Dr. Alireza Heidari, Ph.D., D.Sc. is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Chemistry. He has got his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees form California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA. Furthermore, he has double postdocs in Project Management and also in Nanochemistry and Molecular Structure Theory. His research interests are Biophysical Chemistry, Nanochemistry, Quantum Chemistry, Biomolecular and Vibrational Spectroscopy, Molecular Modeling and Structure, Theoretical, Computational and Mathematical Chemistry, Ab initio and Density Functional Methods. He has participated at more than eighty reputed international conferences, seminars, congresses, symposiums and forums around the world as yet. Also, he possesses many published articles in Science Citation Index (SCI)/International Scientific Indexing (ISI) Journals. It should be noted that he has visited many universities or scientific and academic research institutes in different countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Russia, Estonia, Turkey, France, Swiss, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, China, India, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, etc. as research fellow, sabbatical and volunteer researcher or visitor heretofore. He has a history of several years of teaching for college students and various disciplines and trends in different universities. Moreover, he has been a senior advisor in various industry and factories. He is expert in many computer programs and programming languages. Hitherto, he has authored more than ten books in Chemistry. Syne, he has been awarded more than six hundreds reputed international awards, prizes, scholarships and honors. Heretofore, he has multiple editorial duties in many reputed international journals. Hitherward, he is a member of more than one hundred reputed international academic–scientific–research institutes around the world. It should be noted that he is currently the President of American International Standards Institute (AISI), Irvine, California, USA.

Human Cancer Tissues,Human Cancer Cells, Tumors, Cancer Tissues, Cancer Cells,Biophysical Chemistry, Bio molecular Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry, Nano chemistry, Modern Electronic Structure Computations, Theoretical Chemistry, Mathematical Chemistry, Computational Chemistry, Vibrational Spectroscopy, Molecular Modelling, Ab initio & Density Functional Methods, Molecular Structure, Biochemistry, Molecular Simulation, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Oncology, Synchrotron Radiation, LASER, Anti–Cancer Nano Drugs, Nano Drugs Delivery, ATR–FTIR Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, Intelligent Molecules, Molecular Dynamics, Biosensors, Bio markers, Molecular Diagnostics, Numerical Chemistry, Nucleic Acids, DNA/RNA Monitoring, DNA/RNA Hypermethylation & Hypomethylation, Human Cancer Tissues, etc.

Matthias Giese has studied Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the Saarland University/Germany. He got a first PhD in Tumor Immunology in the German Cancer Research Center/ Heidelberg. After his PostDoc, Matthias Giese joined the pharmaceutical industry. His team in Vienna/ Austria started the first European multicenter clinical trial with a personalized genetic engineered anti-melanoma vaccine. Also animal health was interested in his expertise in modern vaccine technologies and so he changed the company and headed from now on a global portfolio on innovative vaccine approaches for the next years. His sabbatical leave from the industry was a return back to his academic roots. At Leipzig University/ Germany Matthias Giese got a major PhD (venia legendi) in Molecular Virology. He developed a therapeutical DNA vaccine against a chronic viral infection. This vaccine was able to eliminate the virus and to cure the patient. Currently he is working again for the human pharmaceutical industry as independent consultant (IMV Heidelberg) and additionally he teaches graduate students as associate professor. His focus is on neoantigenes, therapeutical vaccines, and the interaction with immune checkpoint modifiers as combination therapy. Matthias Giese is author of the textbook “Introduction to Molecular Vaccinology“ and other specialized books on modern vaccines. He is an enthusiastic mountain marathon runner.

Therapeutical vaccines, cancer vaccines, neoantigens, novel adjuvants, chronic infections,neurological disorders, modulation of checkpoint inhibitors, signal cascades and immune responses.

Giulio Tarro graduated from Medicine School, Naples University (1962). Research Associate, Division of Virology and Cancer Research, Children’s Hospital (1965-1968), Assistant Professor of Research Pediatrics, College Medicine (1968-1969), Cincinnati University, Ohio. Oncological Virology Professor, Naples University (1972-1985). Chief Division Virology (1973-2003), Head Department Diagnostic Laboratories, (2003-2006). D. Cotugno Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Naples; Emeritus, 2006 -. Since 2007 Chairman Committee of Biotechnologies and VirusSphere, World Academy Biomedical Technologies, UNESCO, Adjunct Professor Department Biology, Temple University, College of Science and Technology, Philadelphia, recipient of the Sbarro Health Research Organization lifetime achievement award (2010). His researches have been concerned with the characterization of specific virus-induced tumour antigens, which were the "finger-prints" left behind in human cancer. Achievements include patents in field; discovery of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in infant deaths in Naples and of tumor liberated protein as a tumor associated antigen, 55 kilodalton protein overexpressed in lung tumors and other epithelial adenocarcinomas.

