Mucosal Immunology and Vaccine Development

Simona Di Francesco is the Director of Urological, Biomedical and Translational Sciences Department. People's University Nicolaus Copernicus , Cassino (RM) ,Italy 2014 M.D , PhD. People's University Nicolaus Copernicus , Cassino (RM) ,Italy 2014 PhD Degree in Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Surgery (CEMS), School of Advanced Studies , Department of Medicine and Aging, University “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara. Doctoral Thesis : Metabolic Alterations and Vascular Damage in Prostate Cancer. 2012 AWARD-PIERRE FABRE-CIFU, Italian Society of Urology. 2012 Project Planning Course , G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, School of Advanced Studies. 2012 Advanced English Course For Special Purposes. G. D’annunzio University. School of Advanced Studies. 2012 Course Of Scientific English "Writing Across Science”, G. D’annunzio University, School of Advanced Studies, Nazareth College. 2011 Course Scientific English - Uda-Learning , G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara. 2010 Specialization in Urology, G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, with maximum marks cum laude. 2009 Specialization in Internist Echography, G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara. 2004 Urostage: Kidney , Prostate, Urinary Bladder. University “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Department of Medicine and Aging, Section of Urology. 2001 XIV International Course of Digestive and Endocrine Surgery. University “G. D’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, School of Medicine and Surgery, Italy. 2001-2002 M.D, G.D’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Medicine and Surgery.

Simona Di Francesco research interest is in Urological Cancer and Immunology, Prostate and Immunology, Bladder and Immunology, Kidney and Immunology.

Professor Paul Foster is the Director of the Priority Research Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease; the Virus, Infection/Immunity, Vaccines and Asthma Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute and the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Asthma and Airways (Newcastle node). He also currently holds the Chair of Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle. He is also a visiting Professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.He serves as an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and the Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and is on the Editorial Boards of a number of leading international immunology/allergy journals. Professor Foster's research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular basis of asthma, allergy, respiratory disorders, and chronic inflammation. His research program focuses on translational approaches directed towards the development of novel anti-inflammatory therapies. Professor Foster's research findings are published in the most highly ranked medical and biomedical science journals (e.g. Nature Immunology and Journal of Experimental Medicine). Essential Science Indicators metrics places his team on the forefront of his field internationally. Professor Foster receives numerous and ongoing invitations to speak and chair sessions and leading international conferences in immunology and respiratory medicine.

Professor Paul Foster research interest is cellular and molecular processes that underlie the development of allergic disease (lung, skin and gastrointestinal tract) and of viral (RSV and influenza) induced pulmonary inflammation,Professor Foster's team particularly interested in the molecular events that predispose to remodeling of the airways in chronic disease and the subsequent impact on lung function. In particular, projects are focusing on the biology of CD4+ Th2 cells, CD8+ T cells and eosinophils, and in signaling arrangements between cytokine and chemokine systems that pertain to allergic disease, viral induced pathogenesis and viral induced exacerbation of asthma.

Jennifer Wu Received PhD from the University of British Columbia in Canada, post-doc trained at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Accepted a faculty position at the University of Washington, and moved to the MUSC/Hollings Cancer Center in 2011. Currently serving as the Committee chair for Cancer COP of FOCIS, Editorial board of Frontier Immunology (Tumor Immunology), Frontier Oncology, Journal of Molecular and Genetic Medicine, American Journal of Immunology, Austin Journal of Clinical immunology, and Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Inflammation and Cancer newly lunched by Versita.

Jennifer Wu's research interest is on the molecular and cellular regulation of host immunity and inflammatory responses in tumor microenvironment by tumor secretive soluble elements, with emphasis on tumor shed proteins and secretive cytokines. One of mechanisms conveying tumor immune surveillance in cancer patients is though induced expression of the membrane-bound MHC I chain related molecules A and B (MICA and MICB) on tumor cell surface. These molecules serve as ligands for the immune activating receptor NKG2D to signal the activation of NK and CD8 T cell anti-tumor responses.

Sedigheh Zakeri graduated with a first class honors degree in Biological Science from the University of Mashhad in 1989 and obtained her M.Sc and PhD in Parasite Immunology from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1994 and 1998, respectively. She joined Parasitology Department in Pasteur Institute of Iran in 1999 and a year later moved to Biotechnology Department, where initiated immune-molecular research on malaria through her re-entry grant awarded by WHO/TDR. Since 2005, Malaria and Vector Research Group (MVRG) established by her and Prof. Navid Dinparast Djadid as an independent research group in Biotechnology Research Center. She is currently Head of the MVRG.

