Dr. Tongqing Zhou is an NIH Earl-Stadtman Investigator and Chief of the Structural Virology and Vaccinology Section, Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH. His research is mainly focused on the structural basis of broadly HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies, antibody ontogeny that guide the development of broadly neutralizing antibodies, as well as structure- and AI-based vaccine design and testing of novel vaccines for HIV. Dr. Zhou’s research also includes other viral pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, Influenza, RSV, HPIV, HMPV, Zika and HTLV. Dr. Zhou has published more than 160 peer-reviewed research papers, including ~30 in Nature, Science and Cell.  He has been a Clarivate Analytics (Thompson Reuters) Highly Cited Researcher in Microbiology for the past ten years. Dr. Zhou is co-inventor of several patents on potential HIV, RSV and HPIV vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. Dr. Zhou received B.S. in Biochemistry from Wuhan University, China, in 1989 and Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994. Before joining the VRC in September 2001, Dr. Zhou was a postdoctoral research associate at Wayne State University School of Medicine, where he obtained his x-ray crystallography training and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Controlled Systems.

Nigel obtained his BSc in Microbiology and Genetics from University College London (UCL) in 1990 and an MSc in Applied Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases (1992), PhD in Molecular Parasitology (1999) and DLSHTM (2000) from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). After his PhD, he returned to UCL as a post-doctoral scientist in the Division of Infection and Immunity. In 2009 Nigel was elected as a member of the highly prestigious Medical Research Club and set up his own research group at the University of Kent. He is currently Chair and Professor in Molecular Virology, Director of the Viral Pseudotype Unit (VPU) and Director of Research and Innovation. Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), Senior Associate Member of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), Member of the International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases (ISIRV), the Microbiology Society and the European Society for Virology (ESV). Nigel acts as external consultant for VisMederi (Italy) and RQbio (UK). He has published over 200 articles with an h-index of 53, >14k citations.

Ruben Rizzi, physician by training, SVP of Global Regulatory Affairs at BioNTech. I joined the company in December 2019 just before the pandemic, and I have been the global regulatory lead for BioNTech for our COVID-19 development. Currently, I am still supporting the lifecycle of our COVID-19 vaccine, and I am co-leading the Global Regulatory Affairs department at BioNTech and working closely with the teams that are responsible for the development of BioNTech´s pipeline, post-approval activities and labelling

Professor Adrian V. S. Hill FRS is the Director and Founder of the Jenner Institute, and Mital Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University. He is a passionate believer in the power of molecular medicine to address many of the most egregious health care inequities globally. His group have been leaders in the development of adenoviral and other vaccines against infectious diseases and he has tested these in extensively in over eighty clinical trials in Africa and Europe. In partnership with the Serum Institute of India and AstraZeneca the Jenner Institute developed rapidly a ChAdOx1 vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine which saved an estimated 6.2 million lives in 2021 alone.

His lab also designed a newly licensed high efficacy malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-MTM, which has recently shown unprecedented high efficacy in a phase III trial in four African countries, again in partnership with the Serum Institute of India and also Novavax Inc. This vaccine promises to make a major impact on reducing the 500,000 childhood deaths from malaria each year. In 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and is a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

George Fu Gao has been a key leader in the public health field, making remarkable contributions to research and discovery through basic research, clinical evaluation and advocacy. He has made many remarkable contributions to the scientific field of control and prevention of emerging infectious diseases. He obtained his DPhil degree from Oxford University, UK and did his postdoc work in both Oxford University and Harvard University (with a brief stay in Calgary University). Gao worked in Beijing Agricultural University (1986-1991), Oxford University (2001-2006), Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy Sciences (2004-2008, Director-General). China CDC (Director-General, 2017-2022), National Science Foundation of China (Vice-President, 2018-2022). Gao is a member (academician) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a foreign member of the U.K. Royal Society (RS), a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, a fellow of African Academy of Sciences and a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

Melanie Saville, MBBS, is PATH’s Chief Scientific Officer. She leads PATH’s product development division, which includes a global team dedicated to the development, introduction, and scale of vaccines, medical devices, and diagnostics.

Dr. Saville is a distinguished physician specializing in virology with more than two decades of experience developing and licensing vaccines for global use. Her contributions over the past 20 years have included the development of vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza, as well as pediatric combinations and vaccines against rabies, Japanese encephalitis, dengue, Ebola, and SARS-CoV-2.

Before joining PATH, Dr. Saville worked with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), where she served as the Executive Director of Vaccine Research and Development, leading technical teams supporting vaccine development. She also served as the R&D and manufacturing workstream leader for COVAX, part of a global collaboration to speed development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

Dr. Saville holds a medical degree, a master’s degree in medical virology, and a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology from University College, London.

