, advocacy and policy, and stakeholder engagement and is the architect of...

Nina Malkevich, PhD is a Senior Director and Project Team Lead at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is leading Marburg and Sudan Filovirus vaccine development programs. Prior to joining IAVI, Nina worked as a Senior Nonclinical Subject Matter Expert at BARDA on multiple vaccine...

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...

Alex Mann is a senior clinical scientist with over 25 years’ experience working in infectious and respiratory disease clinical research at hVIVO. He has significant expertise in leading the design, execution, and analysis of human challenge studies for efficacy testing, using pathogens such as...

Justine is Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder at CBE Pure Solutions, a speciality Biopharma Manufacturing and Testing services company in Melbourne.Justine is also a former Director of CBE, Centre of Biopharmaceutical Excellence, a leading consulting firm providing service to the...

Marko Marinkovich is a Product Manager at Agilent Technologies, where he oversees the reagent portfolio for the company’s parallel capillary electrophoresis platforms. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Central College. Prior to joining Agilent, Marko spent nearly a decade with Bayer...

Dr. Gerben Marsman obtained his doctorate degree at Sanquin Research (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and completed a post-doctoral research position at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology (Berlin, Germany). He joined the VFI in 2023 as a Project Manager and is currently Head of Alliance...

As Chief Operating Officer, Patricia is responsible for LimmaTech’s vaccine clinical programs. She joined  in 2014 in the Clinical Department and became part of LimmaTech’s Executive Management team in 2019. Prior to LimmaTech, Patricia held various roles in clinical research in several biotech...

Sean brings more than 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning early development through to launch and commercial success. At GSK, he led cross-functional teams that delivered two of the industry’s most successful vaccines, Shingrix and Arexvy, and contributed to reshaping ...

Dr. Yimy Mena holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the National University of Colombia and earned both his MSc and PhD in Biotechnology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. With more than 25 years of experience across emerging and global biopharmaceutical organizations, he has...

Prof. Anita Milicic leads the Vaccine Formulation and Adjuvants Group at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on exploring the immune mechanisms behind vaccines and adjuvants - in particular the interplay between innate and adaptive immunity - and on developing novel...

Dr. Deon Miller, DO, is a Board-Certified Emergency Medicine Physician and Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. With over a decade of experience in emergency medicine and more than six years as a Principal Investigator, Dr. Miller brings a unique perspective that bridges acute care...

Chris is Deputy Director for Countermeasures and Preparedness, responsible for ensuring the UK can respond effectively to new and emerging disease threats, pandemics, and emergency response situations. This includes risks to national and wider health security, such as the accidental or malicious...

Sally Mossman heads up the portfolio of research and early development stage programs at Sanofi Vaccines and sits on the Vaccines R&D Leadership Team for the company.  Novel programs in her portfolio are leveraging different technologies including Sanofi’s proprietary mRNA technology and...

Dr. Rasmus Münter is a Lead Research Scientist in the Vaccine Adjuvant Systems department of Croda Pharma. He is responsible for developing novel lipid-based adjuvants and self-adjuvating delivery platforms for RNA vaccines. In addition, he runs the functional biological testing of Croda’s novel...

Setare Nick, Ph.D., is an innovative biochemist with extensive experience in the design, development, and optimization of analytical assays to support drug discovery and development. She currently serves as a Senior Scientist in Analytical Research and Development at Merck, where she provides...

Dr. Elizabeth Norton, MPH, PhD: Dr. Norton is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at Tulane School of Medicine Department of Microbiology & Immunology. A major portion of her laboratory investigates LT-based adjuvants and proteins and mechanisms of vaccine efficacy related to age or disease...

Dr. Julie Nyanchama Nyamao is a Senior Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), where she leads the Maternal Immunization Readiness Network in Africa and Asia (MIRNA) study. With over 13 years of multifaceted healthcare experience, she combines clinical practice, research ...

Stephanie Oestreich is Managing Director of the Myeloma Investment Fund (MIF) and is the chair of the McCloy Alumni Association. She is also on the faculty of MIT, a member of SpringBoard Ventures, an advisor at grIP Venture Studio, to Biognosys (a Bruker company), Invitris, CART company CelineTx...

Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, an investigator at ACCORDS (Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science), and the Director of the...

As CEO, Carlos Orantes provides leadership and strategic direction for site network. With nearly 30 years of experience within the life sciences industry, his career has included executive leadership, operational management, LEAN Six Sigma process improvement, as well as systems and technology...

Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a...

Brandon Pallas is the Head of Business Development and Performance at Linear Clinical Research Ltd., where he oversees the early phases of new clinical trials and leads the Business Development team, and previously also lead the Start‑Up, and Project Management teams. After two and a half years at...

Heenal Patel is the Director, Commercial at Paratus Clinical Research, bringing over 15 years of experience in healthcare with a strong background in clinical nutrition and medical science. Holding degrees from New South Wales, Australia, she transitioned into clinical research four years...