Professor S. Zakeri area of interest is Malaria Immunology and vaccine development.Vaccines could be a crucial component of efforts to eradicate malaria. Continued support for these efforts is essential, but, if malaria vaccines are to be used as part of a repertoire of tools for elimination or eradication of malaria, they will need to have an impact on malaria transmission. Her interest is on "vaccines that interrupt malaria transmission" (VIMT), which not only include "classical" transmission-blocking vaccines but also pre-erythrocytic and asexual stage vaccines that have an effect on transmission. Currently, Prof Zakeri main activities are on “Oral Vaccine Delivery using Microalgae" and the most potent adjuvant for the development of an oral vaccine against malaria in developing countries.

Dr. SangKon Oh received his PhD degree at the Johns Hopkins University in 2000 and trained at National Cancer Center (NCI, NIH) as a postdoctoral fellow by 2002. He worked as an IPA fellow at NCI in association with the Johns Hopkins University from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Oh joined BIIR in 2005. He is also affiliated with Baylor University at Waco, TX, as an Associate Professor.

Dr. Sangkon Oh research interests are in the area of molecular and immunological functions of DC surface receptors expressed on different subsets of human dendritic cells in healthy and patients. Dr. Oh laboratory has uncovered novel immunological functions of several DC surface lectins, e.g. DC-ASGPR and LOX-1, in controlling host immune responses toward either immunity or tolerance. Dr. Oh’s laboratory has also discovered that monocytes and subsets of DCs in lupus patients express distinct patterns of surface receptors, which could help us understand the mechanisms in which DCs break B cell tolerance in lupus.

Thomas Böldicke completed his PhD at the age of 26 years at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. He has been working for 25 years in the field of recombinant antibodies particularly intrabodies. He has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals.

Immunology

Professor Tim Elliott is Professor of Experimental Medicine within Medicine at the University of Southampton. Professor Tim Elliott left the University of Oxford with a first in Biochemistry in 1983, received a PhD from the University of Southampton in 1986 and completed his postdoctoral training at MIT. He held a lectureship and later a professorship in immunology (Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine and Balliol College, University of Oxford) between 1990-2000 before being appointed to the Chair of Experimental Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Southampton. He was Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Medicine between 2005 and 2015. He’s held appointments on Scientific Advisory boards at the Wellcome Trust, the Association of International Cancer Research, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, and Symphogen, and currently chairs the CRUK Expert Review Group for Cancer Immunology He has published over 130 papers (h-index, 48) in the field of molecular immunology; was visiting lecturer of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, University of Edmonton, Alberta in 1999; and recently held a visiting Professorship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and in 2014 he was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences. Professor Elliott was amongst the key group of immunologists who developed studies of antigen presentation at the molecular level during the 1980s, undertaking a series of studies to determine and define the immunostimulatory properties of MHC Class I molecules and elucidating the molecular mechanisms of co-factor assisted peptide loading of MHC Class I in antigen presenting cells: work considered to be the fundamental foundation of much of the recent work on antigen presentation. The work underpins rational T-cell based vaccine design and continues to fuel translational research in Southampton where discoveries in the areas of antigen discovery, T cell regulation and immunodominance are making a significant impact on new and ongoing cancer immunotherapy trials. His mechanistic studies have always benefitted from an active interface with the physical sciences including collaborations with synthetic and computational chemistry and recently with Microsoft UK. He developed a 4 year integrated PhD programme in Biomedical Science which is now in its eleventh year.

Immunology,Immunotherapy,Experimental Medicine, Experimental Oncology

Dr. Schwarz received her medical degree from Washington University. She then completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Schwarz is Director of the Pediatric Liver Center at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in which there are over 1,000 patients who receive medical care. She focuses on liver disorders of childhood with a particular emphasis on biliary atresia, metabolic liver disorders, autoimmune liver disease, and viral hepatitis B and C. Dr. Schwarz is Medical Director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at Johns Hopkins and directs NIH-funded grants in a variety of pediatric liver diseases, including biliary atresia, and other cholestatic liver diseases of childhood such as Alagille Syndrome, PFIC 1,2 and 3, alpha-1 antitrypson deficiency, mitochondrial hepatopathy and cystic fibrosis liver disease. She also directs grants and clinical trials in pediatric hepatitis B and C. Dr. Schwarz was named one of Baltimore Magazine's top 25 pediatricians, and she has won teaching awards at both St. Louis University and Johns Hopkins University. In 2005, she received the Distinguished Service Award of the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition . She is currently the President of this organization. Since 2001, she has been named one of the Castle Connolly Top Doctors in America. Dr. Schwarz also has been designated a U.S. News and World Report “Top Doctor” and identified as being in the top 1% of pediatric gastroenterologists in the nation.

