SPEAKERS
DR. JEROME KIM
Topic: The Timeline and Challenges in Developing a Vaccine for COVID-19
Director General, International Vaccine Institute
Jerome H. Kim, MD is the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). Dr. Kim led the US Army’s RV144 HIV vaccine trial in Thailand, the first demonstration that an HIV vaccine could prevent human infection and subsequent work identifying immunological and virological correlates. He rose to become the Principal Deputy, US Military HIV Research Program, and Project Manager, HIV Vaccines, US Army Medical Materiel Development Agency.
In 2015 he retired from the US Army and became the 3d Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). The IVI was founded in 1997 and is the first international organization headquartered in the Republic of Korea. It counts 35 signatory countries and the World Health Organization as supporters. The IVI’s 130 employees work to accelerate R&D in vaccines for Global Health in over 30 countries with collaborators from Korea, Asia and around the world. During Dr. Kim’s tenure IVI’s oral cholera vaccine, produced by a Korean company (EuBiologics), was prequalified, and EuBiologics production of Euvichol has contributed greatly to the worldwide surge in OCV use to prevent cholera. Collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, SK Chemicals (Korea) and BioFarma (Indonesia) have brought IVI’s new typhoid conjugate vaccine to Phase II testing. IVI has been critical in generating much needed information on the burden and cost of typhoid (enteric fever) worldwide through the Gates-funded TSAP and SETA programs. IVI’s laboratory is working on new vaccines against Shigella, Salmonella, tuberculosis, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, hepatitis A, and adenovirus. IVI’s $30M annual budget comes from state funders (Korea, Sweden, India), philanthropies (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation, Wellcome Trust), US NIH, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and Korean private donors through the Korea Support Committee for IVI.
The author of over 250 publications and 11 patents, Dr. Kim graduated with highest honors in Biology and high honors in History from the University of Hawaii, where he won the Arthur Lyman Dean Prize in the Humanities and the Library Prize for Pacific Islands Area Research. He then attended the Yale University School of Medicine and trained in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Duke University Medical Center. He became a full Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2012. Since leaving the military Dr. Kim became an adjunct Professor in the Department of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, and Yonsei University. In addition to several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha, in 2013 he received the John Maher Award for Research Excellence, USUHS, and the Department of the Army R&D Achievement Award for Technical Excellence. Dr. Kim is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has been listed among the 50 most influential persons in vaccines and serves on scientific advisory groups to private and public organizations, the World Health Organization, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
GEORGE POSTE, DVM, Ph.D.
Topic: Government Preparedness, Biosurveillance, and Biodefense
Director of the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at Arizona State University (ASU)
Former Head of R&D, Smith Kline
Member, Defense Science Board of the U.S. Department of Defense
Dr. George Poste is Co-Director and Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Network (CASN) (http://www.casi.asu.edu/), Regents’ Professor and Del E. Webb Chair in Health Innovation at Arizona State University. He assumed this post in February 2009. This program links expertise across the university in research on synthetic biology, ubiquitous sensing and healthcare informatics for personalized medicine.
He founded the Biodesign Institute at ASU (www.biodesign.asu.edu/) and served as Director for 2003 to 2009. In creating this Institute, Dr. Poste designed and built 400,000 sq. ft. of new facilities, achieved cumulative research funding of $300 million and recruited over 60 faculty, including three members of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.
He serves on the Board of Directors of Monsanto (since 2003), Exelixis (since 2004), Caris Life Sciences (since 2005), and the Scientific Advisory Board of Synthetic Genomics (since 2009). From 1992 to 1999 he was Chief Science and Technology Officer and President, R&D of SmithKline Beecham (SB). During his tenure at SB he was associated with the successful registration of 31 drug, vaccine and diagnostic products. In 2004 he was named as ‘R&D Scientist of the Year’ by R&D Magazine, in 2006 he received the Einstein award from the Global Business Leadership Council and in 2009 received the Scrip Lifetime Achievement award voted by the leadership of the global pharmaceutical industry.
He has published over 350 research papers and edited 14 books on pharmaceutical technologies and oncology. He has received honorary degrees in science, law and medicine for his research contributions and was honored in 1999 by HM Queen Elizabeth II as a Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to international healthcare and security.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal College of Pathologists and the UK Academy of Medicine, a Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and a member of the Council for Foreign Relations. He served as a member of the Defense Science Board from 2003 to 2009 and Health Board of the US Department of Defense (DoD) and is currently a member of the US Institute of Medicine Board on Global Health. He has served as a member of Advisory Committees for multiple U.S. Government Agencies in areas of defense, national security and healthcare.
