Vaccines & Vaccination

He is 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.

Pharmaceutical field

George Kamkamidze MD, PhD, MS is the full professor at the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Georgia and the head of Research Department, Health Research Union, Tbilisi, Georgia. He got his MD and PhD from the Tbilisi State Medical University and the MS in Biometry and Statistics from the Albany School of Public Health, SUNY, Albany, NY. He was also a post-doctoral fellow at the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research, Albany, NY and at the Laboratory of Immunology, Hospitals Group Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris, France.

Dr. Kamkamidze’s research interest is focused on the immunology and immunogenetic aspects of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and other persistent viral infections. He has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Alexander Suvorov, MD, has completed his PhD at the age of 30 years in Biochemistry in the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Russia and postdoctoral studies from Minnesota and Oklahoma Universities. He is the head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology in the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Saint-Petersburg Russia, head, and professor of the faculty of Fundamental Medicine in Saint-Petersburg State University.

He has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of several Russian and International Journals. Recently he became a corresponding member of Russian Academy of Science.

A Ugandan Pediatrician with keen interest in infectious diseases and childhood immunization. Currently a senior consultant Pediatrician at Mulago National Referral Hospital , Honorary lecturer at the College of Health Sciences Makerere University &Professor of Pediatrics St Augustine Internal University Actively involved in the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunization and introduction of New Vaccines into routine immunization. Has published widely and a peer reviewer for several journals.

A member of several professional and technical bodies including : the Uganda Medical association, Uganda Pediatric Association, International Society for Infectious diseases, International Pediatric Association, Vienna Vaccine safety Initiative, East African Rotavirus Advisory Board (GSK)& Institutional Biosafety committees for the Makerere University and Walter Reed Collaborative HIV Vaccine Trials; East African Centre for Vaccines and Immunization , External Expert Advisory group on Stronger Systems for Routine Immunization Project in Uganda and a Member of the East African Meningococcal Advisory Board

Brian G. Hubka is the CEO of Contamination Prevention Technologies, Inc. This company provides a vast array of contamination remediation and prevention technologies and products to eliminate and prevent mold, bacteria, viruses, prions and the like. They are also specialists in biofilm remediation and elimination. He also consults on contamination issues in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Has worked with Pfizer, Amgen, Celgene and many others.

Mr. Hubka is a graduate of University of Notre Dame pre-medicine. He is also a frequent speaker and has authored book chapters for many PDA/DHI books.

Szilárd Kraxner has completed his post-graduate training and qualified as a veterinary expert on companion animal medicine in 2017

He is the owner of Kraxner Kft running veterinary practice since 2008 and clinical studies since 2006. He graduated at the University of Veterinary Science as DVM in 1999.

Laurent Verkoczy is a Professor and Principal Investigator at the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute, as well as Adjunct Professor at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2000 and completed post-doctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute in 2005. Dr. Verkoczy was formerly the director of DHVI’s Laboratory of B-cell Immunoregulation from 2007-2018 and continues to serve as a B-cell Focus Investigator in Duke University’s HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology & Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) consortium.

He has published more than 50 papers, including many in high impact journals, and serves as a reviewer for numerous NIH study sections and prominent biomedical journals. His lab seeks to use humanized immunoglobulin “knock-in” models to help identify immunological mechanisms limiting protective antibody responses to highly variable pathogens like HIV-1, and to then test novel vaccine concepts for their ability to overcome such impediments.

Segundo Mesa Castillo. As Specialist in Neurology, he worked for 10 years in the Institute of Neurology of Havana, Cuba. He has worked in Electron Microscopic Studies on Schizophrenia for 32 years. He was awarded with the International Price of the Stanley Foundation Award Program and for the Professional Committee to work as a fellowship position in the Laboratory of the Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke under Dr. Joseph Gibbs for a period of 6 months, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Washington D.C. USA, June 5, 1990. At present he is member of the Scientific Board of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana and give lectures to residents in psychiatry.

Segundo Mesa Castillo. As Specialist in Neurology, he worked for 10 years in the Institute of Neurology of Havana, Cuba. He has worked in Electron Microscopic Studies on Schizophrenia for 32 years. He was awarded with the International Price of the Stanley Foundation Award Program and for the Professional Committee to work as a fellowship position in the Laboratory of the Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke under Dr. Joseph Gibbs for a period of 6 months, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, Washington D.C. USA, June 5, 1990. At present he is member of the Scientific Board of the Psychiatric Hospital of Havana and give lectures to residents in psychiatry.

Kathleen Hefferon received her PhD from the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. Kathleen has published multiple research papers, chapters and reviews, and has written three books. Kathleen is the Fulbright Canada Research Chair of Global Food Security and has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto over the past year.

Her research interests include virus expression vectors, food security agricultural biotechnology and global health

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.

Pediatric Infectious Diseases (PID) specialist with more than 15 years of experience on Clinical Research in different therapeutic areas, focused on the vaccines field within Pharmaceutical Companies during the last 10 years. Since 2005, Medical Affairs / Clinical Research manager with increasing areas of responsibilities (Medical Manager , Regional Medical Director) and geographic expansion. (Argentina, S. Cone, and LATAM). Strong expertise on vaccines field (both Medical Affairs and Clinical Research areas), pharmacovigilance, public & private market access, MoH s and supranational organizations.

