Biographies

Organizers

Scientific Committee

 

 

Maria Laura Gennaro
PHRI, UMDNJ, Newark, NJ, USA

Dr. Gennaro is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Public Health Research Institute, University of Medicine and Dentistry (UMDNJ), Newark, NJ.  A primary interest of Dr. Gennaro’s laboratory has been the  investigation of M.tb diagnostics through immunologic methods.  The Gennaro laboratory has identified and purified over thirty immunodominant M.tb proteins, some of which have been included in multi-protein, diagnostic tests for latent infection and active disease developed by commercial companies.  The Gennaro’s laboratory is currently involved in probing the entire proteome of M. tuberculosis (~4,000 proteins) for antibody markers of TB in humans and animal models by use of protein microarray technology.  Moreover, research in the Gennaro laboratory has provided a molecular definition of growth and persistence of M. tb in the lung of a living animal and shown that the states of growth and persistence of M. tuberculosis in an animal model are associated with different profiles of bacterial antigens. Understanding the molecular composition of M. tuberculosis during the different stages of infection is key to designing efficacious vaccines and drugs.

Dr. Gennaro has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals.  She has served as a reviewer for over 20 peer-reviewed scientific journals, as an advisor for the World Health Organization TB Diagnostics Initiative, and as a reviewer on study sections for the NIH, NSF, WHO and Wellcome Trust.  Dr. Gennaro holds four patents associated with immunotechnology related to M.tb research, and has been an invited speaker to numerous international scientific conferences and meetings.

 

 

Mark Doherty
SSI, Copenhagen, Denmark

Coordinator for Research, Strategy at the Department of Infectious Disease Immunology, at the Statens Serum Institut, Denmark and Adjunct Professor of Immunology at the Centre for Public Health, Bergen, Norway.  As organizer of numerous international collaborative projects, he has had extensive experience in assembling and directing multi-disciplinary research teams.  Prof. Doherty’s research is currently focused mainly on clinical fieldwork (including clinical trials of improved diagnostics), having designed and coordinated studies investigating the human immune response to vaccination against, or infection with, M. tuberculosis.  This work builds on his earlier interests in identifying the factors that can influence the development of an immune response. However, now it is turned to using these factors as prognostic markers for the progress of tuberculosis, identifying immunomodulators for the design of new-generation adjuvants and establishing correlates of protective immunity for the design and evaluation of tuberculosis vaccines. Prof. Doherty serves on a number of committees to advise and co-ordinate strategies for TB vaccine and diagnostic development, including providing advice for organizations such as the WHO, EC and CDC, organizing and chairing international meetings within this field and serving on technical advisory boards for groups overseeing clinical trials. He has given many invited presentations at scientific meetings and published more than 70 articles and book chapters on immunology, diagnosis and vaccine research. He is also chair of the organizing committee for the three-yearly Elsinore Meetings on Infection Immunity.

 

 

Scientific Committee

 

Stefan H. E. Kaufmann
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Stefan H.E. Kaufmann is member of the Max Planck Society and Director of the Department of Immunology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany. He also holds a professorship for microbiology and immunology at the Charité. The work of his department focuses on the crosstalk between intracellular bacteria and the mammalian host with an emphasis on tuberculosis. This work is also exploited for rational design of novel vaccination strategies. Prof. Kaufmann has over 600 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is one of the most cited immunologists worldwide (ISI).  He also holds several international grants and coordinates several international and interdisciplinary projects including a Grand Challenge by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

 

Dick Menzies
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Dr. Menzies is currently the Director of the Respiratory Division of the McGill University Health Center, and has served as the Medical Director at the Montreal Chest Institute, and the Director of the Respiratory Epidemiology Unit at McGill University.  Dr. Menzies became involved in tuberculosis care and research in Lesotho, Africa, where the incidence of tuberculosis was among the highest of any country in the world. Currently in Montreal, he has developed a tuberculosis research program of clinical and epidemiologic studies linked with a large multi-disciplinary clinical service at the Montreal Chest Institute.  He initiated the Montreal Molecular Epidemiology of Active TB Group (MMEAT) - a multidisciplinary group of researchers.  Dr. Menzies has also been involved as a consultant to National TB Programs in the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Ecuador. He has published over 100 papers and written 20 book chapters based on the results of his research.