ROBERT C. GALLO, MD
Topic: Polio Vaccine Potential Protection Against COVID-19
Co-founder, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS)
Co-founder & Director, Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine
The Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine
Co-founder & International Scientific Advisor, Global Virus Network
Dr. Gallo is recognized internationally for his co-discovery of HIV as the cause of AIDS. As a biomedical research scientist, he since has spent much of his career working to eliminate AIDS and other viral chronic diseases. In the early 1980s, Gallo and his team also pioneered the development of the HIV blood test, which enabled healthcare labors to screen for the AIDS virus for the first time, leading to a more rapid diagnosis while simultaneously protecting patients receiving blood transfusions. His research also helped physicians develop HIV therapies to prolong the lives of those infected with the virus. His 1996 discovery that a natural compound known as chemokines can block the HIV virus and halt the progression of AIDS was hailed by Science magazine as one of that year's most important scientific breakthroughs.
Before the AIDS epidemic, Gallo was the first to identify a human retrovirus and the only known human leukemia virus—HTLV—one of few known viruses shown to cause a human cancer. In 1976, he and his colleagues discovered Interleukin-2, which is a growth-regulating substance now used as therapy in some cancers and even AIDS. Then in 1986, he and his group discovered the first new human herpes virus in more than 25 years (HHV-6), which was later shown to cause an infantile disease known as Roseola.
Today, Dr. Gallo's work continues at the Institute of Human Virology (IHV), an institute of the University of Maryland School of Medicine that Dr. Gallo helped found in 1996. IHV is the first virology center of its kind, combining the disciplines of research, patient care and prevention programs in a concerted effort to speed the pace of progress. In 2011, Gallo co-founded the Global Virus Network to position the world to rapidly respond to new or re-emerging viruses that threaten mankind, to achieve collaboration among the world’s leading virologists, and to support next-generation training.
Prior to becoming IHV director in 1996, Gallo spent 30 years at the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute, where he was head of its Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology. Dr. Gallo has received numerous scientific honors and awards from around the world, holds 35 honorary doctorates, and has published nearly 1,200 papers.
Dr. Gallo was the most referenced scientist in the world in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time he had the unique distinction of twice winning America’s most prestigious scientific award—the Albert Lasker Award in Medicine - in 1982 and 1986. He was ranked third in the world for scientific impact for the period 1983-2002 (PNAS, November 15, 2005, vol102, no.46, 6569-16572).
ARTURO CASADEVALL, MD, PhD
Topic: Convalescent Serum Therapy for COVID-19
Chair, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Director, Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Convalescent Serum Therapy Clinical Trial
Casadevall’s groundbreaking work in the field of infectious diseases has been recognized by many, including the National Institutes of Health, which presented him with a Merit Award in 2007. He received several distinguished awards, including the Alumni Achievement Award in Basic Science from New York University, the Rhoda Benham Award of the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas, and the Kass Lecture from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 2008, he was recognized the American Society for Microbiology with the William Hinton Award for “outstanding contributions toward fostering the research training of underrepresented minorities in microbiology.” ASM also notes that Casadevall was the first Hispanic Department Chair at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and has “provided exemplary training and mentoring to a significant number of minority scientists, and himself served as a role model of success.”
He has served as President of the Medical Mycology Society of America, Chair of American Society for Microbiology Division F, Chair of the American Society for Microbiology Career Development Committee, and Co-Chair of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors, and currently serves on the Scientific Council of the Pasteur Institute. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American College of Physicians and the Association of American Physicians, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2014, he became an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Casadevall has published more than 682 papers and 33 book chapters, largely in the fields of immunology and microbiology, genetics and molecular biology, biochemistry, and medicine, and more recently scientific culture and competition. Casadevall has more than 32,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 94.
Dr. Casadevall was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba in 1957. He moved to Elmhurst, Queens, New York City in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1976. Casadevall received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Queens College, City University of New York in 1979, and his M.S. and Ph.D in Biochemistry from New York University in 1983 and 1984. He then received his M.D. from New York University in 1985. Casadevall completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Bellevue Hospital Center, and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Under the guidance of Matthew D. Scharff, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cell biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1989-1991.
In 1992, he accepted an assistant professorship in medicine and microbiology & immunology at Albert Einstein. In 2000, he became the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Montefiore Medical Center and rose to the rank of full professor by 2001. In 2002, he was named the Selma and Jacques Mitrani Professor in Biomedical Research. In 2006, he became the Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and was named the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Professor of Microbiology Immunology at Johns Hopkins.