With over three decades of dedicated experience in influenza virus research, I have cultivated a comprehensive expertise encompassing molecular virology, reverse genetics, and host range studies. My research program, distinguished by its innovative combination of reverse genetics and diverse animal ...

Tim Peterson is the Scientific Director, Dermal Drug Delivery at Kindeva Drug Delivery’s Woodbury, MN headquarters. Tim has been developing and scaling-up transdermal and microneedle-enabled drug delivery systems for over 35 years.Prior to Kindeva, Tim led a group focused on the development of new...

Nikolai is Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease at the Australian Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Institute in Adelaide and is a leading physician-scientist in the area of vaccine and adjuvant development. He is Research Director for Vaxine, an Australian biotechnology company. His...

Amy Pisani, MS, CEO Vaccinate Your FamilyAmy Pisani is a distinguished expert in the field of vaccine advocacy and education, with a remarkable tenure dating back to 1996 when she joined Every Child By Two (now known as Vaccinate Your Family). As the Chief Executive Officer, she has played a...

Lisa Purcell has been an Entrepreneur-In-Residence and NewCo Chief Scientific Officer at Third Rock Ventures since May 2024. Her career has been dedicated to the development of therapies within the immunology and infectious disease areas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-chaired the ACTIV...

Martin Rabel, Ph.D., is commercially responsible for Cytiva's BioPharma Service portfolio in EMEA. He enables nucleic acid-based therapy projects using Cytiva's proprietary lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platform and value-added nanoparticle development, analytical, and manufacturing services...

Dr Trina Racine possesses a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) and is currently the Director of Vaccine Development at VIDO. Upon completion of her PhD, Dr. Racine joined the Special Pathogens Program at the National Microbiology Laboratory...

Parthiban Rajasekaran (Parthi) is an innovation lead at Sanofi, where he drives strategic external collaborations by sourcing, evaluating, and negotiating partnerships with academic and industry leaders. In this role, he engages with early-stage innovators andentrepreneurs via a sponsored research...

Mr. Reddy is a senior leader in the biopharmaceutical and vaccine industry with more than 27 years of experience in business development, strategic alliances, and portfolio leadership. He has played a key role in building and scaling vaccine businesses by creating new growth...

Mary Retzlaff, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Ambient Biosciences. She earned her doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Prior to joining Ambient, Mary spent 20 years at Merck Research Laboratories in Bioprocess R&D, where she led teams responsible for ...

Gregory R. Robbins, Ph.D. is a molecular and cellular immunologist with more than 15 years’ experience spanning academic research and life sciences industry leadership. He earned his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Loyola University Chicago, where his research focused on B cell...

Reda Sadki is executive director of The Geneva Learning Foundation, a Swiss non-profit advancing digital transformation and artificial intelligence to strengthen immunization programs at scale.   He has spent over 30 years researching, developing, and implementing new ways to learn and lead, with ...

Tyler Sandberg holds a PhD in vaccine immunology from Karolinska Institutet and a master’s degree in immunology and infection biology from Uppsala University. His doctoral research focused on human immune responses to flavivirus vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection, using FluoroSpot assays to quantify ...

Afer 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 industry, he headed...

Dr. Saunders has served as Medical Director, Lumen Bioscience, Seattle, WA since Sept 2025.  Lumen is a clinical-stage biotechnology company with a mission to provide low-cost biologics to prevent and treat a broad portfolio of diseases.  Lumen’s platform Lumen's patented technology employs...

Cheri’s primary focus is to foster stronger, more productive relationships between Sponsors, CROs, and research sites. Her ability to 'speak the language' of both sides enables her to bridge gaps, facilitate smoother collaborations, anticipate potential issues, propose innovative...

Michael DVM, DVSc is a senior life sciences executive with more than 30 years of global leadership in vaccines and biologics. He currently serves as a Senior Industry Specialist with the International Finance Corporation, supporting the World Bank Group's efforts to expand access to...

Dr. Alessandro Sette devoted more than 40 years to understand and measure immune responses. He co-authored more than 1,000 peer reviewed articles and has an H-factor of 195. Dr Sette focus is to characterize beneficial  immune responses (for example fighting infection), as opposed to immune...

Taylor Sexton is a health security and biodefense policy executive with experience spanning federal response operations, congressional policy, and biotechnology strategy. He currently serves as a Principal at Todd Strategy Group and as Executive Director of the Medical Countermeasures...

Dr. Hajar Shirley is Founder and Research Director of the Vaccine Equity Education Coalition (VEEC), an independent national 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing vaccine confidence through community-centered partnerships and peer-led education models. She is the architect of the Partner for Social Change...

John A. Simon is a Founder and the Managing Partner/CEO of Total Impact Capital (TOTAL), an impact investing firm that structures, markets, and manages financing vehicles for underserved communities. The firm has partners in Washington, New York, Amsterdam, and Geneva and focuses on investments in...

Karthik Siram, Ph.D., is a formulation scientist specializing in the design and translation of advanced vaccine adjuvant systems. He earned his doctorate in Pharmaceutics, focusing on the design of nanoparticles for lymphatic targeting. As a Senior Scientist at the Center for Translational Medicine ...

Dr. William Smith is one of the original founders of AMR Clinical. He is board certified in internal medicine, critical care medicine, nephrology, and cardiology:   Recipient of the 2024 Christine K. Pierre Site Impact Award, which honors industry leaders for extraordinary contributions to the...

Jessica Steier, DrPH, PMP, founder and CEO of Unbiased Science, is an accomplished public health expert and a respected independent voice on health science. Her August guest essay in The New York Times, The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism, tackled one of the most damaging myths in...

Amy Hermann serves as Senior Program Officer for Epidemic Preparedness and Response at PATH, supporting the STRengthening Infectious disease DEtection Systems (STRIDES) project. Amy is a global health security and One Health specialist (MPHc in Infectious Diseases - Johns Hopkins University), and a ...

Senior Scientific Officer, Concept Acceleration Program (CAP) – Vaccines, NIAID/DMID/OBRRTR Dr. Taylor has >25 years of experience in vaccine development and spent for several years in the biotech industry working on bacterial vaccines and monoclonal antibodies from discovery through Phase...

Dr. Stephen J. Thomas is an Infectious Diseases physician-scientist from the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY and is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology. Dr. Thomas currently directs the Upstate Global Health...

Dr. Hibret Tilahun is a global health leader with over two decades of experience in public health, health systems strengthening, immunization, and international development. He holds a PhD in Public Health and has led large-scale, complex, multi-country initiatives across Africa, Latin America, and ...

Dr. Perrer Tosso is a chemist and public health thought leader specializing in sustainable pharmaceutical production, advanced manufacturing technologies, and the optimization of drug development and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. He holds specific expertise in process development and...

Jean-Francois has been the global head of R&D for Sanofi Vaccinessince February 2021. He obtained a PhD in bioengineering and animal sciences from the University of Gembloux in Belgium. He spent the next 4 years of his career on diagnostic at the Belgian reference center for animal...

Madeleine Treaster is an Associate Manager of Assay Development, overseeing the vaccines assay development team at a leading contract research organization (CRO). She leads the RTP, North Carolina team in supporting vaccines and biologics programs across all phases of pre‑clinical and clinical...

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...

Dr. Matthew Tunis is the Executive Secretary to Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), where he oversees the workplan and scientific activities of the committee in his position at the Public Health Agency of Canada.  He holds a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Dalhousie ...

Roland Ventura holds a PhD in molecular biology and vaccines from the Queen’s University Belfast.  After postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford he worked with Dako A/S in Denmark under a European Commission-funded Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge Fellowship.  Following this, he became...

Nele Verheyen is Project Director at the SGS Clinical Pharmacology Unit (SGS CPU) in Antwerp, Belgium, leading complex early‑phase clinical programs with a focus on Controlled Human Infection Model studies (or CHIMs). A veterinarian by training, she brings over 15 years of combined experience...

Jacqui Wade is a senior life sciences leader with over 30 years of experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and CRO sectors. With a background in Pharmacology and Physiology, she has led clinical development and commercialization programs in oncology, neuroscience, and infectious...

Dr. Katrine Wallace holds a PhD in Epidemiology and has professional experience in science communication, infectious disease and cancer epidemiology, epidemiological research methods, and biostatistics. ​During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Wallace served as a member of several international science...

Dr Laure Weber-Vintzel is a Senior Livestock Specialist at the World Bank Group, where she provides technical support for sustainable livestock-sector analytics and operations that improve animal health, welfare and productivity, strengthen pandemic-prevention systems, contribute mitigating...

Craig Williams joined Flagship Pioneering in 2023 and serves as CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Chief Executive Officer of Apriori Bio.Prior to Flagship, Craig spent more than two decades at GSK and ViiV Healthcare. During his time at GSK, Craig was charged with developing business...

Dr. Wright is President of ICON Government and Public Health Solutions Inc., and Vice President of ICON’s Government and Public Health sector with over 20-years of experience in conducting research, defining requirements, and offering scientific counsel to the federal government within the...

Dr. Minmin (Mimi) Yen (she/her) is CEO and Co-Founder of PhagePro, P.B.C., a biotechnology company reimagining bacterial disease prevention worldwide. PhagePro develops precision bacteriophage prophylactics designed to prevent infection before it starts. Its lead program, Prophylytic-Vc (PVC), is...

Dr. Quanyi Yin received his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Lyon, France. His research focuses on functional biomaterials and immune delivery systems, with a strong interdisciplinary background spanning chemical synthesis, nanotechnology-based formulations, and immunological...