 

 

Anneke Hesseling
Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Dr. Anneke C. Hesseling is a senior researcher at the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She has South African and US training in Medicine and Epidemiology and is the PI and co-PI on several large research projects relates to the epidemiology, transmission and diagnosis of tuberculosis in children, with special emphasis on the interaction between pediatric TB and HIV and the immunologic diagnosis of TB infection and disease. Dr. Hesseling has a special research interest in the epidemiologic and immunologic interaction between BCG and HIV in children and is the chairperson of the IUATLD BCG Working Group.

 

 

Mario Roederer
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

Mario Roederer, Ph.D., is a Senior Investigator at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), NIAID, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.  He is the Chief of the ImmunoTechnology Section and the Director of the Flow Cytometry Core facility.  In the Herzenberg laboratory, Dr. Roederer spearheaded the initial development of polychromatic flow cytometry, requiring the contemporaneous development of new fluorochromes, new software analysis tools, and new hardware capabilities.  He continues this development effort at the VRC, where his laboratory has brought this powerful technology to bear on a number of problems in basic and applied immunology.  In particular, the laboratory is focused on defining the complex phenotypic and functional antigen-specific T cells that are engendered by vaccination or natural infection.  The laboratory has made significant contributions to the understand of immunopathogenesis during acute SIV/HIV infection, the dynamics of T cell subsets during chronic HIV disease and progression, and defining potential correlates of immune protection generated by a variety of vaccines.  Dr. Roederer has been awarded four patents (including software, chemistry, and clinical research applications), and is an author of more than 140 publications.

 

 

Philip L. Felgner
University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

Dr. Felgner is currently the Director of the Proteomics Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine.  Over the course of his research career, Dr. Felgner has made many important contributions to the field of immunology.  At Syntex Research, Dr. Felgner developed the first cationic lipid reagent for gene transfer, now marketed as Lipofectin. Later as the Chief Scientific Officer for Vical, Inc., Dr. Felgner made a landmark discovery with colleagues at the Univ. of Wisconsin, showing that functional reporter gene sequences (“naked DNA”) could be introduced directly into skeletal muscle without the use of viral vectors.  They were the first to demonstrate that potent antiviral immune responses could be generated following intramuscular injection of plasmids encoding viral antigens. These findings have led to development of a new class of infectious disease vaccines referred to as “DNA vaccines,” which are currently being evaluated in human clinical trials. Dr. Felgner currently holds 32 patents in areas related to gene transfer vectors. In 1998, Dr. Felgner founded a new company, Gene Therapy Systems (GTS), having the mission of providing more innovative tools to academic scientists and pharmaceutical companies interested in gene therapy research and pharmaceutical development.

 

 

Mario Raviglione
Stop TB, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. Mario Raviglione has worked with the World Health Organization since 1991 and is currently the Director of the Stop TB Department where he is responsible for strategies and policies and works through a network of TB experts at all levels of the Organization. Dr. Raviglione was responsible for setting up the global drug-resistance surveillance project and the new TB surveillance and monitoring system at the WHO before directing Stop TB. He has had nearly 200 articles published in influential health journals and books including TB chapters in the last three editions of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. As a leading expert in TB, he serves as a visiting professor in various medical schools and also lectures at international health conferences on global TB and international health issues.

 

 

Douglas Young
Imperial College, London, England

Douglas B. Young is the Fleming Professor of Medical Microbiology at Imperial College London, where he holds concurrent positions as Director of the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection and Chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology.  He is a Member of the Coordinating Board of the Global Partnership to Stop TB, Chair of the Stop TB Vaccines Working Group, and Chair of the TB Vaccine Programme Advisory Group for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK). Dr. Young is the author of over 100 scientific articles on tuberculosis and leprosy, is Co-Editor-in Chief of Tuberculosis, and a member of the Editorial Boards of Cellular Microbiology, Journal of Bacteriology, and Infection and Immunity.  His current research focuses on use of genome biology to study mechanisms of mycobacterial pathogenicity.  He is a member of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.