Taylor Sexton | Executive Director
Medical Countermeasures Coaltion

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 Coalition, where he works with industry, academic, and government leaders to strengthen the U.S. medical countermeasures enterprise, including advanced research and development, procurement, threat assessment, and domestic manufacturing capacity. Previously, Taylor served as Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he advised on national emergency response activities, including Operation Warp Speed. He also served as Deputy Director of the HHS Joint Information Center, leading interagency coordination during major response operations. Earlier, he worked on Capitol Hill for Chairman Michael Burgess, MD, overseeing reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act. Taylor began his career leading zoonotic and high-consequence infectious disease surveillance for one of the nation’s largest health departments. He holds a Master of Public Health in epidemiology, maintains board certification in public health, and serves as adjunct faculty at Texas A&M University.

Appearances:

Pre-Congress Workshops - Monday 30th March @ 10:00

BIODEFENSE & BIOSECURITY WORKSHOP

10:00 – 10:05 Opening RemarksWorkshop Co-Chairs: Taylor Sexton, Executive Director, Medical Countermeasures CoalitionDr Matthew Hepburn, Partner, Avinora Health

10:05– 10:30 Opening keynote TBC

10:30 – 11.30am Securing the Nation: Aligning U.S. Strategic Priorities, Investment, and Technology in Biodefense

Strategic Priorities: Outlining the specific threats (e.g., emerging pathogens, select agents, or novel delivery systems) that are driving current policy and planning.
Investment Areas: Identifying critical funding priorities for the next generation of medical countermeasures, platform technologies, and supply chain resilience.
Technological Frontiers: Discussing promising new technologies, such as on-demand manufacturing, continuous fermentation for therapeutics, and advanced modeling/diagnostics, that are essential to achieving rapid response capabilities.Moderator: Vic Suarez, Founder and Principal Growth Partner, Blu Zone BioDr Mike Stebbins, Senior Vice President, ATI COL John Nuckols, PhD, JPM CPE-CBRN Medical *TBCMaj Gen(ret) Paul Friedrichs, MD, Senior Adviser, CSIS Global Health Policy CenterDr Kara Schmid, Director, Center for Military Psychiatry & Neuroscience, WRAIRDr Jean-Hu Primmer, Senior Director, Global Regulatory Strategy, Infectious Diseases, Moderna

11.30 – 12.30pm Panel: Redefining Preclinical Development: Non-clinical models to support development and licensure
Transition from animal models
Organ-on-a-Chip, In Silico Models & Regulatory Pathways
Integration of new models into FDA submissions
Implications for accelerated approvalModerator: Dr Bassam Hallis, Deputy Director, Head of Vaccine Development & Evaluation Centre, UKHSADr Girija Goyal, Principal Scientist, Advanced Technology Team, Wyss Institute Dr Ruth Cheng, CEO, ATCCDr Tom King, VP of Nonclinical R&D, Sabin Vaccine InstituteDr Javier Castillo-Olivares, Preclinical Lead – Coronavirus / Disease X, CEPI

BIODEFENSE & BIOSECURITY (PM)Room 2012pm Afternoon co-chair’s opening remarks: Taylor Sexton, Executive Director, Medical Countermeasures CoalitionDr Matthew Hepburn, Partner, Avinora Health

2:10 – 2.30pm Emerging tools and partnerships supporting outbreak response and biodefense *Title TBCDr Nahid Bhadelia, Founding Director, CEID; Founding Director, BEACON; Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, Boston University Medical School

2:30 – 2:50pm Ensuring Assay Integrity: The Role of Authenticated Reference Data in BiodefenseJonathan Jacobs, Senior Director of Bioinformatics, ATCC

2:50 – 3:10pm Presentation TBC

3:10- 4:10pm Panel: Biosecurity & Bots: Setting the Guardrails for AI in Vaccine R&D
Identifying and mitigating the risks of AI "hallucination" and erroneous data in vaccine research and development.
Establishing oversight and accountability to safeguard AI tools, especially concerning drug safety and efficacy.
The need for "AI police" or quality assurance to check code and validate AI outputs before they impact clinical trials.
Discussing the challenge of moving away from manual expertise and the potential loss of human validation in pharmacovigilance and research.
Examining the biosecurity implications of unregulated AI tools in creating novel molecules and designing preclinical models for vaccines.
Forecasting Future Biothreats: Integrating AI and Global Surveillance.
Exploring predictive analytics, AI-driven bio-surveillance, and early warning systems. Hansilla Alaigh, CEO & Founder, Global Action AllianceNikki Romanik, Co-Founder, BioRadar Public Benefit CompanyPatrick Boyle , Interim CSO, ATCC Dr Anne Cheever, Founder, Vela Scientific LLC

4:10pm End of Workshop