ESWI Webinar Series

About Marco Goeijenbier, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands

Position: Postdoc Erasmus University Rotterdam, acute internal medicine specialist, fellow intensive care

Research fields: Special interest in acute care and infectious diseases

Marco Goeijenbier graduated from medical school at the University of Amsterdam in 2010. During his internships he did research on rodent-borne hemorrhagic fever. Goeijenbier received his PhD in virology (“Haemostasis and Virus Infection”) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015. He is currently a specialist in acute internal medicine and started a fellowship in intensive care at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.

Some of Goeijenbier’s most recent published articles include ; “Thrombocytopenia in Virus Infections. (J Clin Med, feb 2021)” “Determinants of Vaccination Uptake in Risk Populations (Vaccines, Aug 2020)”

And Benefits of flu vaccination for persons with diabetes mellitus (Vaccine, Sep 2017).

Dr. Goeijenbier is ESWI’s lead member and Chair in the Influenza Diabetes Community (IDC). The IDC connects leading diabetes, patient, scientific and professional organisations around the common aim of protecting persons living with diabetes from influenza and other viral respiratory diseases like COVID-19.

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About Sylvie van der Werf, Institut Pasteur, France

Position: Head of unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses, Department of Virology, Institut Pasteur

Research fields: Epidemiological and virological surveillance of human influenza viruses and of other respiratory viruses

Professor Sylvie van der Werf has a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry Agrégation (National Teaching Degree), a Doctorate in Microbiology with an option in Virology at the University of Paris, and a Doctorate in Natural Sciences specialising in Virology, also at the University of Paris.

She heads the unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses which associates three research groups on influenza viruses (Epidemiology and evolution of respiratory viruses / Influenza virus-host cell interactions / Virus interactomics and one research group on hepaciviruses (Hepacivirus / host interactions). Professor van der Werf is also Director of the coordinating center of the National Reference Centre for influenza viruses and WHO National Influenza Center (NIC) for Northern France as well as WHO Reference Laboratory for H5 influenza viruses and for the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV).

Past research positions include: Deputy-Director of the Fundamental Virology Course, Deputy-Chairman of the Department of Virology, Director of the URA 1966 CNRS Molecular Virology Unit. She is the author of 70 original scientific papers and more than 30 other scientific publications.

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About George Kassianos, GP and National Immunisation Lead Royal College of General Practioners, UK

Position: Occupational Health Physician, retired general practitioner

Research fields: Occupational Health Physician, retired general practitioner

Dr George Kassianos studied medicine in Poland with a scholarship from the International Union of Students (IUS) where he graduated with honours at the Medical Academy of Lodz. He trained as a General Practitioner at the London Hammersmith and St. Mary’s Hospitals before joining his practice in Bracknell, Berkshire in 1979. He retired from the Practice in 2017 after 38 years of service.

George Kassianos has been the National Immunisation Lead for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) since 1996 and is a fellow of the RCGP. He is also a member of the UK’s Public Health England Advisory Panel on Healthcare Workers Infected with Blood-borne Viruses. He is a founding member, Fellow & President of ‘The British Global & Travel Health Association’, and chairs RAISE – the Pan-European Group on Influenza.

He writes extensively in the medical press and is a member of the British Medical Journalists’ Association. He was Editor-in-Chief and remains Associate Editor of the international journal “Drugs in Context”), and past Medical Editor of the Audit in General Practice journal, Care of the Elderly, and Managing Heart Failure in General Practice. He serves as a member on several Editorial Boards of journals.

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About Peter Openshaw, Imperial College London, UK

Position: Respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, Professor of Experimental Medicine, Imperial College, London

Research fields: Lung immunology, RSV, received a lifetime achievement in work on RSV research (Chanock prize, US, in 2012)

ESWI member since 2008

Peter Openshaw is a respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, studying how the immune system both protects against viral infection but also causes disease. He has worked on RSV and influenza since the mid-1980s, leading a large Wellcome Trust funded national collaboration: Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium MOSAIC (2009-12), recruiting cases of severe influenza during the influenza pandemic of 2009-2010.

He has run studies of human experimental infection of volunteers for over 12 years and is Director of the MRC-funded HIC-Vac consortium established to promote the use of human experimental infection to accelerate vaccine development for pathogens of high global impact. Furthermore, he served as President of the British Society for Immunology (2013-18) and is a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences–British Society for Immunology expert taskforce on the immunology of COVID-19.

He has been a member of SAGE (2009-12), Chair and now vice-Chair or NERVTAG, a Department of Health committee horizon-scanning for emerging respiratory threats. He is a member of the UK Vaccine Network and several committees and Boards that oversee research on the immunology of respiratory infection.

He is Theme Lead for Infection at the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Respiratory Infections Section Head within the National Heart and Lung Institute and an NIHR Senior Investigator. He co-leads ISARIC4C, a UK-wide consortium established in 2020 to study the COVID-19 pandemic.

