Novel Vaccines: Speaker Biographical Sketches
Peter Mason, Ph.D., Head, Microbial Molecular Biology, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics
Dr. Mason has lead NV&D’s viral molecular biology research since 2009. From 2002 to 2009 he was a Professor of Pathology and Senior Scientist in the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at UTMB in Galveston, where he developed flavivirus vaccines using single-cycle replicons. From 1990 to 2002 he worked at the USDA’s Plum Island Animal Disease Center where he developed vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease. Before joining the USDA, Dr. Mason was an Assistant Professor at Yale where he developed poxvirus-based flavivirus vaccines. Dr. Mason received his BA from Amherst College, and his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
John W. Boslego, M.D., Director, Vaccine Development Program, PATH
Dr. Boslego leads PATH’s Vaccine Development Global Program which seeks to identify and facilitate development of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for the developing world, including vaccines against pneumonia and diarrheal diseases. He also advises other vaccine programs at PATH.
Before joining PATH, Dr. Boslego served as executive director of Biologics, Clinical Research, at Merck & Co., Inc. His career spans 30 years of service to the US government and private industry. For nearly two decades, he worked in vaccine research, both in the laboratory and in clinical trials, for Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He brings extensive experience in vaccine development; his portfolio at Merck included Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine, a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, an influenza DNA vaccine, a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, various pediatric combination vaccines, a rotavirus vaccine, and a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
Dr. Boslego also directed the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Thailand for three years before returning to the U.S. to become Deputy Director for Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Dr. Boslego received his medical education at George Washington University, after graduating from the United States Military Academy.
Amy J. Weiner, PhD., Senior Program Officer, Global Health Discovery, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Amy J. Weiner joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Senior Program Officer in Global Health, Vaccines Discovery in 2010. Amy has over 25 years of experience in the vaccines and biopharmaceutical industry, over 65 publications and several issued patents in the fields of vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutic compounds and animal models. Fascinated by the process of human development and armed with the newly available tools of molecular biology acquired while studying avian retroviruses at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Amy discovered the first “homeobox” gene, a class of genes important for regulating body pattern formation. She received her PhD. in molecular developmental genetics at Indiana University in 1983. Amy joined the laboratory of Dr. Michael Houghton at Chiron Corporation in 1984 to work on indentifying the etiologic agent of non-A, non-B hepatitis, which was discovered in 1988 and named the hepatitis C virus (HCV). From 1984-2006 Amy held various positions at Chiron including director of research and made numerous scientific contributions to understanding genetic diversity, humoral immunity, mechanisms of immune escape, viral resistance and other aspects HCV biology. Much of this work had a direct impact on the development of diagnostics and the submission of an IND for one of the first HCV vaccines to enter human clinical trials. As a director of research at Chiron/Novartis (2000-2008), Amy led several early stage HCV antiviral drug discovery projects, the development of animal models for the evaluation of antiviral compounds and vaccines discovery programs on respiratory and encephalitis viruses.
Frank Arnold, Ph.D., Senior Program Manager, BARDA/ASPR/HHS (Tunnell Consultant)Dr. Frank Arnold is a Tunnell consultant in support of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Dr. Arnold joined the Pandemic Influenza program in March of 2009 where he provides technical support and program management to the recombinant and cell culture based vaccine programs. He also provides subject matter expertise for product development activities from laboratory experiments through transfer to final manufacturing.
Prior to joining the BARDA team, Dr. Arnold led the process development department in R&D at Sanofi Pasteur in Swiftwater PA for over 10 years. There he managed activities ranging from microbiology/fermentation development, downstream processing through to formulation and fill/finish for clinical trail materials. During his tenure with sanofi he and his team made significant contributions to the licensure of H5N1 influenza vaccine, Fluzone ID, Fluzone HDIM and Menactra. He also made significant contributions to vaccines currently under development including live Dengue vaccine, various therapeutic cancer vaccines, pediatric meningitis vaccines and pneumoccoal vaccines. Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Arnold worked at Wyeth in the vaccine division (Wyeth Lederle Vaccines and Pediatrics/Lederle Praxis Biologicals) for 10 years. There he led scientific teams in various areas including, analytical development, purification development, formulation development and manufacturing support. He made significant contributions to the licensure of Prevnar for both process and analytical technologies and also a number of pediatric combination products including Acel-Imune, Tetramune and Tetracel as well as working on various novel candidates including polio, RSV, and Herpes. Dr. Arnold brings extensive expertise to BARDA in vaccinology that includes both scientific and managerial disciplines for vaccine targets of viral, bacterial and therapeutic origins.