Worked on the clinical research- regulatory approval – market introduction of the following key products in LATAM region, namely: Rotarix™ (GSK), Cervarix™ (GSK), Synflorix™ (GSK), Agrippal™ – Celtura™- Focetria™ – Fluad™ (Novartis/Seqirus); Menveo™ (Novartis/GSK); and Bexsero™ (Novartis/GSK).

Dr. Nara currently is the Chief Executive Officer, President, Chairman & co-founder of Biological Mimetics, Inc. and holds the Endowed Eugene Lloyd Entrepreneurial Chair and Professor in Vaccinology, founding Center Director for the Center for Advanced Host Defense, Immunobiotics, and Translational Comparative Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University, is an adjunct professor of Microbiology/Immunology, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa.

Dr. Nara holds an M.Sc. in Immuno-pharmacology, a combined Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Ph.D. (retro-virology/oncogenesis) from The Ohio State University, 4 year combined residency in Comparative Pathology and NIH senior post-doctoral Fellowship at both the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the NIH respectively. He has received numerous awards and recognition and in 2011 was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his work related to Deceptive Imprinting and Immune Refocusing Technology.

Jeanne Moldenhauer, Vice-President of Excellent Pharma Consulting has more than 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

She chaired the Environmental Monitoring/Microbiology Interest Group of PDA for more than 15 years, served on the Scientific Advisory Board of PDA for 20 years, founded the Rapid Microbiology User’s Group™, and is a member of ASQ and RAPS. She is the author of many books and numerous publications (Book Chapters and Magazine Articles)

Prof Parida is trained as a veterinarian and has completed his PhD in 1998 from TANUVAS, India and postdoctoral studies from Institute for Animal Health, UK through Welcome Trust Travelling Research Fellowship. He is the Head of the Vaccine Differentiation group at the Pirbright Institute at UK since 2007 and additionally he is a Jenner investigator at the Oxford University and a visiting Professor at Royal Veterinary College, UK. He has published more than 129 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of PLOS ONE and Transboundary Emerging Diseases.

Prof Parida leads the Vaccine Differentiation Group in the Livestock Viral Disease Programme at The Pirbright Institute, UK, which carries out applied research that will help to control foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and peste des petits ruminants (PPR). For details of his publication and work please visit his ORCHID ID at http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8253-9461 https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/our-science/livestock-viral-diseases/vaccine-differentiation

Professor of Virology, Immunology and Viral Infectious Diseases at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute (Rabat, Morocco) where she obtained her doctorate in veterinary medicine and her doctorate, after a master's degree in virology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Saint-Hyacinthe, University of Montreal in Canada. She has coordinated several EU projects on different viral pathologies and the One-Health concept and has supervised dozens of Masters and PhDs.

She has published several scientific articles and is an expert on national and international organizations. During her career, she held the position of Director of Research and then Director of IAV Hassan II.

I am a microbiologist with a long-term interest in better understanding the pathogenesis of emerging infectious diseases. I received my veterinary and master’ degrees from Cairo University, Egypt and a Ph.D. from the School of Medicine University of Maryland At Baltimore, USA. Currently, I am a professor of microbiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research involves developing new technologies and innovative approaches to understand bacterial pathogenesis and to generate useful therapies (drugs and vaccines). Currently, we are working on the functional genomics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis.

Recently, we started to utilize nanotechnology to develop nano-biosensors and Nanovaccines to control animal infections, including avian viral agents. In 2011, I started a biotechnology company (Pan Genome Systems, INC.) to further develop intellectual properties generated by our group (vaccine-based patents) into products useful to improve human and animal health. During the past decade, I have mentored 17 undergraduates, 19 graduate students and 10 post-doctoral fellows in my laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The results of my career at UW-Madison were shared through more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Osama O Ibrahim is a highly-experienced Principle Research Scientist with particular expertise in the fields of biochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, and bioprocessing for both pharmaceutical and food ingredients.

He was External Research Liaison for Kraft Foods with Universities for research projects related to bioprocessing and molecular biology. In the 2005, he accepted an early retirement offer from Kraft Foods and formed his own biotechnology company (Bio Innovation) providing technical and marketing consultation for new start-up biotechnology and food companies. He holds three bioprocessing patents and received his PhD in basic medical science (Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular biology) from New York Medical College. He is a Member of American Chemical Society, American Society of Microbiology, and Society of Industrial Microbiology since 1979.

Dr. Hari Mohan Saxena is Dean (Postgraduate Studies) at Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna. He was a Professor of Immunology and Head, Veterinary Microbiology Department, GADVASU, Ludhiana and Counsellor (S&T) in the Indian Embassy, Moscow. He studied at Cambridge and Nottingham. He was a Member, Expert Panel on Vaccines, European Society for Translational Medicine, Editor, Journal of Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology Research, Review Editor, Frontiers in Immunology, Member, Immunology Advisory Board and Editorial Board, WebMedCentral, and listed in National INSPIRE Mentors’ Panel.

He was Member, Steering Committee, Science Advisory Board, USA and President, Indian Society for Veterinary Immunology and Biotechnology (ISVIB). He is a Fellow of World Innovation Foundation, UK, National Academy of Veterinary Sciences, ISVIB and Society for Applied Biotechnology and has been conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award, National Excellence Award, Eminent Educationist Award, Lifetime Educational Excellence Award and Excellence in Research Award. He has won patents in diagnostics.