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About Ab Osterhaus, RIZ Hannover, Germany

Position: Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research and Guest-Professor at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover.

Research fields: Emerging virus infections of humans and animals

Professor Osterhaus is Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, and cofounder/CSO of Viroclinics-DDL BV and ViroNative BV (both spin-outs of Erasmus MC) and CR2O. He was head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus MC Rotterdam until 2014.

He has a long track record as a researcher and project leader of numerous major scientific projects. At Erasmus MC, he has run a diagnostic virology lab with more than 40 staff and a research virology lab with over 150 personnel. His research programme follows an integrated “viroscience” concept, bringing together world-leading scientists in molecular virology, immunology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and intervention studies for human and animal virus infections.

Among his major accomplishments are the discovery of more than 70 new viruses of humans and animals (e.g. human metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, influenza viruses), elucidation of the pathogenesis of major human and animal virus infections, and development of novel intervention strategies. This has enabled health authorities like the WHO to effectively combat disease outbreaks like SARS and avian influenza. The established spin-outs are among his other societally relevant successes, allowing effective testing and refining of diagnostic tools and other intervention strategies.

Professor Osterhaus has acted as mentor for more than 80 PhD students and holds several key patents. He is the author of more than 1300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, together cited more than 75,000 times with an H index of 120. He holds several senior editorships and has received numerous prestigious awards. He is a member of the Dutch and German National Academies of Sciences, member of the Belgium Academia of Medicine, and Commander of the Order of the Dutch Lion.

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About Gülsah Gabriel, Heinrich Pette Institute, Germany

Position: Professor Virology, Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, Hamburg, Germany

Research Fields: Interspecies transmission and pathogenesis of influenza A viruses; High-risk groups of influenza (pregnancy, asthma, obesity); New antiviral strategies against influenza

Dr. Gabriel is head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. Professor Gabriel’s main research interest is to understand how avian influenza viruses cross species barriers and transmit to humans causing large epidemics and eventually pandemics. Herein, a special focus lies on influenza virus pathogenesis in high-risk groups, such as pregnant women.

Dr. Gabriel studied Biology at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, and obtained her PhD in 2006. Afterwards, she moved to the United Kingdom where she held the position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford until 2009. In 2009, Dr. Gabriel moved back to Germany where she received the prestigious Emmy-Noether Research Award funded by the German Research Foundation to lead a junior group at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg.

From 2014-2018, she was the head of the research group influenza pathogenesis at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Lübeck. Since 2018, she is the head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover.

In 2009, Dr. Gabriel was the first winner of the ESWI Best Body of Work Award. She was elected Vice Chair of ESWI in 2014. Dr. Gabriel received many prestigious awards, among them the Robert Koch Förderpreis (2012), the Best Minds Award from the Leibniz Association (2018) and the Prize for Translational Infection Research of the German Research Center for Infection (2019).

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About Jenny Hendriks, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention, The Netherlands

Position: Director Biomarkers Viral Vaccines at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

Research Fields:

Dr. Hendriks is head of a team of senior and principal scientists and leads cross-functional teams to define the immunology strategy for early development vaccine development, focusing on Adeno-based vaccines (Covid, HIV, RSV, Ebola, HPV, IPV, Flu, Zika), including go/no go criteria that support the next phase of clinical development. In this function, she is leading external collaborations towards exploring immunogenicity of human vaccine responses in clinical development. She is an Ad26 vaccine platform expert and leading meta-analysis in order to leverage platform knowledge. In the past she was lead Immunologist defining and executing the immunobridging strategy that led to EMA registration of the Ebola vaccine. She participates in external partner meetings and regulatory interactions.

Before that, she worked as Head Biomarkers leading discussions on the immune parameters that should be measured in clinical vaccine trials in addition to driving the discussions on go/no go criteria that support the next phase of clinical development. She was responsible for translating preclinical data in expectations for clinical trial outcome focussing on adenoviral vector-based vaccine candidates.

Dr. Hendriks started her company career as a Scientist at Clinical Assays at Crucell where she developed and validated virus neutralization assays, ELISAs and T cell assays, such as Elispot and Intracellular Cytokine Staining. She contributed to the establishment of a GLP lab by writing procedures and performing equipment and software validation. Since 2009 she was a Senior Scientist responsible for clinical immunology for Adenovirus-based vaccines against diseases such as Malaria, HIV and TB. As a Principal Scientist she managed a team of scientists and technicians working on assessing serological and cellular immunity against Crucells Adenovirus based vaccines in the development pipeline.
After attaining a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences she started her PhD at working on CD27 in the specific immune response which was completed with a thesis that won the AVL prize in 2004. Subsequently, she worked as a postdoc on cancer stem cells.