Murine Virology, Antiviral Chemotherapy, Effects of inhibitors on viraI replication , Studies on the role of herpes viruses in cancer , Tumor immunology, Pathology of AIDS

Pierre A. Morgon is CEO of MRGN Advisors and Regional Partner for Switzerland at Merieux Development. He is also Chairman of the Board of Virometix, as well as Non-Executive Director to the Boards of Theradiag, of Eurocine Vaccines, and of Vaccitech. Pierre has over 30 years of experience in the global life science industry, especially with specialty care, vaccines and immunotherapy, at the helm of international operations, in C-level positions at global level in multinational corporations and as CEO of start-up companies. He is a lecturer in several MBA programs in world-class business schools and in life science conferences, and at the Mass Challenge biotechnology incubator in Switzerland. He holds a Doctorate of Pharmacy, a Master in Business Law and a MBA. He is also an alumnus of INSEAD and IMD.

Immunology, Biological industry and in healthcare

Michael G. Hanna is the founder of Vaccinogen and the discoverer and developer of OncoVAX® an autologous vaccine designed to provoke a specific immune response against colon cancer cells. His previous accomplishments include Chairman (Emeritus) and Chief Scientific Officer of Intracel Resources, Chief Operating Officer of Organon Teknika/Biotechnology Research Institute and Sr. Vice President of Organon Teknika Corporation. Prior to that (1975-1982) Michael G. Hanna was Director of the National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research Center. OncoVAX® is an autologous vaccine designed to provoke a specific immune response against colon cancer cells. The product is comprised of irradiated tumor cells obtained from the patient after surgery and it is administered along with the BCG vaccine. Vaccinogen believes OncoVAX® is the first product to show a significant reduction in recurrence of disease in Stage II colon cancer patients in a major, long-term clinical trial. Except for surgery, there is no medically accepted treatment for Stage II colon cancer. Trials using adjuvant chemotherapy have not demonstrated any patient benefit to date. He led the team that achieved FDA regulatory approval of TICE BCG for treatment of carcinoma in situ (CIS) bladder cancer. Worldwide registration was achieved in 1991 and it is standard of care for prophylaxis of recurrence of superficial bladder cancer and therapy of CIS. He received a doctoral degree in experimental pathology and immunology from the University of Tennessee. He has over 225 publications to his credit, has 11 patents in immunotherapy and has been the recipient of numerous honors, and served on many editorial boardsBiography

Vaccines

Maurizio Chiriva Internati completed his doctorates of immunology at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and morphological sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. He completed his postdoctoral research on tumor immunology and cancer vaccine studies from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Currently, he is the director of Basic and Translational Research at the division on Hematology& Oncology at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, and is a senior editor for the journal, International Reviews of Immunology. He has published more than 100 papers in peer reviewed journals and serves as on the editorial board of several reputed cancer journals.

Research is focused on developing new therapies for Multiple Myeloma, ovarian and lung cancer, and prostate cancer and melanoma.

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

vaccines

Jagat Kanwar is an Associate Professor of Immunology & Cell Biology, and Group Leader in “Nanomedicine-Laboratory of Immunology and Molecular Biomedical Research” at Deakin University, Australia. He did his PhD in 1993 from PGIMER, Chandigarh, India and worked as a Senior Scientist in The Auckland University, New Zealand for more than 10 years. He has a national and international reputation in investigating fundamental and applied molecular aspects of cancer and chronic inflammation. His research is also focused on miRNA, aptamer, locked nucleic acid (LNA) LNA-modified chimeric aptamers-siRNA conjugates, and immunoliposomes technology and disease targeted drug discovery. His research combines Immunology with state of the art and cutting edge techniques in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Nanobiotechnology and visualization to investigate the pathways in which key molecules are regulated in both normal and disease states. He designed nanocarriers for applications in vaccines, immunotherapy, and drug delivery of antigens immunostimulatory ligands to dendritic cells and subsequent stimuli to T- lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes and TH17 cells.

Cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases targeted nanomedicine based drug delivery siRNA, miRNA anti-sense targeted gene nanomedicine based technology to target cancer and inflammation Drug discovery with anticancer targets for cancer cell survival, death, arrest, and repair Development of recombinant proteins and searching new immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory bioactives, proteins and peptides for cancer and neuroprotection Development of complementary alternative medicine from the milk derived proteins including metal binding protein (Lactoferrin), and herbal preparation derived active components with a special focus on the treatment of colon and breast cancers Development of oral and intravenous administration of nanocarriers to overcome the challenging concept of drug resistance in various cancers Development of new generation safe, biodegradable, less toxic, disease targeted natural contrast materials for imaging Novel nano-medicinal based vaccines and immunotherapy Micro-fluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip devices for delivery and diagnosis

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.

Vaccines

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.

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.

Dr. Leonard A Smith received a B.A. degree in chemistry and zoology from the University of New Hampshire in 1972 and his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from Georgetown University in 1978. He is the Senior Research Scientist (ST) for Medical Countermeasures Technology at USAMRMC and Scientific Director at USAMRIID. Dr. Smith has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific publications, reviews and book chapters, and holds several patents for his work on bio-defense vaccine development. He has received numerous awards including the DOD Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the highest award given by the Secretary of Defense to career employees.

Maurizio Chiriva Internati completed his degree in biological sciences at the University of Milan, Italy and doctorates of immunology at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom and morphological sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. He completed his postdoctoral research on tumor immunology, virology and cancer vaccine studies from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Currently, he is the director of Basic and Translational Research at the division on Hematology & Oncology at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, and is a senior editor for the journal, International Reviews of Immunology. He has published more than 100 papers in peer reviewed journals and serves as on the editorial board of several reputed cancer journals

Hematology, Oncology and Immunotherapeutic strategies for solid and non-solid tumors

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.

Dr. Shirwan is Dr. Michael and Joan Hamilton Endowed Chair in Autoimmune Disease, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Director of Molecular Immunomodulation Program at the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics. He conducted his graduate studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara, CA, and postdoctoral studies at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. He joined the University of Louisville in 1998 after holding academic appointments at various institutions in the United States. Dr. Shirwan’s research focuses on the modulation of immune system for the treatment of immune-based diseases with particular focus on type 1 diabetes, transplantation, and vaccines. Dr. Shirwan is an inventor on 16 worldwide patens, widely published, lectured at numerous national/international conferences, served on study sections for various federal and non-profit funding agencies, and is on the Editorial Board of 16 scientific journals. He is member of several national and international societies and recipient of various awards.

Type 1 diabetes, Graft rejection, Bone marrow transplantation and Vaccines (cancer and infectious diseases)

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.

Dr. Jeffrey Ulmer received his B.Sc. with honors from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Regina in 1978 and was the recipient of the Merit Award of the Society of Chemical Industry of Canada. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from McGill University in 1985 and completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Dr. George Palade in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine. At Merck Research Laboratories and Chiron Corporation he conducted seminal studies on DNA vaccines, and novel vaccine adjuvants and delivery systems. He has published over 190 scientific articles, is on the editorial boards of Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy and Human Vaccines, and serves on several external advisory boards. He is currently Global Head of External Research at Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, responsible for identification and assessment of new opportunities for collaborative research.

Manmohan Singh, Ph.D. is currently the Head of Technical Development (TD) within Novartis Vaccines in Holly Springs, NC USA. He joined NVD TD in 2012 and prior to that had spent 16 years in the Research Division of formerly Chiron and now Novartis Vaccines. He was part of the Chiron/NVD vaccines research team that over the years has developed several innovative antigen and adjuvant delivery technologies. He is a licensed Pharmacist and holds a Masters and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi India. Dr. Singh is the author of over 120 original research publications, editor of four books on vaccine research and development and is an inventor on over 47 issued patents.

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.

Jon Heinrichs is the Director of Microbial Vaccines at Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, PA, where he leads a team of scientists developing vaccines for several bacterial pathogens including Clostridium difficile, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Chlamydia trachomatis. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Heinrichs held positions of increasing responsibility at the biotechnology company, MedImmune, where he contributed to the identification of vaccine candidates for numerous bacterial pathogens, particularly S. pneumoniae. He was also involved in research on the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention of infectious diseases and the treatment of cancer, and was head of the In Vivo Biology group. Dr. Heinrichs earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and molecular genetics from Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, elucidating the pathogenesis of the food-borne organism Bacillus cereus, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at The Rockefeller University where he examined global regulation in S. aureus.