Dr. Siber is an infectious disease trained physician with more than 40 years of experience in developing vaccines and antibody products. From 1996 to 2007, Dr. Siber served as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Wyeth Vaccines (now Pfizer) where he led the development and approval of multiple innovative childhood vaccines, including Prevenar 7 and 13, the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccines,  Rotashield, the first rotavirus diarrhea vaccine, Meningitec, the first meningococcal meningitis conjugate vaccine and FluMist, the first nasal influenza vaccine. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Siber was Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Director of the Massachusetts Public Health Biologic Laboratories where he developed multiple vaccines and immune globulins, including Respigam, the first antibody licensed for respiratory syncytial virus. Dr. Siber most recently was a Co-founder and Board Member of Affinivax which developed a 24 valent pneumococcal vaccine and was acquired by GSK in 2022. Dr. Siber currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of AdVaccine, CanSino, Clover, Everest Medicines, ILiAD, Valneva, Vaxart and Vaxxinity and has been a consultant to the NIH, EU, WHO and the Gates Foundation. Dr.Siber was member of the Board of  Trustees of the International Vaccine Institute. Dr Siber has received multiple awards including the 2016 Albert Sabin Gold Medal in vaccinology. Dr. Siber holds an MD degree from McGill University in Canada, received post‑doctoral training in Internal Medicine at Rush‑Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago and Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and training in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Prof. Ken J. Ishii, M.D., Ph.D., currently Director for Int. Vaccine Design Center, The Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, has 27 years of experience in Vaccine R&D since 1998 including 7 years as a IND reviewer at US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 15 years as a basic immunologist at Osaka University, 9 years as a vaccine adjuvant expert at National Institute (NIBIOHN), 2 years as managing director at AMED (medical funding agency), as well as Advisor for PMDA (regulatory agency), GHIT (global fund) and CEPI. He has contributed to basic research on infectious diseases and immunology, resulted in numerous books and over 250 periodical publications and 35,000 citations with H-index 84 as well as over 50 patents related to vaccine and adjuvant, and to regulation of many vaccines and guidelines for vaccine preclinical and clinical trials in Japan and US.

Dr. Raman Rao joined as the Chief Executive Officer at Hilleman Laboratories in February 2020. Dr. Rao has more than two decades of experience in research and development, manufacturing and commercialisation of vaccines for infectious diseases in global pharma and biotech companies. Prior to joining Hilleman Laboratories, Dr. Rao served as the Vice President of Global Product Operations with Takeda, Singapore, where he enhanced the global product portfolio while successfully leading an international team across Japan, Singapore and the United States. The teams worked in the areas of dengue, norovirus, zika, polio and other vaccines.

Dr. Rao started his career in 2002 with Shantha Biotechnics Limited, part of Sanofi Aventis Group in India, in Clinical Research and Scientific Affairs. He holds a MD in Medical Microbiology from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research.

He plans to carry forward Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s legacy for providing effective solutions for global health, especially those impacting low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Raman Rao joined as the Chief Executive Officer at Hilleman Laboratories in February 2020. Dr. Rao has more than two decades of experience in research and development, manufacturing and commercialisation of vaccines for infectious diseases in global pharma and biotech companies. Prior to joining Hilleman Laboratories, Dr. Rao served as the Vice President of Global Product Operations with Takeda, Singapore, where he enhanced the global product portfolio while successfully leading an international team across Japan, Singapore and the United States. The teams worked in the areas of dengue, norovirus, zika, polio and other vaccines.

Dr. Rao started his career in 2002 with Shantha Biotechnics Limited, part of Sanofi Aventis Group in India, in Clinical Research and Scientific Affairs. He holds a MD in Medical Microbiology from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research.

He plans to carry forward Dr. Maurice Hilleman’s legacy for providing effective solutions for global health, especially those impacting low- and middle-income countries.

Meng LI has been leading the International business team of CNBG since 2013, oversees CNBG’s international cooperation and registration activities. She also serves on the board of CNBG-Virogen, and the board of Emerging Biopharmaceuticals Manufacturers Network (EBPMN). During her 19 year experiences in biological industry, she established extensive networks with academia, NGOs, enterprises internationally, and successfully completed a number of landmark projects. Including the bOPV capacity expansion and prequalification program with BMGF (received over 23Million USD financial supports from BMGF, prequalified by WHO in 2019), establishment of CNBG’s first JV with foreign enterprise, the first overseas acquisition by CNBG, roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine PhIII trials in 6 countries and its registration in over 100 countries. Meng Li has successfully signed a number of in-license, research cooperation, commercialization and industrialization projects with NIH, Oxford, France Institut Pasteur, PATH, IVI, biotech companies and developing country manufacturers. She worked as temporary advisor to WHO inspectorate during WHO’s first inspection to China NMPA in 2010, and was elected as the executive committee member of DCVMN from 2014-2016.

Dr. Bin Wang is the Co-founder, Chairman of Advaccine Biotechnology Co LTD. He is also holding a distinguished professor position at the Fudan University School of Basic Medical Sciences and serves as the chairman for the Nucleic Acid Vaccines branch of the Chinese Vaccine Society. His research area is focused on the effects of therapeutic vaccination to activate T cells and the mechanism of immune regulations. He has developed novel adjuvants and recombinant vaccines, novel DNA vaccine delivery, and led to several developed vaccines being tested in human clinical trials. He received his Ph.D. from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine in 1990. He completed his postdoc training in virology and immunology at the Wistar Institute in 1992 in Philadelphia. He became an instructor and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School from 1993 to 1998. He was a professor and served as the Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology for six years at the College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University before he joined Fudan University. He was one of the very early DNA vaccine technology inventors in the 90’s and performed the first-in-human DNA vaccine trials in 1994-1996. He has been involved in several clinical trials of therapeutic vaccines against chronic HBV infections in recent years and invented a novel prophylactic RSV vaccine currently under clinical phase II testing. He has published over 160 peer-review articles and awarded 35 US and 30 Chinese patents. He serves as an editorial board member for several international journals and executive member in several professional societies.