Dr. Arnold received a BS in Chemistry from New York University and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from New York University. He was a post doctoral scientist at American Cyanamid Medical Research Division in Pearl River, New York.
Teresa Lambe, Ph.D., James Martin Fellow, The Jenner Institute, University of OxfordDr. Lambe’s main research interest is the development of vaccines that work by inducing strong and protective adaptive immune responses. Previous works, delineating disease function and understanding how adaptive immune memory is established, have been rationally applied to efficaciously augment vaccine development. Currently, Dr.Lambe’s principal focus is directed at the development and testing of novel viral vector vaccines against influenza.
Ofer Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Medicine/Infectious Diseases, Children’s Hospital BostonOfer Levy MD, PhD is a Principal Investigator and Staff Physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital Boston and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. His laboratory studies the ontogeny of neonatal and infant immune development.
Roy Curtiss, III, Ph.D., Professor, Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences; Director, Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, The Biodesign Institute, Arizona State UniversityMy group is actively involved in the design, construction and evaluation (in vitro and in vivo) of recombinant attenuated Salmonella vaccines (RASV) to prevent a diversity of infectious diseases of agronomically important animals and of humans. My group has recently developed novel new strategies for attenuation, regulated antigen synthesis and delivery and for achieving biological containment to limit vaccine persistence in vivo or survival if excreted. Live Salmonella vaccine strains with a number of these new features that express a pneumococcal antigen are currently being evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial as a vaccine to prevent infant pneumonia. We have recently developed strategies for synthesis and delivery of multiple heterologous protective antigens by a single Salmonella vaccine, enabling us to develop vaccines providing robust immunity not possible with strains that express only a single antigen. Since our vaccine strains are extensively modified with over one percent of the genome deleted, modified and/or replaced with diverse foreign DNA often designed for resynthesis, we expect pressures for selection of suppressor mutations during directed evolution. In addition to assessing these genomic changes in relation to genome sequences in wild-type parental strains, we use the genomic universe in seeking sequences to use in specifying protective antigens and in enhancing induction of desired immune responses in immunized individuals. Dr. Curtiss received his doctorate degree in Microbiology from the University of Chicago in 1962.
Kristin Moffitt, M.D., Assistant in Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston; Instructor, Pediatrics, Harvard Medical SchoolKristin Moffitt received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College. She received her medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine and completed internship and residency in pediatrics at Hasbro Children’s Hospital of Brown University Medical School. She then returned to Boston to complete a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital. Her fellowship research within the laboratory of Dr. Richard Malley included identification of novel pneumococcal T cell antigens and characterization of their immunogenicity. She joined the faculty at Children’s Hospital with the Division of Infectious Diseases in 2010 and is an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Moffitt’s research continues to evaluate the interaction of pneumococcal T cell antigens with the host immune system, specifically exploring the role of activation of the innate immune system in acquisition of protective immune responses. The overall goal of her research is to more clearly define the mechanisms of immunity to pneumococcus and to use these findings to guide the development of alternative bacterial vaccine strategies.
Key Publication:
Moffitt K, Gierahn T, Lu Y, Gouveia P, Alderson M, Flechtner J, Higgins D, Malley R. TH17-based vaccine design for prevention of Streptococcus pneumoniae colonization. Cell Host and Microbe, 9(2):158-65, 2011.
Lewellys F. Barker, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Medical Advisor, Aeras Global TB Vaccine FoundationLewellys F. Barker, MD, MPH, is currently Senior Medical Advisor at the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation in Rockville, Maryland. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. His postgraduate training was in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and New York University/Bellevue Hospital. He served in the US Public Health Service as a medical research bench and clinical investigator and senior manager with the NIH Division of Biologics Standards and the US Food and Drug Administration Bureau of Biologics, and at the Division of AIDS of the US National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with responsibilities for product development, regulation, and public health application of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. He also worked as a Senior Vice President at the American Red Cross National Headquarters with responsibility for the Red Cross blood program and other areas. He has published extensively on preclinical and clinical research on a variety of biomedical products, disease detection, epidemiology, risk assessment, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.