BRIAN LELYAND-JONES, PHD
Topic: Inflammatory Effects of COVID and Managing Clinical Trials in a COVID Environment
Former Director of McGill Cancer Center and Emory Cancer Center
Director of the Darwin Institute
Dr. Leyland-Jones is best known for leading major changes in breast cancer clinical trials and treatments, as well as his ongoing focus on how genomics plays a vital role in the fight against breast cancer.
When conducting genomics research and developing personalized treatments for cancer patients, biomarkers are key. Because these distinct biological indicators are so important, there is a growing and urgent need for biomarker profiling and validation in the cancer research community. As the Director of the Darwin Foundation (formerly the Consortium for Clinical Diagnostics), Dr. Leyland-Jones is partnering with scientists at research institutions and biopharmaceutical companies who are dedicated to facilitating genomic research and diagnostics. The Darwin Foundation provides a centralized infrastructure where disease genes and genetic signatures can be identified and validated. The Darwin Foundation also develops medical response tests, as well as new and improved diagnostic tests for a variety of diseases, including cancers.
Throughout his career, Dr. Leyland-Jones helped develop drugs that are now mainstays of oncologic breast cancer treatment (such as the anthracycline, antimetabolite and platin families), as well as the targeted therapies trastuzumab (Herceptin®) and bevacizumab (Avastin®). He also helped disprove some theories about how to best treat breast cancer patients. For example, he demonstrated that two years of adjuvant trastuzumab was no better than the standard one year of treatment for women with HER2-positive, early-stage breast cancer.
Additionally, Dr. Leyland-Jones helped drive global collaboration and material collections as a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Tissue Bank Consortium in Asia that was founded and operated by NFCR.
DOUGLAS MONTICCIOLO
Topic: Managing Risk & Providing Financing to State and Federal Government for COVID Related Supplies
Founder, CEO and CIO, Brevet Capital
Former Co-Head Asset-Backed Securities at Deutsche Bank
Douglas Monticciolo is Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder of Brevet Capital Management. He is an entrepreneur and investment manager with deep data analytics and technology experience developed over three decades while providing credit financing and advisory services.
Mr. Monticciolo founded Brevet Capital Management in 1998 and has established the firm as a leader in helping government agencies solve complex problems – and drive positive social impact – by creating innovative financing products and services. This “finance as a service” approach provides direct lending and other financing to private middle market companies that enable them to effectively serve the government sector as contractors – a low credit risk strategy with highly competitive barriers to entry.
Mr. Monticciolo’s years of experience working in start-up environments as a software entrepreneur and within asset-backed securities, fixed income, and investment banking helped him identify a gap in the market where traditional lenders failed to provide the innovative financing and forward-looking advisory services needed for the private contractors government contractors rely on to deliver services.
Mr. Monticciolo has a passion for technology and approaches investing and credit financing with a problem-solving mindset. He began his career at Goldman Sachs in the financial institution’s industry resource group where he specialized in investment banking and principal finance trading and helped create numerous serviced-marked products and services to address the unmet needs of clients. He later joined Lehman Brothers as a senior vice president in the company’s strategy group, a principal investment joint venture between investment banking and fixed income. He left Lehman Brothers to become director and co-head of asset-backed securities in North America at Deutsche Bank and head of proprietary fixed income in the merchant banking/principal finance group.
Mr. Monticciolo’s career took a turn from academics to finance when he was studying at Columbia University and working with Fischer Black, creator of the Black–Scholes model, on complex mathematical formulas. He was encouraged to apply his skills to financial problem-solving instead of academia and he decided to put aside his pursuit of a PhD to join Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Monticciolo received a Master of Engineering Sciences degree in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University. He graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Mr. Monticciolo is a Level III certified member of the National Association of Rocketry (NAR High Power Rocketry) and a member of the Randonneurs USA (long distance road biking organization). Mr. Monticciolo also coaches robotics and innovation and has led teams to numerous regional awards. He led one of his teams to a worldwide 2nd place finish (runner-up) for the FLL Global Innovation Award season sponsored by Edison Nation and XPRIZE Foundation, in cooperation with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (an agency of the United States Department of Commerce).
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Hope for New York and is a Board Member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Gotham Chapter.