Biliary Atresia, Metabolic Liver Disorders, Autoimmune Liver Disease, Viral Hepatitis B and C Pediatric Liver Transplantation

Federica Marelli-Berg qualified in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan in 1989, and specialized in Hematology in 1993 at the University of Pavia, Italy. In 1997 she completed her PhD studies at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (London) under the supervision of Professor R. Lechler. In 2000 she was awarded a Governors’ lectureship by Imperial College London, where she continued her academic career to become Professor of Immunology in 2011. She joined the WHRI (Barts and The London SMD, QMUL) as Professor of Cardiovascular Immunology in November 2011, and in January 2014 she was invited to lead the Centre for Biochemical Pharmacology. In 2015 she has been awarded a prestigious Personal Chair in Cardiovascular Immunology by the British Heart Foundation.

Cardiovascular Immunology, Biochemical Pharmacology

Ildikó Molnár MD has completed her PhD at the age of 39 years at the candidate of science course (PhD) of Hungarian Academy of Science. Work and research connected her to Kenézy County and Teaching Hospital from 1977 to 2008. Now she is the chief of EndoMed, Immunoendocrinology, Private Outpatient Clinic from 2008. She is an expert in ELISA, Western and ECL blottings, colorimetric iodine measurement, as well as in allergy testing and bone density measurement with Hologic DEXA. She has published more than 48 papers in reputed journals, 16 chapters and 2 books.

ELISA, Western and ECL blottings, colorimetric iodine measurement

Dr. Bozena Futoma-Kol‚och graduated from University of Wrocl‚aw in 2004. She received her PhD mentored by Prof. W. Doroszkiewicz in microbiology from the University of Wrocław in 2008. After that she has held academic position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology in the Institute of Genetics and Microbiology at University of Wrocl‚aw. She is a member of Polish Society of Microbiologists (which belongs to the Federation of European Microbiological Societies - FEMS), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - ESCMID, and International Complement Society - ICS. She has published more than 50 papers in national and international journals, 30 presentations at congresses, with several awards. Dr. Futoma-Kołoch's research program focuses on the bacterial surface antigens: lipopolysaccharide (LPS, endotoxin) and outer membrane proteins (OMP) as molecular targets of the protective immune response against pathogenic bacteria, especially Salmonella. Investigations on susceptibility of Salmonella strains possessing sialic acid-containing LPS to human serum (HS) resulted in many publications about the role of atypical bacterial endotoxin in determining complement system activation through the alternative pathway. It was also shown that differential sensitivity of tested bacteria to HS might be due to a weaker C3 serum protein activation on strongly sialylated LPS and a binding of C3 components to the OMP.

Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology

Dr. Carter is a biophysicist with 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry developing diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. He has founded five biotech companies including Proteinchemist.com, Compliment Corp, and PAI Life Sciences Inc. He is on the board of two Seattle biotechnology companies and acts as a scientific advisor for vaccine and global health institutes as well as having two affiliate professorships at the University of Washington in the School of Medicine and in Global Health. Darrick’s current research includes immune stimulants and vaccine formulations, structure-based protein design and immune oncology. He is inventor on over 160 patents and patent applications and has authored over 60 publications. Darrick received his Ph.D. from Oregon Health and Science University and his B.S. from Oregon State University.

immunomodulatory agents and formulations, vaccines and therapeutic

Thomas Bosch studied biology at the University of Munich, Germany, and Swansea, United Kingdom and earned his doctorate in 1986. Since 2000, Bosch has been a professor of general zoology at Kiel University. From 2010 to 2013, he served as vice president of Kiel University. Since 2013 Thomas Bosch is heading the interdisciplinary research center “Kiel Life Science” (KLS). Bosch is also coordinator of a new DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center on “Origin and Function of Metaorganisms”. The Center explores the multi-organismic interactions in plants, animals and humans. Bosch is the recipient of numerous awards including an honorary doctorate degree from St. Petersburg State University, Russia.

Multi-organismic interactions in plants, animals and humans.