Dr. Yongqun “Oliver” He is an associate professor in the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. He is experienced in both vaccinology and computer sciences. His primary interests are host-vaccine interaction mechanism analysis, vaccine development, computational vaccinology, and bioinformatics. His group has developed many vaccine informatics programs including the VIOLIN vaccine database and analysis system and Vaxign vaccine design program. Dr. He initiated and leads the development of the community-based Vaccine Ontology (VO). Dr. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and is an editorial board member of several journals. More information about Dr. He and his laboratory is available at: http://www.hegroup.org/.

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

Dr. John Dong is President and CEO of GenPhar, Inc. Under John\'s leadership, GenPhar, Inc. has been focusing its efforts in developing vaccines and therapies against infectious diseases using a unique vaccine platform. Scientists at GenPhar have developed a number of multivalent vaccines against lethal viruses. John has established close collaborations with divisions of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). John\'s collaborations include: working with NIH to develop an HIV vaccine that induces both neutralizing and CTL responses; partnering with the US Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to develop a bivalent Ebola vaccine and a trivalent Marburg vaccine; and a joint effort with the US Navy Medical Research Center (NMRC) to develop a tetravalent dengue vaccine against all four serotypes of the dengue virus. John has also been leading the effort to develop commercial applications of the platform, including hepatitis, Influenza, RSV and a West Nile virus vaccine. Dr. Dong also has a long academic career. He obtained his medical degree at the Capital Medical Institute in Beijing, and his doctorate in molecular virology and immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He joined the faculty at UAB almost immediately after obtaining his Ph.D. with joint affiliations with both the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center. He then continued his successful academic career at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), and as a Professor in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Dr. Dong is an expert in molecular virology and immunology and has published regularly in scientific journals such as the Journal of Virology, Human Gene Therapy, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). John served as the principal investigator on a number of federally funded grants and contracts, and his research has resulted in multiple patent awards

Periasamy Selvaraj received his Masters degree in Biochemistry from University of Madras, Chennai, India and his Ph.D. from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. He did his postdoctoral fellowship in cell adhesion receptors of the immune system at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston under the supervision of Dr. Timothy A. Springer. Currently, he is a Professor in the Department of Pathology at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA. His laboratory focuses on developing cancer vaccines using novel protein transfer approaches, which could be used as an alternative to gene transfer based cancer vaccines in human clinical settings. He is also co-founder of Metaclipse Therapeutics Corporation, which is in developing personalized immunotherapy for cancers. He has published more than 80 research papers in national and international journals.

Cancer Vaccines

Currently serves as the Head Section of Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Previously he headed the infectious disease unit and was acting head of Internal Medicine B at the Chaim Seba Medical Center, Israel. He was Lecturer in Medicine at the faculties of medicine in Tel Aviv University, Paris University VII and visiting associate professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Prof. Rubinstein serves in the advisory board of numerous pharmaceutical and Biotech companies such as Bayer, BMS and GSK, and sits in the Scientific Advisory Board of Rosetta Genomics and BiondVax. He is currently the Chairman of the Israeli Society for infectious diseases and member of numerous international societies and committees. He serves on a dozen of Editorial boards of Medical Journals and has published over 300 medical publication, books and monographs.
Prof. Rubinstein holds an MD degree from Basel University and received his specialist degree in internal medicine from NYU. In addition to his medical degree Prof. Rubinstein holds an LLB degree from the Tel Aviv University.

Dr Alsharifi grew up in Babylon/Iraq and studied Veterinary Medicine at Baghdad University. He was increasingly interested in medical research and after coming to Australia he studied Biomedical Science at Monash University. He then moved to the Australian National University to take up a PhD scholarship at The John Curtin School of Medical Research, and investigated with Arno Müllbacher, Robert Blanden, and Mario Lobigs the immunobiology of an alphavirus infection. During his early years in research he discovered a period of exhaustion in type-I interferon response following an acute viral infection, which may explain the clinically known observation that virus-infected patients are at increased risk to a more sever secondary viral and/or bacterial infection. Following the completion of his Ph.D. studies, he investigated with Prof Müllbacher the possibility of using gamma-irradiated influenza virus as a universal flu vaccine. In 2008, he was awarded the Hanson Fellowship to continue his research into the universal Flu vaccine and also to investigate the possibility of producing other viral vaccines using similar technique to that used for influenza. His flu vaccine research has been featured in the Catalyst program on ABC (http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2613604.htm), and in many newspaper articles such as (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,,25625291-5018662,00.html) and (http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25406694-5006301,00.html).

