Scientific Advisory Board

Scientific  Advisory Board

 Drew Weissman, MD , PhD
Dr. Weissman is the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the study of RNA and innate immune system biology and the application of these findings to vaccine research and gene therapy. Dr. Weissman, in collaboration with Dr. Katalin Karikó, discovered that use of modified nucleosides in mRNA can increase its therapeutic and prophylactic potential. This technology is being used in the highly effective mRNA COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. For their groundbreaking mRNA-related work, Weissman and Karikó were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
 Frederick G. Hayden, MD 
Dr. Hayden is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Stuart S. Richardson Professor Emeritus of Clinical Virology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. His research includes antiviral agents for the prevention and treatment of respiratory viral infections and clinical trials of several candidate antiviral agents for influenza and rhinovirus infections, and studies of host inflammatory response modifying agents in the pathogenesis of rhinovirus infections.
 Robert B. Belshe, MD
Chairman, SAB
Dr. Belshe is an expert in clinical trials design and has extensive laboratory experience in virology. He founded and directed the NIH funded Saint Louis University Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU). He is currently the Diana and J Joseph Adorjan Chair of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Emeritus at Saint Louis University. His clinical and laboratory research interests include development of live attenuated and adjuvanted respiratory virus vaccines for influenza, parainfluenza and RSV. His work on biodefense vaccines includes evaluating vaccines to prevent pandemic H7 and H5 influenza using both traditional and non-traditional vaccine approaches.  https://www.icts.wustl.edu/people/robert-b-belshe-md/
     David J. Topham, PhD 

Dr. Topham is the Vice Provost and Executive Director of The Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation, a Marie Curran Wilson and Joseph Chamberlain Wilson Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology a nd Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He also serves as Director of the New York Influenza Center of Excellence, a robust, collaborative program for basic and translational investigation of influenza virology, pathogenesis, immunology, and vaccines, and one of the six national Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance supported by the National Institutes of Health.

      Ralph A. Tripp, PhD

Dr. Tripp is a Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia and is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. His research focuses on the development of translational disease intervention approaches for emerging respiratory viruses and the mechanisms of immunity and disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory virus infection. He also studies the conceptual and functional differences between innate and adaptive immune responses that provide the foundation necessary to develop therapeutic protocols and vaccines that will confer long-term protective immunity.
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