Professor Bernhagen studied Biochemistry and Immunology at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and at Queen Mary College, London, UK. He performed a sandwich PhD thesis at the University of Tübingen and at the Picower Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, USA, and was trained as a postdoc at the Picower. Professor Bernhagen currently is a Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and is the Chair and Director of the homonymous institute. His main research interest has been on cytokines, chemokines and their role in inflammation, with a focus on MIF and the biochemical and structural features and mechanisms of such inflammatory mediators. He also studies the COP9 signalosome. Studied disease models encompass rodent model of atherosclerosis, sepsis, liver and kidney disease as well as colitis and colorectal cancer. Professor Bernhagen has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in these areas, several of them published in leading journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, or PNAS. He has serves on the editorial board of several journals and serves on several review committees for extramural funding and various fellowship organizations.

Inflammation

Dr. Deshane is a pulmonary immunologist with expertise in immune regulation in asthma. She investigates Myeloid-Derived Regulatory Cell biology and free radical mechanisms that regulate their differentiation and function. She pioneered these investigations both in mouse models and human asthma. Dr. Deshane has authored 46 peer-reviewed publications, including high impact journals like Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigations, Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Immunity and Cancer Research. She serves on the editorial boards for the journals Allergy and American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and serves on grant review committees. Dr. Deshane is a Parker B Francis Fellow and funded by FAMRI and NIH.

Cell based effector mechanisms

Marco Sgarbanti has studied molecular virus-host interaction for 15 years as deducible by hispeer-reviewed publications. As researcher and principal investigator (PI), he has been studying the role of cellular transcription factors in HIV-1 LTR expression focusing on strategies aimed at eliminating viral reservoirs. Recently he has focused in the development of cellular assays suitable for high throughput screening (HTS) of small molecules, to find inhibitors of RNA viral proteins belonging to important human threatening virus diseases. Awards: winner of a Grand Challenges Exploration Grant in Global Health, Phase I, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pathogen-specificity

Bhattacharyya received his Ph.D. in Plant Science from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Following his graduate studies, he joined John Innes Institute, England for his postdoctoral research and isolated the rugosus locus studied by Gregor Mendel. His group has been engaged in conducting research in the area of plant disease resistance with a goal to enhance broad-spectrum disease resistance in soybean. Currently, he directs a multiinstitutional research project funded by USDA-NIFA. He has published over 60 scientif papers mostly in high profile journals. He serves several journals including BMC Plant Biology, BMC Genomics, Molecular Biotechnology, Frontiers in Agricultural Biological Chemistry, and Journal of Plant Genome Sciences for editorial duties.

Plant Innate Immunity

Dr Cécile Oury, PhD in Biology, has studied platelet biology for 15 years. In 2001, she was the laureate of the prize Boerhinger Ingelheim for her research on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. She is now Research Associate at the Belgium Fund for Scientific Research, and she is the Head of the Laboratory of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, part of the Unit GIGA-Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Liège, Belgium. GIGA is an interdisciplinary institute comprising >250 scientists active in biomedicine. Dr Oury’s research focuses on the elucidation of the mechanisms of thrombosis using in vitro studies and animal models. She has a h-index of 18, more than 50 international peer-reviewed papers and 1434 citations. Dr Oury is a Council member of the Belgian Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis and a member of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis

Inflammation

Beatriz Basso completed her PhD at School of Biochemistry, National Cordoba University, Argentina. She is Professor of Medicine School at the same University and Director of the Parasitology Laboratory, National Service of Chagas disease. She was Visiting Researcher in Universities of USA and Belgium, Director of graduate students and PhD. She has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals, over 200 presentations at congress, with several awards. She is evaluator of national and international research project, Editorial Board Member and Reviewer of international research journal, among other academic and research activities

Case Study

Jean-François Augusto is Associate Professor of Nephrology in Angers University Hospital, France. He has studied Innate Immunity and has completed his PhD from Angers University, France, in April 2015. He has expertise in Clinical Nephrology, including auto-immune and systemic diseases, and Critical Care Medicine. His main interest is the study of innate immunity and especially pattern recognition receptor biology and their implication in pathophysiology of systemic and auto-immune diseases.

Cell based effector mechanisms

Professor Oziniel Ruzvidzo completed his doctoral degree in Plant Biotechnology in 2009 at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He also undertook some postdoctoral studies in the same subject area in 2010 at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Currently, he is the Head of Department and Principal Investigator of Plant Biotechnology in the Department of Biological Sciences at the North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, South Africa, where he has already extensively published high impact factor papers in this subject area of his research specialization. Professor Ruzvidzo is an active member of several university committees including the senate as well as an editorial member of various academic and research boards locally, regionally and internationally.

Plant Innate Immunity