Advisors

Prof. Paul-Henri Lambert, MD

Prof. Paul-Henri Lambert, MD, is now associated with the Centre of Vaccinology in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at University of Geneva. He is directing the International Advanced Course of Vaccinology (ADVAC) organized under the auspices of the Fondation Mérieux and University of Geneva. He is a member of the Governing Board of the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), past-chairman of the Human Vaccine Committee of the International Association for Biologicals (IABS) and of the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety of the World Health Organization (WHO). In 1987, he was appointed as chief of Microbiology and Immunology at the World Health Organization and in 1994, chief of the Vaccine Research and Development, WHO Global Program for Vaccines and Immunization. During this time he was deeply involved in co-ordination of research aiming at the development of vaccines against diseases of major importance in developing countries.

Prof. John A. Robinson

Prof. Robinson is a co-founder of Virometix, professor of organic chemistry and former chairman of the Organic Chemistry Institute and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Zurich. Prof. Robinson is a leading expert in the development of epitope mimetics for drug and vaccine applications. He has published more than 150 papers in major scientific journals and is named as co-inventor on 12 patents. He obtained his Doctorate in Chemistry from Cambridge University, UK.

Jan ter Meulen, MD, Dr. Habil., DTM&H

Dr. Jan ter Meulen is a biotech executive with very broad experience in vaccines and recombinant antibody R&D, as well as immuno-oncology. As a veteran researcher in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic settings, Jan brings more than 25 years of operational and strategic research experience to Virometix, including having been the Head of Vaccine Basic Research at Merck & Co., where he was responsible for the entire vaccine discovery pipeline. He also was an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a consultant for scientific agencies in the US, UK, Germany, France, South Africa and for the European Commission. Jan holds a Medical Doctorate degree from Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, a PhD in Virology from Philipps University of Marburg, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the London School.

Prof. Fernando Albericio

Prof. Fernando Albericio is Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Full Professor at the University of Barcelona (Spain), and Visiting Professor at the King Saud University (Saud Arabia). His major research interests cover practically all methodological aspects of peptide synthesis, as well as synthesis of peptides and small molecules with therapeutic activities, mainly in the field of cancer and infectious diseases. His group also is being involved in the development of new strategies for drug delivery. He has published over 900 scientific paper and co-authored four books. He has filled more than 55 patents. He is Editor in Chief of several scientific journal and acting in the Editorial Board of several others. He has been honored with a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Leonidas Zervas award by the European Peptide Society, the Vincent du Vigneaud award by the American Peptide Society, among others. During the last years, part of his efforts has been focused to make the peptide synthesis greener and better.

Dr. Christian Brander

Christian Brander graduated from the University of Bern with a PhD in Immunology. He then moved to Harvard University where he focused his work on cellular immunity to viral infections and the impact of host genetics on this immune response. He joined ICREA in Barcelona in 2008 with an appointment at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute to continue his work on host genetics and cellular immunity to viral infections, including HIV, HCV, KSHV and EBV. Christian holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Vic and Central Catalonia. He also serves as a curator of the Los Alamos HIV Immunology database and as the scientific director of the HIVACAT program, the Catalan project for the development of effective preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines.

Dr. Dimitris Stellas

Dr. Dimitris Stellas is an expert in cancer immunology and mouse models of cancers. He will supervise the in vitro and in vivo vaccine experiments, design the vaccination strategy and coordinate the subsequent experimental procedure in order to validate the efficacy of the vaccination. Having hands-on experience on cancer neo-antigens as novel vaccine targets and DNA vaccines on HIV, he will be instrumental to the team of experts, assisting them to identify strategic targets for vaccine development.

Prof. Vana Spoulou

Vana Spoulou is a Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the University of Athens in Greece, and the Clinical Lead of the Infectious Diseases Unit and the National Reference Centre for Paediatric HIV at Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital. She has obtained a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Athens and an MPhil in Immunobiology from UCL. Vana is the founder of the first Immunobiology and Vaccine Studies Laboratory in Greece in 1997. Her research has contributed to the discovery of novel pneumococcal protein antigens, with the aim to develop vaccines that provide broad protection against invasive pneumococcal infections. Vana is a member of several national and European scientific societies, and recently an elected Board Member of ESPID. She is also a member of the Rotavirus and Varicella Zoster Virus Experts groups. She has authored more than 100 research publications and co-authored the book Pediatric Vaccines and Vaccinations. For her contribution in the field of Infectious Diseases and Immunobiology she has received several Greek and international awards and distinctions.

Prof. Thorsten Buch

Prof. Thorsten Buch is professor and institute director at the University of Zurich, studying causes for loss of immune tolerance and options for treatment of autoimmune diseases. He started his studies of the immune system more than 25 years ago at the University of California, Davis, US. He obtained his Diploma at the University of Düsseldorf, DE and performed his PhD under Prof. Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne, DE. Before joining the University of Zurich, he was Professor for Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the Technical University Munich. Prof. Buch has published more than 90 papers, is co-inventor on 6 patents, and founder of 2 companies. He is reviewer to multiple journals and research agencies.

Lawrence Segal PhD ERT

Lawrence (Larry) Segal has over 30 years professional experience in regulatory toxicology in the chemical and pharmaceutical Industries and in a Regulatory Agency (Health Canada). He is a Eurotox Registered Toxicologist (ERT). Larry was Director of Nonclinical Toxicology & Pharmacology at GSK Vaccines, where he was responsible for the preparation and review of the non-clinical toxicology sections of all regulatory submissions, interactions with regulatory agencies worldwide, planning and review of GLP toxicity studies, and participation in internal safety monitoring boards and project teams.
Larry is now working as a consultant on freelance basis.