Vaccines, Immunology and Clinical Trials

Having been educated at Christ Church, Oxford and University College, London in Biochemistry (First Class Honours), Chemical Microbiology and Biochemical Engineering he then spent 7 years as a Senior Process Engineer in industry. The last 3 years in America were spent with Merck Sharpe and Dohme where he was introduced to animal cell biotechnology and the production of viruses for use in veterinary and human vaccines. On returning to the UK he worked for 10 years at the Animal Virus Research Institute, Pirbright, scaling-up bioreactors for virus vaccine production processes and maximizing the biological productivity of the BHK cell lines for Foot-and-Mouth Disease virus generation. He then moved to the University of Surrey as Professor and was Head of Microbiology (7 years) and was then (1997) appointed to the first chair in the UK in ‘Science and Engineering Ethics’. His publication record includes over 200 research papers and reviews along with over 20 edited books and an encyclopedia on animal and plant cell culture technology. In 2002 his book ‘Ethics Tools and the Engineer’ was published by CRC Press. He is currently the Vaccine Series Editor in Chief, and Editor in Chief of Vaccine Research Quarterly, Procedia in Vaccinology, Trials in Vaccinology and ‘Science and Engineering Ethics’. Having founded the European Society for Animal Cell Technology in 1975 and the International Society for Vaccines in 1996 (President: 2007-11), he was elected to be President of the European Association for Higher Education in Biotechnology in 2000.

Former President
International Society for Vaccines
UK
Former President, International Society for Vaccines, UK

Alexander von Gabain obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Heidelberg and held a post-doctorate position at the Stanford University. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was Professor at the University of Umeå and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as an advisor to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. From 1992 to 1998, he was Chair of Microbiology of the University of Vienna at the Campus Vienna Biocenter, Austria and has helped to build the public private partnership of the Vienna Biocenter/IMP. In 1998, he cofounded Intercell AG and led the company as CEO until it was successfully floated on the Vienna Stock Exchange in 2005. From 2005 to 2009, he was Member of the Executive Management Board and CSO of the Company. Since then, he has been serving the Company as strategic advisor and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.

His research interest is in the field of bio medical research and documented by a large number of publications, book chapters and patents. He is professor of Microbiology at the Max Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna, and foreign adjunct professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, member of several professional organizations and serves on the boards of biotech enterprises, including TVM Capital, Munich. In 2008, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), where he is involved with the innovative entrepreneurship agenda. His achievements have been acknowledged by prestigious industrial awards, academic prizes, honourable memberships, including the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Science.

Charung Muangchana is a graduate of Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Baltimore, USA (2007), for International Health (Disease Prevention and Control; Vaccine Science and Policy as well as Economic Evaluation on Health) for his PhD, and of Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand (1990) for his MD. He is also a field epidemiologist by training from the Ministry of Public Health (Field Epidemiology Training Program: FETP). He got many publications on international and domestic peer review journals on variety of health issues, including vaccine and immunization. He has been a director of the National Vaccine Institute (NVI) Thailand, since 2007. The NVI is a new institute at national level to coordinate national vaccine policy and strategy. The NVI aims to promote vaccine research and development as well as policy development on immunization in the country, which Thailand has high capacity on vaccine development and production. Before joining the NVI he worked as a medical practitioner and directors of community hospitals in Southern Thailand.

National Vaccine Institute
Thailand
National Vaccine Institute, Thailand

Nikolai Petrovsky MBBS, FRACP, Ph.D. is an active hospital clinician, research professor at Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide Australia and research director of Vaxine, an Australian vaccine development company. He is Secretary-General of the International Immunomics Society and has received major funding from the US National Institutes of Health to develop novel biodefense vaccines and adjuvants. He has won prestigious awards including the AMP Innovation Award at the 2009 Telstra Business Awards and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2010. He has taken four vaccines to the clinic and has authored over 100 scientific papers and book chapters.

Pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes, Obesity and type 2 diabetes, Vaccine development and Immuno-informatics

Wu Yuzhang, born in 1963, Shandong Qingzhou, Immunology PhD, Professor, PhD supervisor. Currently the director of Basical Medicine College of Third Military Medical University, director of Institute of Immunology of PLA, director of National Engineering Research Center for biological products, director of National and Local Joint Engineering Labolatory for peptide drugs, director of National Biological Industry Base (Chongqing) pharmaceutical pilot production center. Professor Wu is a pioneer in antigen project field and an academic leader in China’s therapeutic vaccine field. He is the winner of National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, Ministry of Education “Changjiang Scholar” Distinguished Professor, elected to the National New Century Talents Project, enjoying special government allowances, General Logistics Department “Technology Golden Star”, military academies “Yucai Award” Gold Award and other honors. Academic position: Member of the Sixth discipline review group of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, member of National Postdoctoral Mobile Station evaluation committee, member of National Pharmacopoeia Committee, biological and medicine department member of the Sixth National Ministry of education science and technology committee, National Natural Science Foundation discipline review group member, National Drug Evaluation Committee expert, New drug innovation National Science and Technology Major Special responsible expert, standing director of Chinese Society of Immunology, council member of Biophysical Society of China, Director of PLA professional committee of Immunology, Standing Committee of the General Logistics Department science and technology committee, chairman of Chongqing Society for Immunology, “Immunological Journal” chief editor and so on.