Graduated from Peking University School of Medicine, and National School of Development at Peking University, Jeffrey Zhang has deep insights in the fields of vaccines, while having extensive experience in business management, strategy and investment. He has successively served as the head of Pfizer’s New Business Development in China, General Manager of Emerging Business Department of GSK China/Vice President of Emerging Market Strategy, as well as the Vice President of Strategy of WuXi/Vice President of WuXi Vaccine Business.

Baik-Lin Seong, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Yonsei University College of Medicine, and Director General of Vaccine Innovative Technology ALliance (VITAL)-Korea. He received B.S. from Seoul National University (1977), M.S. from KAIST (1979), PhD from MIT (1988). He worked as postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford (1988-1992).

He served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council of Science & Technology of Korean Government (2021-2022) and the Scientific Advisory Board of International Vaccine Institute (IVI) (2018-2022). He chaired the COVID-19 Vaccine Pan-Government Strategic Plan of the Korean Government (2020-2023).

With a view to ensure equitable access of effective vaccines to LMICs, he works on developing a low-cost production platform of VLP/nanoparticle vaccines against RSV, norovirus, nipah, universal influenza vaccine, and flavivirus vaccines including Japanese Encephalitis, Zika, and West Nile viruses.

Dr Robbert van der Most obtained his cum laude PhD in 1994 at Leiden University (Netherlands) on the topic of coronavirus molecular biology. He then conducted postdoctoral work on the immunology of chronic viral infection with Dr Rafi Ahmed(UCLA, Eiory University, USA) and flavivirus molecular biology with Dr Jim Strauss (Caltech, USA). Upon return to the Netherlands he worked on RSV vaccine immunology, focusing on the mechanisms of vaccine-enhanced disease. In 2004, he joined Dr Bruce Robinson's team at the University of Western Australia to study immune oncology and the immune-modifying effects of chemotherapy. In 2008, he joined GSK Vaccines in Belgium, in roles of increasing responsiblility, leadingTranslational Science, After a brief period at CEPl, he joined BioNTech as Vice-President Translational Science in 2022, leading a team of experts in the infectious disease portfolio, in 2024 he started his own consultancy business, aiming to provide scjentific and development advice to biotech and pharma companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations.

Prof. Yuelong Shu

Director, Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He was selected as the first batch of ‘National Science and Technology Innovation Leader’and‘2014 Top Ten Scientific and Technological Innovators’, and is the winner of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and the China Youth Science and Technology Award. He has been honored with the National Science and Technology Progress Grand Prize, First Prize, Second Prize, the National Medical and Health System Advanced Individual, the National Innovation Award, the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Development Contribution Award, etc. He is currently the Chairman of the Branch of Medical Virology of the Chinese Medical Association and the Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Alliance for the Control of Influenza (APACI). He was the founding dean of the School of Public Health of Sun Yat-sen University (Shenzhen), the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Virology, the deputy director of the Institute of Viral Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the director of the National Influenza Center, and the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Influenza.

Shu has long focused on influenza prevention and control research, and has made outstanding achievements in the discovery of new viruses, the development of detection reagents, and the pathogenesis of infection. Through the systematic establishment of new influenza detection and surveillance technology, it was found for the first time in the world that a variety of new avian influenza viruses such as H7N9, H5N6 and H10N8 can lead to human infection and death; The first successful development of pandemic H1N1 2019 and H7N9 avian influenza detection reagent; The origin, evolution and infection mechanism of H7N9 and other avian influenza viruses were clarified, which provided key scientific and technological support for the successful prevention and control of the epidemic in China. He has published nearly 200 papers in Science, Nature, NEJM, Lancet and other academic journals as a corresponding author. The research results were selected as one of the ‘China’s 100 most influential international academic papers in 2013’and ‘2013 Top Ten Scientific Advances in China’.

Jingxin Li, PhD, Professor, is working at Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Her research is focused on vaccine clinical evaluation and immunization strategy. She has participated in a lot of epidemiology investigations and a series of clinical trials of novel vaccines, including Enterovirus type 71 vaccine, recombinant human Ad5 vectored Ebola vaccine, and Covid-19 vaccines. She has got National Natural Science Outstanding Youth Founds and Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Funds for Distinguished youths, and hosted or participated in seven National Natural Science Founds or National Science and Technology Major Projects. She has published over 25 articles in medical journals on vaccine clinical studies, including Nature Med, Lancet Respir Med, Lancet Glob Health, etc.

