Governance

Friede is the scientific officer responsible for vaccine delivery systems within the Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR) at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. In this position he is the WHO focal point for matters related to the development of technologies to improve vaccines including adjuvants, stabilization methods needle-free vaccine delivery systems.

Prior to joining WHO Dr Friede held several positions in the vaccine industry: He was Vice President of Development for Apovia Inc. a Californian vaccine development company, prior to which he was responsible for vaccine formulation and vaccine delivery research at Smithkline Beecham Biologicals (now GlaxoSmithKline).Martin Friede received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Danilo is Chief Science Officer and Global Head, External Scientific Affairs for Sanofi Vaccines since October 2021.  He is responsible for external-facing functions of the Vaccines R&D unit, including teams for search-and-evaluation of vaccine candidates and vaccine innovations, scientific network development & partnerships, and external financing.  He has over 25 years of experience in research and development of vaccines and biologics in both pharmaceutical and non-profit sectors.  Prior to joining Sanofi in November 2017, he was the Chief Scientific Officer at Aeras, a non-profit vaccine R&D organization funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During his 19 years at the Merck Research Laboratories, Danilo contributed to the licensure of Merck’s human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, and the development of novel vaccine candidates and antibodies against multiple viral pathogens and novel immunotherapeutic approaches against cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.  He also served on numerous advisory committees to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Program, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, NIH Integrated Preclinical/Clinical AIDS Vaccine Development Program, USAID Malaria Vaccine Development Program, and HIV Vaccine Enterprise. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry and post-doctoral training from the California Institute of Technology and the Scripps Research Institute-La Jolla, respectively.

Dr. Graham is the former Deputy Director of the NIAID Vaccine Research Center and has developed novel vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for several viral diseases including the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for which he has been widely recognized.

Barney S. Graham is an immunologist, virologist, and clinical trials physician with an extensive background in basic and translational research applied to vaccine development. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Rice University, a medical degree from the University of Kansas, and residency, ID fellowship, and PhD from Vanderbilt University where he was an R01-funded investigator before joining  the NIAID Vaccine Research Center at NIH as a founding member in 2000. He retired as Deputy Director of the VRC in 2021 and is now an independent consultant and Senior Advisor for Global Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

He is an elected member of ASCI, AAP, and National Academy of Sciences. He is recipient of the Robert M. Chanock Award for lifetime contributions to RSV research, the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award for contributions to vaccinology, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, and the National Academy of Sciences John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science. He was named one of the world’s 100 most influential individuals and one of the Heroes of the Year in 2021 by Time magazine and recognized as the Federal Employee of the Year by the Partnership for Public Service.

He is an author on more than 500 scientific publications, and a thought leader on emerging viral diseases and pandemic preparedness. He is best known for his research on RSV pathogenesis, structure-based vaccine design, and application of mRNA delivery technology. He was involved in the advanced evaluation of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for HIV, Ebola, and Chikungunya, and developed novel vaccines for RSV, influenza, Zika, paramyxoviruses, and coronaviruses including the first COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody to enter clinical testing and that subsequently achieved Emergency Use Authorization and licensure.

Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received his graduate degrees from Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Weissman, in collaboration with Dr. Katalin Karikó, discovered the ability of modified nucleosides in RNA to suppress activation of innate immune sensors and increase the translation of mRNA containing certain modified nucleosides. The nucleoside-modified mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine platform Dr. Weissman’s lab created is used in the first 2 approved COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. They continue to develop other vaccines that induce potent antibody and T cell responses with mRNA–based vaccines. Dr. Weissman’s lab also develops methods to replace genetically deficient proteins, edit the genome, and specifically target cells and organs with mRNA-LNPs, including lung, heart, brain, CD4+ cells, all T cells, and bone marrow stem cells.

Duccio Medini leads the 60M$ RNA Readiness and Response program, co-funded by CEPI, to develop standardized, multi-product RNA manufacturing capabilities providing increased access to diverse biologics and sustainable pandemic response.

In executive roles of growing responsibility at Chiron, Novartis and GSK corporations, he led hundreds of data scientists in Vaccines R&D across Europe, US and Asia, holding Research Board, Innovation Board, Clinical Quality Board and Data Governance Board responsibilities.

Working across biological discovery, clinical development and public health, he discovered the pangenome concept co-founding the pangenomics discipline, contributed to the successful registration of four novel vaccines, including the first universal vaccine against serogroup B meningitis, led the Meningococcal Antigen Typing System (MATS) platform worldwide, developed transformative corporate data strategies, authored 50+ publications, books and patents in data science for health, population genomics and mathematical vaccinology.

Prof. Medini received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Perugia, Italy, with a residency at the Northeastern University in Boston, MA; is habilitated Full Professor of Molecular Biology; has served in international PhD school committees at the Perugia and Turin Universities in Italy; is honorary member of the Cuban Immunology Society, Fellow of the ISI Foundation, Strategic Board member of CINI’s Italian National Digital Health Lab; an IMD, ADVAC and UC Berkley alumnus.

Dr. Connie Schmaljohn is the Director of the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF-Frederick) where she provides overall scientific leadership to research activities and oversees collaborative research programs to advance medical countermeasures for highly pathogenic viruses. In addition, she serves as an expert consultant and advisor both nationally and internationally on the development of novel vaccine strategies for highly pathogenic viruses.

Dr. Schmaljohn earned a BS Degree in Microbiology from the University of Nebraska and a PhD in Virology from Colorado State University, after which she joined United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) as a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow.  She continued her career at USAMRIID in multiple capacities culminating with a position as the Senior Research Scientist for Medical Defenses against Infectious Disease Threats for the US Army.  Dr. Schmaljohn’s research background is in molecular virology and molecular vaccine development. She has served as President of the International Society of Hantaviruses, Chair of the American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Conference, and Chair of the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses Bunyaviridae Study Group. She also has served on the Interagency Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasure Enterprise (PHEMCE) Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers IPT, the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NIAID Vaccine Research Center, the Scientific Advisory Council for the Coalition of Emergency Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Independent Product Group (IPG) for COVAX.  She was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology (2007) and was selected as Fellow of the International Society for Vaccines (2015).  She received the Order of Military Merit (2002), the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States Research Award (2002), the University of Nebraska Alumni Achievement Award (2012), and the Presidential Rank Award (2017).  Dr. Schmaljohn has published more than 200 peer reviewed journal articles and reference works, has edited many books and special journal issues and holds numerous patent awards for vaccine development efforts.

Suhaib Siddiqi is a scientist in the field of infectious diseases, nucleic acids and genomics. As a head of the departments, he led the research and development efforts at various biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.  He was the first director of chemistry at Moderna.

He has a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. He currently serves as a scientific advisor to various biotechnology companies.  He was inventor of a potent antiviral agent, (-)-5’-Noraristeromycin and Virtual Terminators for the DNA/RNA sequencing.  He has published 31 peer-reviewed papers, and 47 patents.

Kiat Ruxrungtham, MD, is a Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University; and Scientific Chair of the Chula Vaccine Research Center (ChulaVRC); and Director of the Covid19 Vaccine Development Program, ChulaVRC. He is providing teaching and patient care on Allergy -Clinical Immunology and HIV Medicine at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University; and is mentoring junior researchers on HIV medicine, vaccine, immunology, and allergy research and also on clinical trials. He is currently leading the Chula-Covid19 mRNA vaccine development program. He has published more than 360 peer review papers on HIV, immunology, allergy, and vaccine.