Cross-Protective influenza vaccine
Exhaustion of IFN-I response and the susceptibility to secondary infections

Dr. Yasuhiro Yasutomi DVM, Ph.D. is an immunologist in vaccine development field. He was a Research fellow (Immunology), 1990-1991. at Harvard Medical School from 1990-1991 and then Instructor 1992-1994. He was Instructor in Medicine at Department of Viral Pathogenesis in Beth Israel Hospital in Harvard Medical School from 1994-1996. He was associate professor in Mie University Graduate School of Medicine from1996-2007. He is Director at Tsukuba Primate Research Center in National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, and Professor in Mie University Graduate School of Medicine in July 2007 to present.

New technology of vaccine vector

Dr. Uzonna obtained DVM and Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, he was recruited to the Department of Immunology, University of Manitoba in 2004. His research program focuses on understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate the induction, maintenance and loss of protective immunity to protozoan parasites, with a view to exploiting the information gained from these studies for the development of effective vaccines and vaccination strategies against these infections. Dr. Uzonna is currently an Associate Professor of Immunology and the Leader of Parasite Vaccines Development Research Group.

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”

Dr. De-chu Christopher Tang is the Founder of VaxDome LLC and Vaxin Inc. (Vaxin’s nameplate was changed to Altimmune, Inc. in 2015). He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from Indiana University in 1989. He carried out his postdoctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the faculty at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) 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 nasal vaccines, adenovirus-vectored poultry vaccines, as well as the protective innate-adaptive immunity duo platform technology. He received the Wallace H. Coulter Award for innovation and entrepreneurship in 2000; and Vaxin Inc. was selected as a Tech Museum Awards Laureate in 2007. Dr. Tang was selected as a Distinguished Overseas Scientist by the South Korea KOFST Brain Pool Program in 2012; subsequently joined Chung-Ang University and International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul; and was appointed as a Scientist at IVI after the Brain Pool Program Award expired in 2013. He founded VaxDome LLC in Birmingham, Alabama, USA in 2014.

His research focuses on development of the non-invasive drug-vaccine duo (DVD) platform technology that confers rapid-sustained-broad protection of vaccinees against pathogens, with neither the potential to induce drug resistance nor that to trigger harmful systemic inflammation.

Chit Laa Poh completed her PhD at Monash University(Australia) in 1980 and conducted short periods of postdoctoral training from the Pasteur Institute, Cambridge University and the University College London. She is a Distinguished Professor and Head of the Centre for Biomedical Sciences at Sunway University. She has previously worked in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine , National University of Singapore (NUS) for 25 years. She has published more than 85 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of Journal of Biosceince and Bioengineering, Austin Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygeine, Journal of Virology and Emerging Diseases. And Annals of Translational Medicine and Epidemiology.

Viral Vaccines

Guey Chuen Perng, nick name Oscar, earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of California, Davis, and got his postdoc training in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC), an affiliated teaching hospital to University of California, Los Angeles. Oscar was an assistant professor at the Department of Ophthalmology at UC Irvine and served as Director of Arbovirology division at AFRIMS, an affiliated research institute to US Military in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2007, Oscar was recruited to the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as an Associate Professor at Emory University. In 2012, with his outstanding research and insightful knowledge on dengue and global vision on infectious diseases and prevention, Oscar was recruited to the Center of Infectious Disease and Signaling Research at National Cheng Kung University. Currently, Oscar is a faculty at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.