Dr. Linfa Wang is a professor of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, and the inaugural executive director of PREPARE, Ministry of Health, Singapore. He is an international leader in the field of emerging zoonotic viruses and virus-host interaction. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he has served and is serving on multiple WHO committees for COVID-19, including the WHO IHR Emergency Committee. Prof. Wang has more than 500 scientific publications. He was the Editor-in-Chief for the Virology Journal from 2112-2022. Prof. Wang was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2010, the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021 and the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2023. He received the Singapore President Science Award in 2021

Yunlong Richard Cao is an immunologist and Assistant Professor at Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking University. Cao obtained B.S. in Physics from Zhejiang University and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University. Cao’s research focuses on B-cell adaptive immune response, antibody drugs and vaccine designs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he made key contributions to the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, humoral immunity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection, and antibody immune escape of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Cao’s research has been published in Nature, Cell, The Lancet Infectious Diseases and Cell Host & Microbe. Cao is a member of WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) Scientific Advisory Committee. Cao’s work was listed among “China's top 10 scientific advances” and “China's top 10 advances in life sciences” in 2022. Cao was listed among "35 Innovators Under 35" (China) in 2021 by MIT Technology Review and “Ten people who helped shape science in 2022” by Nature (Nature’s 10).

Dr Norbert Pardi holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics. He has been working at the University of Pennsylvania since 2011 and currently holds an Assistant Professor position at the Department of Microbiology of the Perelman School of Medicine. His research interest is the development of mRNA-based therapeutics with particular focus on new generation infectious disease vaccines. He explored the development of a novel vaccine platform using nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and used it to generate highly effective vaccines targeting various pathogens (influenza virus, coronaviruses, malaria and others). Dr. Pardi is a pioneer of the nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine technology and published milestone papers in the field.

Hani Kim is the Executive Director of the RIGHT (Research Investment for Global Health Technology) foundation, with 16 years of work experience in translational health research as an academic research scientist and at global health R&D funding organizations. She completed her PhD in Lab Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, Canada and post-doctoral training in molecular immunology of B cells at the Max-Planck Institute of Immunology, Germany.

During her MPH and her affiliation as a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Hani trained researchers at icddr,b, Bangladesh and KEMRI, Kenya. Prior to joining the RIGHT foundation, she developed and managed portfolios of vaccine discovery grants and molecular surveillance grants as a Gates Fellow initially and later as a Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for six years.

Hani has published articles in translational medical research and in the political origins of health inequity. Her recent articles include "The Selangor Consensus: strengthening clinical trials for local public health in the Western Pacific", ‘‘We need people’s WHO to solve vaccine inequity, and we need it now”, “The sociopolitical context of the COVID-19 response in South Korea”, and “A critical assessment of the ideological underpinnings of current practice in global health and their historical origins.”

Lianpan Dai, PhD, Principal Investigator at Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his doctor's degree from Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. His research is mainly focused on the design and development of novel vaccines against major pathogens and the mechanism of protective immune response. Important research and translational achievements have been made in the research and development of vaccines against coronaviruses, Zika virus and other emerging infectious diseases, among which the recombinant protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use in many countries. The results are published as first/corresponding authors in the journals including Cell, The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Immunology, Nature Reviews Immunology, Cell Host & Microbe. He is supported by the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, and is the winner of VCANBIO Award for Biosciences and Medicine, excellent member of the Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Young Scholar Award of Chinese Society of Immunology, and China Patent Silver Award Winner.

Mr. Jian Dong has 35 years’ experience in biopharma manufacturing, quality management and facility construction.

Joining WuXi Biologics in 2014, he is CEO of WuXi Vaccines and SVP of WuXi Biologics, previously SVP and Head of Global Manufacturing and Head of Global Engineering of WuXi Biologics responsible for the management and R&D of biological drug clinical and commercial manufacturing and construction of production facilities.

Mr. Dong has led team passing China’s first FDA PLI and EMA GMP inspection and obtaining approval of WuXi Biologics DS and DP manufacturing facilities as well as the design, construction, validation and delivery of various R&D centers and manufacturing sites of WuXi Biologics worldwide.

Before WuXi Biologics, he was Deputy Chief Engineer in Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, Senior Process Engineer in Eli Lilly & Co., U.S., VP of Manufacturing and VP of Quality in Shanghai Celgen Biopharma, Deputy General Manager in UBPL and Shanghai United Cell Biotechnology, Unilab’s subsidiary. During his tenure in China before joining WuXi Biologics, he made significant contribution to the approval of one NDA, four BLA and four GMP licenses, including the technical transfer of MSD’s recombinant hepatitis B vaccine to China.

Heinrich Haas， Department of Biopharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz Mainz, Germany. Ph.D. in the group of Prof. Dr. Helmuth Möhwald at Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz. Researched lipid membranes and organized bio-molecular systems. In pharmaceutical industry (Munich Biotech, Medigene, BioNTech) developed different types of nanoparticle products to clinical stage. Focus on advanced approaches for nanoparticle development and control.

Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology by Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and the AIDS Vaccine Research Lab (UW-Madison-USA). Currently, she manages the RNA Vaccine Development Partner Center for PAHO/WHO at Bio-Manguinhos-FIOCRUZ, focusing on the development and manufacturing of RNA-based vaccines and therapies in Brazil. This initiative aims for regional self-sufficiency in vaccine R&D and production, democratizing the RNA platform for Latin America and the Caribbean. Awarded by Women in Science of PDA Brazil (2021) and SIBEN-Argentina (2022), she has 18 years of experience in Immunology, Vaccine and Biotherapeuticals Development, Public Health, and Equity.