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About Wolfgang Philipp, European Commission, Health Emergency Response and Vaccines Unit, Luxemburg

Position: Head of Unit Health Emergency Response and Vaccines in the Directorate-General Health and Food Safety in the European Commission.

His Unit is dealing with:

Implementing the EU Vaccine Strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines
Planning and implementing actions under the European bio-defence preparedness plan called “HERA Incubator”
Developing the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority

He holds a PhD in microbiology of the University of Paris, France, and has been working in tuberculosis research at the Institut Pasteur, and at the Universities of Bern and Basel and was a Member of the Basel Institute of Immunology before joining the European Commission in 2001.

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About Florian Krammer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States of America

Position: Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Research Fields:

He received his advanced training in biotechnology and applied virology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Mentor: Dr. Reingard Grabherr), where he gained extensive experience with expression and purification of recombinant (glyco-) proteins and influenza virus-like particles. He established various expression systems for these proteins using insect cells/baculovirus, mammalian cells, bacteria, yeast and plants. Furthermore, he worked on a novel influenza virus rescue system based on baculovirus transduction of mammalian cells and a novel bioassay to measure inhibition of the influenza virus polymerase complex by cap-snatching inhibitors. He graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in 2010.

Prof. Krammer’s post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York focused on the development of broadly neutralizing anti-hemagglutinin stalk antibodies and the design of an universal influenza virus vaccine. The results of these studies have been very promising: After successful testing in animal models (mice, ferrets), studies with this universal influenza virus vaccine are now advancing to human clinical trials.

Currently Prof. Krammer holds a position as a Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has published more than 100 papers, is member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology, Plos One and Heliyon and is a peer reviewer for more than 30 journals. Dr. Krammer is also member of the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Society Young Investigator Program. In addition he is a scientific adviser for enGenes and PathSensors.

Since 2019, Prof. Krammer is the Principal Investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC). Our CIVIC aims to develop improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

The Krammer laboratory – which is also part of the NIH-funded Centers for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) – focuses on understanding broadly-reactive immune responses against the surface glycoproteins of RNA viruses such as influenza with the goal to develop better vaccines and novel therapeutics.

Accomplishments:

2019: Endowed Professor of Vaccinology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

2014-2017: Member of the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Vaccine Society Young Investigator Program (YIP)

2014: ESWI Young Scientist Travel Award and ‘Young Scientist Co-Chair’

2013: Options for the Control of Influenza VIII Promising Investigator Scholarship

2013: American Society for Virology 32nd Annual Meeting Postdoctoral Travel Award

2012: Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) Training Grant

2011: Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship (Austrian Science Fund/FWF)

2010: INiTS – Innovation into Business Award, First Prize in the category Life Science, Vienna, Austria

https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/krammerlab/dr-krammer/

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About Barbara Rath, Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative, Germany

Position: board-certified pediatric consultant and infectious disease specialist with 20 years experience in clinical trials, public health and virology in the US, Latin America and Europe. Dr. Rath is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine, UK and board member at the International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses (ISIRV

Research fields

Prof. Barbara Rath is a board-certified pediatric consultant and infectious disease specialist with 20 years experience in clinical trials, public health and virology in the US, Latin America and Europe. Dr. Rath is honorary professor at the University of Nottingham School of Medicine, UK and board member at the International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses (ISIRV). Dr. Rath received her medical school education in Germany, the United States and Spain, and her doctoral degrees from the University of Basel, Switzerland and the University of Besançon, France. In addition to a post-doctoral fellowship at the Stanford Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases & Geographic Medicine, she has received pediatric residency and infectious disease subspecialty training at Duke and Tulane Universities, USA. Recent research focuses on defining a precision medicine approach to managing pediatric patients with acute viral infections. In collaboration with the Robert Koch Institute she developed innovative real-time surveillance programs for the monitoring of influenza-like illness and the immuno-safety of vaccines and antivirals in infants and children. Dr. Rath is co-founder and chair of the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative, an international think tank and non-profit-organization focused on new avenues for the treatment, communication and prevention of infectious diseases. Her team developed and validated clinical and virologic endpoints for clinical trials and observational settings. The goal is to individualize the management of influenza and other respiratory viral infections through integration of infectious disease epidemiology with data standardization, mobile health, biomarker research and advanced diagnostic capabilities. The Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative consults and collaborates on a regular basis with experts in risk communication, global health, design thinking, population science, health policy, bioethics and regulatory science. The Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative is a founding member of the International Association of Innovation Professionals and an institutional member of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice.

Dr. Rath is the co-founder of the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative with Prof. Gaedicke and a founding member of the ViVI Scientific Think Tank.

https://www.vi-vi.org/prof-barbara-a-rath.html

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programme

Vaccination in a COVID-19 era

Childhood Influenza Vaccination and Treatment in a COVID-19 era

COVID-19 treatment and medication

RSV Disease in a COVID-19 era