Vaccines

Refat Sadeq, Prof. and Head of Medical Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Port Said University, Egypt. He has been on microbiology field over 40 years. He has started and graduated in Zagazig Faculty of Medicine for M.Sc. and Ph.D. Then started to research articles reaching more than 80 articles, many of which have been published in international scientific journals, and he has reviewed over 100 edits on different journal sites. He is a Featured Author, for books in Medical Microbiology and Immunology for both medical students and nurses. Work from 2008-2011 as Head of Microbiology Department, Faculty of Medicine- Zagazig University. Also work as member of Egyptian scientific committee for graduation of Professor and assistant Professor in Microbiology in Egypt and some Arabic countries. He signed as Board editor of EC Microbiology Journal and Journal of Human Virology and Retrovirology. Since Oct 2014 he pointed as a Head of Microbiology and Immunology department, Faculty of Medicine, Port said University.

Vaccines, Virology, Microbiology

Dr. Byungse Suh is a Professor in Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Temple University. Dr. Byungse Suh received his MD, University of Miami and Postdoctoral Fellowship, Biochemistry, University of Iowa. Internship and Residency, Internal Medicine, University of Wisconsin Hospital. He is an Member of Fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America and American Society for Microbiology.

Dr. Byungse Suh Research interests includes Pharmacokinetics of antimicrobial agents, Drug protein binding in disease states, In vitro determination of drug photo toxicity, Clinical trial studies of antimicrobial agents.

Dr. Igor S. Lukashevich is a Professor in School of Medicine at Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Center for Predictive Medicine, University of Louisville. Dr. Lukashevich received his MD degree from Minsk Medical School (Belarus) and PhD and DSc (Doctor of Sciences) Degrees in Virology from Institute of Virology, Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow (Russia). His post-doctoral training was focused on molecular biology of viral hemorrhagic fevers (CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA; Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium; University of Hamburg, Heinrich-Pette Institute of Experimental Virology and Immunology). From 1990-1993 he served as an invited expert on hemorrhagic fever viruses at University of Conakry/IRBAG, Guinea, and as a consultant of German Agency for Technical Cooperation(GTZ). From 2001 till 2011 he served as Assistant, and then Associate Professor in Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Dr. Igor S. Lukashevich research interest includes molecular biology and pathogenesis of viral hemorrhagic fevers. His current projects mostly focus on innovative approaches in vaccine research and development: rational design of live-attenuated vaccines, recombinant YF17D-based vaccines; advanced alphavirus replicon technology; infectious DNA vaccines; and his target infectious are: Lassa Fever and South American Hemorrhagic Fevers, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever, and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis.

Professor Frederic Deschamps is a medical doctor since 1990 and he has completed his PhD of toxicology in 1993 at the University of Lille, France. He is the director of the Department of Occupational Health of the Medicine Faculty of Reims, France. He has published more than 40 papers in medical journals about occupational health and diseases.

Flu vaccines, Influenza Vaccines

Maysaa El Sayed Zaki PhD, MD in Clinical Pathology-Clinical Microbiology and Immunology is Professor at Mansoura Faculty of medicine and director of clinical laboratories in Mansoura university children hospital and member of the higher promotion committee for Egyptian universities Professor (Clinical Pathology).Professor Dr Maysaa has over 120 scientific papers and projects either presented or published. She is internationally recognized expert in many areas of advanced medicine including clinical microbiology, diagnosis of infectious diseases, molecular biology, Clinical research and drug discovery.. Recent publications also include books on the use of modern technology in laboratory diagnosis like omics technology and nanomedicine. Dr Maysaa has awarded the university award of Academic Excellence and is a member of Who,s Who for International Executives.

Dr. Maysaa El Sayed Zaki has research interest in Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Dr. Abdulwahab R Hashem Binsadiq was from Department of Botany and Microbiology College of Science, he worked as a Associate Professor of Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University (1991), at present he is working as a Professor of Microbiology, College of Science King Saud University from 1995 to till date

Environmental Sciences, Microbiology

Dr. Leondios Kostrikis received his BSc degree (Biochemistry) in 1987 as a Fulbright scholar and his Ph.D. (Architectural Studies of Inoviruses) in 1993 from New York University, United States. This was followed by post-doctoral research at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center of Rockefeller University (New York) on the molecular virology of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). He was a recipient of fellowships from the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Aaron Diamond Foundation. He joined the faculty of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center as a staff investigator in 1998 and the Rockefeller University as an Assistant Professor in 1999. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Cyprus and he is the Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory.

Research Interest includes HIV-1 transmission and pathogenesis and how host and viral factors may influence the progression of the disease; studying the mechanisms of drug resistance development during HIV antiretroviral therapy; understanding the implications of natural genetic diversity in efficacy of antiretroviral drugs;