Doctor Hu is the founder, chairman and full-time CEO of Anda Biology. She was a former researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, visiting scholar of the Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany, and visiting scholar of the Cambridge Molecular Biology Laboratory in the UK. She independently undertook key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 863 projects as the project leader, participated in the Super 973 projects, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Leading Special Research on Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and the National Twelfth Five Year Plan Major Special Projects. Expert in the Second Review of Outstanding Youth Fund, Outstanding Youth Fund, and Key Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and expert in risk assessment of the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2013.

She has been engaged in molecular genetics research of diseases for a long time and has established a series of genetic analysis techniques that can be applied to stem cell clinical transformation research such as stem cell quality control, in vivo genetic tracing, stem cell maintenance, and cell phenotype transformation, laying the foundation for stem cell based disease diagnosis and treatment. Dr Hu has published more than 70 SCI papers and won the first prize for scientific and technological progress in Shanghai (second place completion).

She has participated as the leader of the innovation team in 2018 in the first Shenzhen Women's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. After winning the award, she founded Anda Biology Medicine Development (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd and she is serving as its full-time CEO. In the past four years, she has led the company's employees to develop personalized immunotherapy vaccine for pancreatic cancer, universal cancer vaccines, cell therapy and other products. Among which, PCNAT-1, a therapeutic personalized vaccine for pancreatic cancer, has won the FDA orphan drug qualification certification.

Han Wang, PhD, Associate Research Professor at the College of Future Technology, Peking University. She received her doctor's degree from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is mainly focused on virus infection and the development of antiviral agents and novel vaccines. Important research and translational achievements have been made in the study of Ebola virus entry, nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) replication, and the development of novel vaccine against mpox virus. The results have been published as first/corresponding author in the journals including Cell, Nature Immunology, PNAS, Nucleic Acids Research. She was selected and supported by Postdoctoral Innovation Talents Support Program and Beijing Municipal Supporting Project for Young Talents (2022-2024), was a member of the Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is currently a young editorial board member of hLife journal.

Dr. Kate Broderick leverages more than 20 years of life science experience with over 15 years in research and development as the head of Maravai’sScience and Innovation Office. A recognized expert in vaccine and nucleic acid technology, Dr. Broderick has led global teams and collaborated with industry, academic, and government partners to develop vaccines for a wide range of infectious diseases, including Ebola, MERS, Zika, HIV, Lassa fever, and COVID-19.

Prior to joining Maravai in 2022, Dr. Broderick held roles of increasing responsibility at Inovio Pharmaceuticals, including Senior Vice President of R&D.

Dr. Broderick received her PhD from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and completed post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego.

Adham began his professional journey as a neuroscientist, followed by a shift to a commercial career at GSK Vaccines. He possesses over 15 years’ experience in commercialising biological therapeutics in the emerging markets namely Middle East and Africa, South East Asia and South America. He was responsible for obtaining emergency use approval for a prominent Chinese Biotech in the United Arab Emirates prior to China’s Approval. Having led biotech and clinical firms to achieve more than $250 million in revenue over the past 5 years. In addition to having established numerous start- ups, overseeing concept, value proposition, market analysis, business modeling, product development and securing investments. A seasoned health technology expert boasting years of experience in Machine learning and AI in the healthcare space.

Dr. Hong Jin is the Chief Scientific Officer at CyanVac LLC. She has led the efforts to progress PIV5-vectored Covid-19 and Respiratory Syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines from preclinical studies to phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.  Prior to joining CyanVac, Dr. Jin was Sr. Director/Fellow at MedImmune and AstraZeneca responsible for viral vaccine development. She pioneered reverse genetic systems for influenza virus, RSV and Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and played critical roles in advancing candidate vaccines towards clinical trials and commercialization. She was instrumental in developing the strain selection process for annual commercial intranasal live attenuated influenza vaccine (FluMist) and clinical evaluation of pandemic influenza vaccines.  She has authored more than 100 publications during her scientific career. Dr. Jin was nominated as a 2023 PharmaVoice100 to recognize her contributions to infectious disease vaccine development.

Dr. Yelin Xiong is the Vice President at Yither Biotech Co. Ltd. In this role, she is responsible for early-stage discovery to clinical material manufacturing of various vaccine candidates. Yelin has extensive research experience in immunology and vaccine development against infectious diseases. Prior to the current position, Yelin had over 20 years of industry experience in research, process development/scale-up, GMP manufacturing and CMC management in Sanofi pasteur. She received a Doctorate degree in Immunology and Cell Biology from John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University and had postdoctoral training in Emory University and University of Toronto.          

Dr. Frank Chia-Jung Chang obtains his Ph.D. from Life Science and Institute of Genome Science department of Taiwan Yang-Ming Medical University in 2012. He received his postdoctoral training at Molecular Biology Institute of Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and worked as visiting scholar in Frances H. Arnold’s laboratory (Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner in 2018), Chemical Engineering Department of Caltech (U.S.). He joined Reber Genetics as the supervisor of R&D Division in 2014. From 2017, Frank also works for business development and strategic layout of vaccine products (technology included).

Dr. Chang has considerable expertise in virology, microbiology, reverse vaccinology and protein engineering for industrial production. His group has successfully developed novel subunit vaccines of swine PRRSV, pan-PCV, Mycoplasma, CSFV and PEDV in Reber Genetics, furthermore, also support the study of safe vector vaccine against ASF with external partners.