National Engineering Lab for Vaccine Development
China
National Engineering Lab for Vaccine Development, China

Dr. De-chu C. Tang is a Korean Brain Pool Program Scientist and the Scientific Founder of Vaxin Inc. He obtained his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Indiana University in 1989. He carried out his postdoctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1994; subsequently founded Vaxin Inc. on UAB campus in 1997; and was responsible for Vaxin’s daily operation as the Chief Scientific Officer until 2012. Dr. Tang was one of the pioneers during the development of DNA vaccines, noninvasive skin patch vaccines, adenovirus-vectored influenza and anthrax vaccines, adenovirus-vectored poultry vaccines, as well as the drug-vaccine duo platform technology. He received the Wallace H. Coulter Award for innovation and entrepreneurship in 2000; Vaxin Inc. was selected as a Tech Museum Awards Laureate in 2007; Dr. Tang was selected as a distinguished overseas scientist by the Korean Brain Pool Program in 2012 and subsequently recruited to Chung-Ang University and International Vaccine Institute in Seoul as a Scientist

His special interests include treatment of the common cold, prophylaxis and treatment of infections in transplant recipients, and hepatitis C virus epidemiology.

Geert Vanden Bossche obtained his DVM at the Veterinary Faculty of Ghent and his PhD in Virology at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart. Following his postdoctoral training in virology, immunology and molecular biology at the Free University of Berlin and Hohenheim (Germany), where he subsequently held adjunct faculty appointments, he transitioned to the Vaccine Industry where he served various senior roles in both early and late vaccine development at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics and Solvay Biologicals. He then joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to serve as SPO in Vaccine Discovery for Global Health. He is founder of UNIVAC llc in the US and UNIVAC NV in Belgium and visiting scientist at the REGA Institute, University of Leuven (Belgium).
Geert is board certified in virology and microbiology, the author of over 30 publications, and inventor on several patent applications. He has presented vaccine- and adjuvant-related topics at multiple international congresses.

UNIVAC llc
Belgium
UNIVAC llc, Belgium

Dr. Tary-Lehmann received her M.D. and Ph.D. in Immunology, both from the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her postdoctoral training in Immunology was at the University of California, Los Angeles. Thereafter, she went on to Case Western Reserve University as a faculty member, where she was awarded tenure and appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology in 2003. As Chief Scientific Officer for CTL, she provides guidance and oversight for technical operations, ensuring the ongoing scientific excellence of the company. For more than 10 years, she has worked with various pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients in developing, validating and performing regulated immunology assays in CTL’s GLP- and CLIA- compliant laboratory

Cellular Technology Limited
USA
Cellular Technology Limited, USA

University in Olsztyn
Poland
University in Olsztyn, Poland

Dr. Tatjana Pljesa received her medical education (MD), specialization (specialist in microbiology and parasitology) and postgraduate studies in Clinical and Experimental Bacteriology at the Medical Faculty, University of Belgrade, Serbia. She is the author of over 30 publications in the field of microbiology and immunology. She has a great experience in production of viral vaccines, bacterial vaccines and diagnostic devices. She was Production Director in the Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera Torlak. and now she works in bacterial vaccine production area as Team leader in establishing single-use WAVE technology in the production of pertussis vaccine, diphtheria toxoid and tetanus toxoid projects. Prior to this, she was the Head of Vaccine Production Department, where she managed the production of pertussis vaccine. She was involved in the study of comparing clinical isolates and vaccine strains of Bordetella pertussis by serotyping and genotyping, as a part of the project of surveillance of B. pertussis antigenic divergence and pertussis re-emergence in countries with high vaccination coverage.

Vaccine production, Vaccine R&D, Microbiology & Immunology and Development of new products, using single-use technology.

Zarema Obradović, MD, Ph.D., specialist of epidemiology, Bosnia and Herzegovina, married. Main areas of work: epidemiology, facultative immunisation, travel medicine, public health. Present positions: Professor at the Faculty for Health Studies, University of Sarajevo; Professor at the Medical Faculty, University of Tuzla; Epidemiologist, Public Health Institute Sarajevo; Focal Point for International Health Regulations (2005) for FB&H; Coordinator for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) for FB&H. Member of Association of epidemiologists of FB&H, Academy of Science and Arts B&H for Public Health, Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences (BHAAAS), MetaNet - Accademic association for communicable diseases in South-East Europe- DAAD, CCM for TB and HIV/AIDS - B&H. Visiting professor at Medical Faculty, Bucharest, Romania; external evaluator for Ph.D. thesis at the University Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Published 170 scientific papers in different publications, medical journals, nacional and international symposiums and congresses. Published books: “Echinococcosis”, “International Travelers Healthcare”, “Epidemiology and Health Statistics”

University of Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina