Galit Alter | VP, Early Development for Vaccines & Immune Therapies
AstraZeneca

Galit Alter is an American immunologist and virologist renowned for her pioneering work in systems serology, a field that combines systems biology approaches with antibody Fc-engineering to uncover immune correlates of protection against infectious diseases such as HIV, influenza, and COVID-19.As of 2025, she serves as Vice President of Early Vaccines and Therapies at AstraZeneca, following a sabbatical from 2022 to 2024 as Vice President of Immunology Research at Moderna, where she led efforts to develop next-generation vaccines and monoclonal therapeutics by dissecting the pathways that enhance protective antibody functions. Alter earned her BSc and PhD from McGill University, focusing on cellular immune responses to HIV, before advancing her research at Harvard University on innate and humoral immunity against viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
For over two decades, Alter was a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Principal Investigator and Group Leader at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, where she established tools to study antibody glycans and their role in blocking infections and targeting pathogens or tumors. Her research has emphasized high-throughput pipelines for engineering antibodies to combat cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune conditions, earning her recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2023 by Clarivate Analytics.[4] Alter's contributions have informed vaccine design strategies, particularly in enhancing antibody-mediated immunity, and she has held prestigious positions such as the Samana Cay MGH Research Scholar (2017–2022) and Kristine and Bob Higgins MGH Research Scholar (2012–2017).