DR. LYNDA CHIN
Topic: Connecting COVID Surveillance to Clinical Care and Clinical Trials
CEO, Apricity Health
Founding Chair, Department of Genomic Medicine, MD Anderson
Scientific Director, Institute for Applied Cancer Science, MD Anderson
An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Chin is a renowned cancer genomic scientist and a leader in application of technologies, AI/ML and big data in medicine. She conducted research in cancer genomics and cancer biology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, served on the executive subcommittee of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and co-led development of the Firehose pipeline at the Broad Institute. As founding chair of the Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center, she launched initiatives to develop cross-cutting platforom capabilities with technologies, data and analytics, of the Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center, she launched initiatives to develop cross-cutting platforom capabilities with technologies, data and analytics, including the APOLLO platform to systematize workflows for patient-oriented research, the Translational Research Accelerator (TRA) to integrate longitudinal clinical and research data for precision medicine, and the Oncology Expert Advisor to apply AI/ML for democratization of evidence-based care.
Later, as Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Texas System, Dr. Chin created the Institute for Health Transformation to explore strategies for integrating data and digital technologies in care delivery, especially for the underserved. She developed the REDI (Real-world Education, early Detection and Intervention), a 21st century version of PCMH (Patient-Centered Medical Home), and implemented it in one of the poorest communities in South Texas (Project DOC) to demonstrate technology-enabled care delivery for a vulnerable population.
DR. ALFRED SLANETZ
Topic: Developing Cellular Therapy & T-Cell Therapy Approaches to COVID-19
CEO, Geneius Biotechnology
Former CEO, Bluebird Bio
Former Head of New Product Development, Genetech
Dr. Slanetz is the founder of Geneius Biotechnology and has been President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company full time since its inception. Geneius is focused on the development & commercialization of innovative autologous, adoptive T-cell therapies, which offer a more robust immune response to cancer compared to current approaches.
Prior to co-founding the Company, he served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Bluebird Bio.
Dr. Slanetz also served as Vice President, Business Development of TRANSGENE in May 1996. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Manager, New Product Development at Genentech Inc.
He received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Immunobiology from Yale University, as well as a Masters from Brown University.
DR. WENDY ZIAI
Topic: Neurovascular Effects of COVID-19 & Fighting COVID on the Front Lines of the Johns Hopkins ICU
Medical Director, Neurovascular Laboratory, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Director Neurology, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Co-Director, Johns Hopkins Bayview Neurocritical Care Unit
Dr. Wendy Ziai is the Medical Director of the Neurovascular Laboratory at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
She manages critically ill patients with neurologic and neurosurgical diseases. Particular interests include subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral and intraventricular hemorrhage, hypothermia and intensive care unit (ICU) resource allocation.
Dr. Ziai’s research interests include platelet dysfunction in intracerebral hemorrhage, intraventricular rt-PA for intraventricular hemorrhage, and markers of vasospasm in subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Dr. Ziai received her MD from Queen's University, Faculty of Health Sciences and completed residencies in Neurology as well as Neurological Surgery from University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Ziai completed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Neurology, and is a member of Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada in Neurology.
DR. WOLFGANG KLIETMANN
Topic: Vaccines and Biodefense
Founder, Institute of Laboratory Medicine
Lecturer, Harvard Medical School
A clinical pathologist and medical microbiologist, infectious disease expert Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann serves as an appointed Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Recognized internationally for his expertise in pathology, biotechnology, medical microbiology, and health care policy, he heads an international health care consulting firm. A native of Germany, Dr. Klietmann immigrated to the United States in 1992.
He studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the University of Paris Medical School. He also conducted, as an Associate Scientist, postdoctoral research at the Wistar Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Klietmann completed the Owner-Management Program at Harvard Business School. A Fellow of the College of American Pathologists and former President of the Harvard Business School Health Industry Alumni Association, he is married to Doris Klietmann (MBA).
In Germany, Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann founded and acted as President and Physician-in-Chief of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, creating a leading diagnostic and research institute that was eventually acquired by a major pharmaceutical firm. The respected physician has accepted a position on the medical faculty of the University of Tubingen and led a research group at the Max-Planck Institute for Virus Research. In the U.S., he held staff privileges in the Department of Pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Klietmann worked in biodefense as well, collaborating with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the U.S. Department of Defense.
A member of several professional societies, Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann has organized a number of major conferences at Harvard Business School. Frequently guest-lecturing and contributing to scientific journals, he has delivered more than 200 presentations and publications internationally.
Throughout his career, Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann has endeavored to bring together researchers, scientists, and other interested parties to share data, technology, and resources on infectious diseases to ultimately make the world a healthier place.