Dr. Bo Ying has dedicated over a decade of his career to the technology research into nucleic acid -based therapeutics and the development of transformative drugs. He founded Abogen, a biotechnology company with a mission of curing otherwise untreatable diseases through mRNA science and technology. 

As the founder, Dr Ying also has served as Chairman of the board and CEO of Abogen. Under his leadership, the company has established its own proprietary mRNA platform and delivery technology that allowed the development of the therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, cancer, and rare diseases. Most recently, Abogen’s mRNA platform capabilities have come together to allow the authorized use and approval of first China made mRNA vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Prior to founding Abogen, Dr Ying had held several roles at numerous leading biopharmaceutical and biotechnologies companies in the US, mainly responsible for leading drug formulation, process development, technology transfer and manufacturing. Across his career, he takes pride in a broad array of innovative drug developing experiences in siRNA, mRNA-based therapies for tumor immunotherapy、cancer vaccines and gene-editing drug product candidates. 

Dr. Ying received his bachelor’s degree in life sciences from Fudan University, Shanghai, and Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Northeastern University. He is credited as the inventor of a dozen issued patents and patent applications, and his work appears in journals such as Cell and Lancet. 

Over the years, Dr. Ying has held several positions in influential organizations. From 2018 to 2019, he served as the president of the Chinese-American BioMedical Association (CABA) in Boston, where he made contributions to the advancement of science and technological innovation with great potential to improve human health.

Dr. Francesca Ceddia is a distinguished medical professional and the current Chief Medical Affairs Officer at Moderna. In her role, she is responsible for leading, developing, and executing the company's global medical and evidence generation strategy, shaping the future of Moderna's mRNA technology pipeline across infectious diseases, oncology, and rare diseases.

A medical doctor by training, Francesca specialized in respiratory diseases at the University of Siena, Italy. After a period of practicing general medicine and pulmonology, she transitioned into the pharmaceutical sector, where she has since held a range of roles of increasing responsibility encompassing Clinical, Vaccine Development and Medical Affairs.

Throughout her career, Francesca has worked in several therapeutic areas, and her work has been instrumental in leading the development of various vaccine candidates. She has been deeply involved in the medical strategy across numerous infectious disease areas, with a particular emphasis on combination vaccines. Her contributions to the field are well-documented in peer-reviewed publications she has authored.

More recently, Francesca has been dedicated to addressing vaccination gaps across all age groups, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has been pivotal in responding to the vaccination needs of older adults, further solidifying her commitment to global health and patient care.

Hao Li is an associate professor and PhD supervisor at the College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University. He received his PhD degree from Tsinghua University in July 2017. From July 2017 to July 2019, he did his postdoctoral research at the School of Medicine, Tsinghua University. From July 2019 to now, he has worked at China Agricultural University and focused on tuberculosis immunology, TB vaccine development, and antibiotic resistance. He has published more than 30 articles in Nature Reviews Immunology, PNAS, Nature Communications, npj Vaccines, and other journals. Dr. Li serves as guest editor and youth editorial board member for multiple journals and as a reviewer for some journals and several grant agencies.

Dr. Jiangsheng Xu is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of General Therapeutics, Inc., specializing in the development of non-reactogenic lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies aimed at overcoming challenges in mRNA vaccine hesitancy and RNA medicine re-dosing. With over 15 years of hands-on experience in nanoparticle and RNA research across both academic and industry settings, Dr. Xu has contributed to leading journals, including Nature Nanotechnologyand Nature Communications, and holds 10 patents.

Dr. Emanuele Andreano is an immunologist with almost 10 years of experience studying B cell and antibody responses to human pathogens, and he is currently project leader at the Monoclonal Antibody Discovery Laboratory (MAD Lab), Fondazione Toscana Life Sciences, directed by his mentor Prof. Rino Rappuoli. During his training, Dr. Andreano gained extensive experience on single cell sorting of memory B cells and isolation, cloning, expression and functional/structural characterization of human monoclonal antibodies. This experience has been used to tackle different pathogens which pose serious threats for global health such as the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), antimicrobial resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, SARS-CoV-2 and more recently the Monkeypox virus. The work that Dr. Andreano performed on SARS-CoV-2 led to the isolation of more than 14,000 thousand human monoclonal antibodies and to the identification of MAD0004J08, one of the most potent monoclonal ever described and evaluated in a phase II/III clinical trial for the treatment of COVID-19. Dr. Andreano first authored publications on top tier journals such as PNAS, Cell, Nature Medicine and Nature. For his scientific work, Dr. Andreano has been awarded the “COVID-19 heroes award” and has been nominated as “Rising Star” in the field of immunology by the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) 2023.

Professor Han Xuexiang is a researcher, project leader and doctoral supervisor of the Center of Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Selected in the national high-level talents (overseas) project and Shanghai Leading Talents (overseas) project.

Hanz Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co., LTD., Co-founder & CSO.

