Dr. Sherry Layton received her Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas where she studied poultry science. Her early career research in poultry immunology and molecular engineering set the foundation for her pioneering scientific successes in animal health. Over the last decade Dr. Layton developed and patented an innovative orally administered inactive sub-unit vaccine platform (One Health Vaccine Platform), Biotech Vac. This research and development led to the recent introduction of Biotech Vac – Salmonella in Latin America, which provides poultry with immunological protection from all mobile Salmonella species, a first in the poultry industry, and will help reduce the risk of food-borne Salmonellosis in humans. Currently, she serves as CEO for Vetanco USA and Chief Scientific Officer for Vetanco International/BV Science, a global animal health and nutrition company where her research focuses on maintaining animal health and ensuring food safety naturally .Dr. Layton currently leads a research team of veterinarians and scientists in the U.S. and South America and has developed a pipeline of pioneering and effective vaccines. She is currently focused on supporting the introduction of Biotech Vac – Salmonella and Biotech Vac Coccidia in Latin America as well as establishing biologicals in the U.S. market with the newly formed Vetanco USA.

Director Emeritus at Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, and at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany. Founding Director (1993), Director of Department of Immunology at Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin (1993 to 2019). Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Charite University Clinics Berlin, Germany. Faculty Fellow of Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas. Studied biology at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany,1977 PhD (highest degree, summa cum laude). From 1987 to 1991 Professor for Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and from 1991 to 1998 Full Professor for Immunology at University of Ulm. Doctor Honoris Causa from Aix-Marseille University. Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP Edin). Honorary Professor of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru; Guest Professor at Tongji University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Visiting Professor at Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. Scientific interests: immunity to bacterial pathogens with emphasis on tuberculosis and rationaldesign of vaccines and biosignatures. Developer of a tuberculosis vaccine in phase III clinical efficacy trial. Former President and honorary member of German Society for Immunology; former President of European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) and of International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). Initiator of the global Day of Immunology to raise public awareness in immunology, jointly organized by EFIS and IUIS annually. Chair of the Board of Schering Foundation. Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and member of the Board of Trustees of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Co-Chair of the Scientific Committee of World Health Summit. Board Member of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) from 2010 to 2013. Member of the Scientific Board of Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) from 2009 to 2014. Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) from 2014 to 2018. Member of the Executive Committee of Robert Koch Foundation from 2003 to 2019. Scientific advisor on “Health” for G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, in 2015 and for G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017. Numerous prestigious scientific awards, most recently Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck Prize in 2018 from FNRS, Belgium. Coordinator of several international and interdisciplinary projects, e.g. Grand Challenge 6 of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2005 to 2016. > 900 publications mostly in high-ranking journals with > 75,000 citations, Highly Cited Researcher 2020 according to Clarivate – Web of Science; amongst the 0.01% most cited scientists of ca. 7 million scientists in 22 major scientific fields globally (PLoS Biol 17(8): e3000384, 2019); h-index of 142 (Google Scholar) / 111 (Clarivate – Web of Science/ISI),). Editor or member of editorial boards of numerous international scientific journals; member of numerous professional societies and academies including American Academy of Microbiology, Berlin–Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, World Innovation Foundation and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Professor S. Louise Cosby is a graduate (B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology) of Queen’s University Belfast and was a member of staff for over 30 years. She held the post of Chair of Microbiology in the School of Medicine Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences from 2002 to 2015. She is currently Head of Virology Branch at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast and emeritus/honorary Professor at Queen's University Belfast. Professor Cosby is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (UK). In 1985 she was a visiting Associate Professor in Cornell University USA and has been an occasional visiting scientist at the Pirbright Institute, UK. Professor Cosby is an editor for 'Vaccines' and 'Frontiers in Microbiology'.

Camille Locht, PhD, holds currently a position as Research Director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and was the founding director of the Center for Infection and Immunity of Lille at the Institut Pasteur de Lille. He has obtained his PhD at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1984. After a 3-years post-doctoral stay at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, USA, where he started to work on pertussis and cloned the pertussis toxin genes, he joined SmithKline-Beecham (now GSK) to help developing acellular pertussis vaccines. Since 1989 he is the head of a research laboratory at the Institut Pasteur de Lille, where he has been the Scientific Director from 2002 to 2013. His research interest is in molecular pathogenesis of respiratory infections, essentially pertussis and tuberculosis, with the long-term aim to develop new tools to combat these diseases. A very powerful molecular typing system for mycobacteria, invented in his laboratory has already reached the market, and a live attenuated nasal pertussis vaccine has now successfully completed phase I trials and is currently in phase II. He also has discovered a protective mycobacterial latency antigen, called heparin-binding haemagglutinin (HBHA), which appears to be a powerful tool for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis and for risk stratification of latently infected subjects. He has authored close to 350 international publications, book chapters and patents and has obtained several research awards.

Dr. Wieslaw Swientnicki is a Biochemist/Molecular Biologist working on bacterial virulence systems. His Main interests are type III secretion systems(T3SS) from EPEC, Y. pestis and P. aeruginosa. The second interests are antibacterials, therapeutics and prophylactics, for human pathogens. The work involves a lot of bioinformatics and computational chemistry methods to design small molecules blocking vital components of pathogens’ metabolism. For vaccines, the work involves a lot of synthetic and systems biology as tools to design next generation of bacterial vaccines.

Sergey Suchkov was born in the City of Astrakhan, Russia, in a family of dynasty medical doctors. In 1980, graduated from Astrakhan State Medical University and was awarded with MD. In 1985, maintained his PhD as a PhD student of the I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy and Institute of Medical Enzymology, USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2001, maintained his Doctor Degree at the National Institute of Immunology, Russia. From 1985 through 1987, worked as a Post Doc Research Associate, for Institute of Medical Enzymology; from 1987 through 1989, was a Senior Research Associate, Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1989 through 1995, was a Head of the Lab of Immunology and Immunobiotechnology, Helmholtz Eye Research Institute in Moscow. In 1989, trained at the Lab of Immunology, NEI, Bethesda, MD, USA,, NIH and Lab of Immunology, Wills Eye Hospital, Philadelphia, USA, as well as at some of the British Universities on the invitation of the Royal Society for Immunology. From 1995 through 2004, was a Director of the Dept for Immu-nology, Moscow Clinical Research Institute (MONIKI).

Yehuda Shoenfeld is the founder and head of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, at the Sheba Medical Center, which is affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in Tel-Aviv University, in Israel. Professor Shoenfeld is also the Incumbent of the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases at the Tel-Aviv University. Professor Shoenfeld’s clinical and scientific works focus on autoimmune and rheumatic diseases, and he has published more than 2000 papers in journals such as New Eng J Med, Nature, Lancet, Proc Nat AcadScie, J Clin Invest, J Immunol, Blood, FASEB, J Exp Med, Circulation, Cancer and others. His articles have had over 65,000 citations. He has written more than 350 chapters in books, and has authored and edited 35 books, some of which became cornerstones in science and clinical practice, such as "The Mosaic of Autoimmunity", "Infections and Autoimmunity" and the textbook "Autoantibodies" and "Diagnostic criteria of autoimmune diseases", all of which were published by Elsevier and sold thousands of copies. Professor Shoenfeldis on the editorial boards of 43 journals in the field of rheumatology and autoimmunity and is the founder and the editor of the IMAJ (Israel Medical Association Journal) the representative journal of science and medicine in the English language in Israel, and also is the founder and Editor of Autoimmunity Reviews (Elsevier) (Impact factor 8.9) and co-Editor of the Journal of Autoimmunity (Impact factor 8).For the past twenty years Yehuda has been the Editor of “Harefuah” – The Israel journal in medicine (Hebrew).

Dr. Daniel Henderson is a co-founder, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer of Verndari, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Napa, California, that aims to transform global health through vaccine science. Prior to Verndari, Dr. Henderson co-founded and served as president of PaxVax, a company based in Redwood City, California, focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing specialty vaccines to protect against existing and emerging infectious diseases, such as typhoid, cholera and hepatitis A for travelers to countries without adequate water sanitation. Separately, PaxVax worked on anthrax vaccines for the U.S. military.While at PaxVax, Dr. Henderson was the named principal investigatoron a virus vectored oral bird flu vaccine (H5) with funding of $10 million for a phase one clinical trial (Wellcome Trust HN-#704483, 2008). PaxVax was later sold to Emergent BioSolutions in 2018.In 2016, PaxVax was named Best Early-Stage Vaccine Biotech company at the 16th annual World Vaccine Congress in Washington, D.C. Dr. Henderson was the founder, president and CEO of Calydon, a private U.S. biotechnology company located in Sunnyvale, California, which focused on developing therapeutics for cancer. At Calydon, which was sold to Cell Genesys in 2004, he patented a method for genetically engineering an adenovirus targeting prostate cancer. Dr. Henderson has been recognized as one of two pioneers in the field of oncolytic virotherapy (Nettelbeck, D., October 2003 and July 2008, Tumor Busting Viruses, Scientific American). Dr. Henderson was also founder, president and CEO of Microgenics Corporation. At Microgenics, Dr. Henderson, invented the groundbreaking CEDIA™ immunoassay system, a bioanalytical method that uses the specificity of an antigen-antibody reaction to detect molecules in biological samples. Microgenics was acquired by Boehringer Mannheim in 1991, which in turn was bought by Roche. The SEC required Roche to sell certain CEDIA products, which resulted in a rebirth of Microgenics that was later acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific. In 2015, Dr. Henderson was awarded the biennial Ullman Prize for Technology Innovation by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry for this groundbreaking work developing the CEDIA™ system. More than $1 billion of CEDIA™ tests are now sold annually, the majority by Roche, with a significant component from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Wayne C Koff, PhD., is the founding President and CEO of the Human Vaccines Project, a non-profit R&D consortium focused on decoding the human immune system to accelerate vaccine and therapeutic development. In 2019, Dr. Koff was named by Foreign Policy along with Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill and Melinda Gates, Angela Merkel and others as one of the 100 Global Thinkers who have “ had a profound impact on the planet in the last 12 months.” As of July 2020, Dr. Koff is also Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Prior to joining the Project, Koff served as CSO and Sr. VP, R&D at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), leading IAVI’s research and development program. At IAVI, his accomplishments included developing multiple HIV vaccines through clinical trials; establishing state-of-the-art laboratories in the U.S., Europe, India and Africa; conducting the first HIV vaccine trials in India, Kenya and Rwanda; and establishing the Neutralizing Antibody Consortium, which identified broad and potent neutralizing antibodies against HIV that are currently in commercial development. Dr. Koff has published over 100 scientific papers and edited eight books on vaccine development.

Delese Mimi Darko is a pharmacist by profession with a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Northampton. Her 28 year carrier encompasses the regulation of food and drugs including clinical trials regulation, marketing authorization and post approval safety monitoring of medicines and cosmetics, household chemicals and medical devices. She has risen through the ranks of the Food and Drugs Authority to become the first female Chief Executive Officer in 2017. She led the FDA process of designation by the NEPAD/African Medicines Regulation Harmonization (AMRH) as a Regional Centers of Regulatory Excellence in 3 very critical areas, namely, Medicines Safety (pharmacovigilance), Clinical Trials and Drug Registration. Mimi Chairs the WHO African Vaccines Regulatory Forum and serves on several international and local advisory committees and bodies. She has received several awards for her exemplary and commendable work.

After a PhD in the field of proteomics of cellular ageing and a post-doc in proteomics, Jean-Francois Dierick entered the Pharmaceutical world. First for SGS, a CRO, where he was leading the Biology Department (Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Toxicology). Then he joined GSK Vaccines where he has occupied several positions related to analytics of biological products both in the development and the commercial areas. Today he is working at GSK Vaccines' Global QC as Global Subject Matter Expert for Analytical Method Validation and Transfer. He is leading or involved in several programs related to the improvement of the Life Cycle management of analytical methods.

Claudia is head of the Global platform for Separations in Analytical R&D GSK Vaccines, located in Belgium, Italy and US, leading the technical teams to advance vaccine candidates from late discovery through clinical development phases. She held a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics, and professionally shaped in the R&D environment for analytical development and structural characterization of biomolecules. She joined GSK from Novartis Vaccines in 2015, where formerly covered the role of Product and Process Development Leader for Bexsero Vaccine and leaded the Analytical Biophysic group in ARD Italy.

Phu Nguyen holds a PhD in Biosciences Engineering with a strong academic research background in bacterial transcription regulation and protein sciences. Her journey in pharma has mainly involved projects in R&D and quality processes implementation. Currently, she is leading the development and implementation of the Continued Method Verification process for analytical monitoring of QC testing in GSK.

Shahjahan Shaid (M) has been trained as biologist in the field of immunology, genetics, animal experiments and replacements alternatives like the MAT to the Rabbit pyrogen test at the University of Konstanz, Germany. His PhD at the University of Berlin, Germany and Robert Koch Institut focused on antibody design and diagnostic of highly infectious pathogens in BSL3 laboratories. Since 2013 he is committed to the development of methods for routine testing under GMP conditions within GSK Vaccines. In 2016 he took the lead of the GSK Vaccines 3R Program as well as their contribution to collaborative studies as Vac2Vac or BSPs.