J. Tyler Martin, M.D., President and CMO, Dynavax Technologies
Dr. Martin is the President, Chief Medical Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Martin has nearly 20 years of drug development experience. Before joining Dynavax in 2009, Dr. Martin was President of Humabs LCC. Previously, Dr. Martin worked at Chiron as the Vice President, Development from 2004 until 2006 and the Director, Clinical Research from 1994 until 1997. In his 7 years at Chiron, Dr. Martin led the team responsible for the development of the novel vaccine adjuvant MF59, the first vaccine adjuvant licensed by regulatory agencies since alum, and approved as FLUAD influenza vaccine in Europe. He has also held senior development and research positions at Sangamo, Inc., Valentis, Inc. and SyStemix/GTI. Dr. Martin received a B.S. in Chemistry and an M.D. from the University of Nebraska. He completed his fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases and molecular microbiology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jan Pravsgaard Christensen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, University of CopenhagenDr. Christensen leads the infectious immunology group within the department, which try to develop new adenovirus based vaccines, including influenza, HCV and HIV.
Beside of doing research, Dr. Christensen teach Immunology at the medical as well as natural science faculty at University of Copenhagen.
Before being appointed associate professor at University of Copenhagen, Dr. Christensen did his postdoc training in Dr. Peter C. Doherty’s laboratory at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.
Dr. Christensen received his education in Biology at University of Copenhagen. Afterwards he received his PhD in Professor Allan Randrup Thomsen’s laboratory at Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen.
Jamie Kathleen Scott, M.D., Ph.D., Professor & Canada Research Chair in Molecular Immunity, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Scott received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1985 (Cell & Molecular Biology) and her M.D. in 1989 from St. Louis University. Her postdoctoral training was at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the lab of George P. Smith, the inventor of phage display, and at The Scripps Research Institute in the laboratories of John Tainer and Elizabeth Getzoff. In 1993, she began work at Simon Fraser University as an Assistant Professor. In 2004, Dr. Scott joined the new Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU, which awarded her a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Molecular Immunity. She has served on grant review panels for the Science Council of BC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the NIAID, the NCI, and IAVI. Her research has been supported by the NIH, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Dr. Scott’s main research interest is in understanding the molecular basis of antibody-antigen interactions, and application of these concepts to vaccine design. Her postdoctoral project involved the initial development of phage-displayed peptide libraries for this purpose. Since then, she has worked on furthering phage library technology, with emphasis on understanding the structural mechanisms by which peptide ligands are recognized by antibodies, especially those that are directed against epitopes on folded proteins and carbohydrates. To this end, her laboratory has worked with four human antibodies that neutralize a broad range of HIV-1 isolates, and to develop filamentous phage as a vaccine platform. More recently, she has begun to study the role of B cell subsets in the antibody response to infection and vaccination, and in autoimmune disease, and has been designing a novel MPER-based vaccine for HIV-1 infection.
Simon Delagrave, Ph.D., Director, Biotherapeutics, Discovery North America, sanofi pasteur
Simon Delagrave is director of the biotherapeutics group in sanofi pasteur’s North American Discovery center where he has been since 2005, and has been serving as leader of the team responsible for development of ACAM529, a vaccine against genital herpes. Prior to his involvement with sanofi pasteur, Dr. Delagrave founded a biotechnology company and held positions as scientist and senior scientist at Fraunhofer USA, Hercules Inc., and OraVax, developing viral vaccines such as IMOJEV®, as well as novel engineered proteins for antiviral therapy or other biotechnology applications. He received his Honours B.Sc. in biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, his Ph.D. from MIT in the field of biological chemistry, and was a postdoctoral fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Brandeis University. Dr. Delagrave is an author or inventor of several peer-reviewed publications, patents, and patent applications.
Alan Liss, Ph.D., Director, MCMi PHSAT, FDA, Office of the Commissioner, Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats
Dr. Liss has over 25 years of experience in the areas of vaccines, biologics and pharmaceutical product development. Alan has held a variety of industrial and academic appointments, authored over 60 scientific publications and presented lectures nationally and internationally. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1974. Alan’s work on furthering the development of Medical Countermeasures includes his helping set up the Regulatory and Quality Affairs Division of BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Division under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. Recently he has joined FDA where he is leading the use of Action Teams to enhance the approval process for MCM candidates.