He received his bachelor's degree from Shanghai University in 2014, and his PhD from Tsinghua University in 2019 (jointly trained by National Center for Nanoscience and Technology). From 2020 to 2024, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Michael J. Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania, USA, during which he collaborated with Professor Drew Weissman, winner of the Nobel Prize, on the research of LNP-mRNA vaccines and drugs. In February 2024, he joined the Center of Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on the construction of novel LNP and RNA drug delivery. He is the first-author (including co-first author) of Nat.Chem., Nat.Nanotech., Nat.Mater., Nat.Commun. He has published nearly 20 papers in other journals, authorized one Chinese patent, and applied for a number of PCT patents.

Dr. Mazzu has over 20 years of research and development experience in the fields of medicinal chemistry, cellular and molecular biology, cancer biology, immuno-oncology, and clinical data bioinformatics. She completed postdoctoral research at UMASS Medical School in US and later served as a senior scientist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She has received support from multiple national-level projects in US, published numerous international papers, and obtained international patents. In 2022, she returned to China and was selected as one of the "Hundred Foreign Experts" in Jiangsu Province. She also received funding from the "Zijinshan Talent Program" in Nanjing City. Currently, she serves as the Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of AuroRNA Biotech, a subsidiary of Grand Pharmaceutical group.

Prof Keith Chappell

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Australia

Prof Keith Chappell is a Molecular Virologist whose research is focused on structure-based design of vaccines for medically important viruses. Keith is one of the inventors of the broadly applicable vaccine platform, molecular clamp. Molecular clamp locks viral glycoproteins into the native prefusion conformation to elicit highly protective immunity and enables consistent manufacture of highly stable, ready-to-use, fully liquid vaccines. Keith leads a team of 20 staff and students split across two major research programs: The CEPI funded Rapid Response Vaccine Pipeline which seeks to safeguard against future pandemics and contract research conducted for the UQ biotech spinout company Vicebio Ltd. In 2020, Keith co-led the University of Queensland’s effort to produce a covid vaccine, which progressed from sequence information to clinical trial dosing within 6 months, however did not progress due to interference with some existing HIV diagnostic tests. Since that time this team as produced a new covid vaccine incorporating a second-generation molecular clamp that has completed clinical testing showing favourable safety and immunogenicity profile in comparison to approved covid vaccine, Nuvaxovid (Novavax). Vicebio is also actively advancing this technology for the development of multivalent vaccine formulations to target life-threatening respiratory viruses, with a bivalent vaccine for Respiratory Syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus is currently undergoing phase I clinical trial testing.

Dr. Chen has been a Professor at the State Key Lab of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical University since 2013. Dr. Chen received a medical degree from Shanghai Medical College in 1984. He obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Chen completed his postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.  From 1997-2001, Dr. Chen served as a Senior Research Fellow at Merck Research Laboratories, where he was the first inventor of Merck's Ad5-based AIDS vaccine that entered clinical trials worldwide. Dr. Chen served as Vice President of R&D for GlaxoSmithKline in 2009-2011 and as Vice President at Sanofi Pasteur in 2012. Dr. Chen has over 200 publications in infectious diseases, vaccine research, and cancer research. His current research is focused on vaccine and antibody research on adenovirus, influenza virus, and emerging viruses. Since 2020, Dr. Chen has been working on developing user-friendly intranasal vaccines and mucosal immunity.

Dr. David Weiner directs a translational research laboratory at The Wistar Institute in the area of Molecular Immunology. His group is one of the pioneering research teams in establishing the field of DNA vaccines and immunotherapies. Important reports from his lab include the first DNA vaccine studied for HIV as well as for cancer immunotherapy, the early development of DNA encoded genetic adjuvants including the particularly relevant IL-12, advances in gene optimization, and advances in electroporation (EP) technologies resulting in improved gene delivery among others. His group worked with collaborators to become the first to move DNA technology into human study. His laboratory’s work helped revitalize the field through advancement of new synthetic DNA design and modification of EP delivery approaches resulting in potent immune induction as well as the first successful Phase IIb DNA efficacy study (for HPV immunotherapy) in humans. Dr. Weiner is the recipient of numerous honors including election as a fellow to both the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011 and the International Society for Vaccines in 2012. He is the recipient of the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award and received the Vaccine Industry Excellence Award for Best Academic Research Team in 2015 at the World Vaccine Congress. Weiner was honored with the prestigious Hilleman Lectureship in 2015 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Grand Rounds session and received a Stone Family Award from Abramson Cancer Center for his groundbreaking work on DNA vaccines for cancer immunotherapy. In 2019, Dr. Weiner was honored with the Scientific Achievement Award from Life Sciences PA (LSPA). Dr. Weiner returned to Wistar in 2016 from his position at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine as professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. From 1990 to 1993, Weiner held a joint position as assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Weiner is a co-founder of Inovio Pharmaceuticals and is a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Weiner graduated with a B.S. in biology from SUNY at Stony Brook, N.Y., a M.S. in biology from the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. in developmental biology from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

After obtaining his PhD in Biological Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Wang started his industry career and worked at a number of biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Grifols S.A., Novartis, and GSK Vaccines, during which he rose from scientist to leadership roles and accumulated rich vaccine and drug development experience, especially with self-replicating RNA. After leaving GSK, Dr. Wang co-founded Immorna Biotherapeutics. Under his leadership, Immorna has built cutting-edge and proprietary mRNA platform technologies and developed rich clinical pipeline spanning infectious diseases, immune-oncology, and rare genetic disease areas.

Michel De Wilde holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has a long and successful career in Vaccine Research and Development. He currently consults for the vaccine community and is member of several Scientific Advisory Boards

From  2001 till June 2013, Michel De Wilde was Senior Vice President, Research & Development, at sanofi pasteur where he drove the development and licensure  of a number of products.

From 1978 till 2000, De Wilde was at SmithKline Beecham Biologicals (now GSK Vaccines) where he held positions of increasing responsibility. He played a key role in the development of several new vaccines, most notably the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine, as well as GSK’s Malaria vaccine.

George Simeon is the CEO of Curevo Vaccine. He joined Curevo at the beginning of 2019 and has over 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector working with multinational firms, start-ups, and not-for-profits. He has worked in biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, IVD, and healthcare convergence technologies. He has worked extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Before moving to the USA, he was based in South Korea from 2014-2018, where he worked for SK Telecom’s Healthcare Division in M&A and global strategic alliances. In 2016, he joined Sollers Partners, a cross-border investment advisory firm, while maintaining an advisory role with SK Telecom.

He has worked across Europe and the USA as an executive with Johnson & Johnson, as the founding Vice-President of Cordis Neurovascular Europe, and with GHX Europe as a Commercial Vice-President. He also spent 3 years with Novartis Global Headquarters in Switzerland working on projects in their CNS portfolio in Health Economics and Pricing.

George has also founded two start-ups and advised GS1 on their global entry and expansion into the Healthcare, High-Tech, and Customs sectors as well as on ESG practices in FMCG logistics.

George is a graduate of INSEAD (MBA) and Yale University (MPH).

Dr. Alejandra Capozzo has an MD in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina. She is a Doctor in Biotechnolgy also from the UBA. Her PhD thesis focused on alternative vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease directed by Dr José La Torre. She did postdoctoral studies in neonatal applied immunology at the Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) at University of Maryland (Baltimore, USA), where she worked on the development of new vaccines for neonates in the presence of maternal immunity. She has intensified her training in immunology at the National Academy of Medicine in Buenos Aires, focused on vaccines against Uremic hemolytic syndrome and animal models. Dr Capozzo worked as Market Development Manager for Latin America at Prionics (a Swiss company); and as leader of research and development in Biogenesis-Bagó, an international veterinary vaccine producer. She is also trained in sales management.

From 2008 to 2023 she was the head of the applied veterinary immunology laboratory at the Institute of Virology and Technological Innovations, a CONICET-INTA. She is currently Principal Researcher of the Argentinean national research council (CONICET), the CEO of the Global Foot and Mouth Disease Research Alliance (GFRA), President of the Argentine Association of Veterinary Immunology, coordinator of the Latin American Veterinary Immunology Network, and the Chair of the Veterinary Immunology Committee of the International Union of Immunological societies (VIC-IUIS). Dr Capozzo participates in several transboundary disease groups in FAO-WOAH, as the co-chair of the Global Coordination Committee on Foot and Mouth Disease (GCC-FMD) and as a member of the Partnership and Financial panel (PFP).

Dr Capozzo has been a professor of immunology at the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires for many years and directed 14 PhD theses. She is the Responsible Researcher of numerous national and international projects and has developed several products related to applied immunology that were transferred to Argentine and international companies. She is currently the Director of a Center focused on One health, located at the Interamerican University in Buenos Aires, since February 2024.

Dr. Chen is a prominent scientist specializing in human vaccine research and antiviral therapies. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at RuenHuei Biopharmaceuticals Inc., where he oversees the development and production of new vaccine candidates. Dr. Chen joined RH Biopharma in August 2018, bringing over a decade of practical industry experience in vaccine development. Before his role at RH Biopharma, Dr. Chen held several key positions at Adimmune Corporation, including the Director and Manager of the R&D Department. At Adimmune, he was instrumental in developing the EV71 vaccine and advancing a cell culture-based production process for influenza vaccines. Dr. Chen's academic background includes a Ph.D. from National Yang-Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan, where he specialized in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He also completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, and the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health and Science University in the United States. His research has significantly contributed to the field of vaccine development, particularly in creating more effective influenza vaccines and understanding the immune responses to viral infections. He is currently also special technical expert at the Department of Pharmacy at National Taiwan University and an associate professor at the Department of Chemistry at National Chung Hsing University

Dr. Hui  Li is a dedicated professional who is currently serving as the Director of  R&D at Innorna. Her work specializes in the research and development of  vaccines for infectious diseases. With her vast experience in the life  sciences industry, she has been involved in numerous vaccine development  projects and has conducted extensive research in this field. As a leader of  the vaccine R&D team at Innorna, Hui continuously innovates and has  successfully developed several mRNA infectious disease vaccines, which are currently undergoing clinical trials.  Founded in 2019, Innorna is a platform-based delivery technology company primarily focused on developing nucleic acid drug delivery technologies. It is among the few global high-tech firms that have mastered the LNP technology, with a proprietary mRNA platform technology. Leveraging the LNP and mRNA platform technologies, Innorna has developed pipelines for infectious disease vaccines, rare diseases, and tumor immunotherapies.