Influenza 2013: Epidemiology, Vaccines and Threats

Speakers

Organizers

Doris Bucher, PhD

New York Medical College

Dr. Doris Bucher is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY.  Dr. Bucher has dedicated most of her research career to work on influenza viruses and influenza vaccine development.

Her laboratory group at New York Medical College (NYMC) is one of three laboratories worldwide which produce high growth reassortant ‘seed’ viruses for the influenza vaccine.  For the past ten years one to three NYMC reassortants have been used for the bulk of world flu vaccine (inactivated) production of 500 million doses.  For the 2013-2014 vaccine, several manufacturers used NYMC reassortants for all three components of the trivalent vaccine or all four components of the quadrivalent vaccine.

Shortly after identification of 2009 H1N1pdm (swine influenza) by the CDC in April 2009 her laboratory was provided with the 2009 H1N1pdm isolate.   A reassortant ‘seed’ virus, NYMC X-179A, was developed for the vaccine in about three weeks.  X-179A, was used worldwide by manufacturers to produce the 2009 H1N1pdm vaccine (inactivated, egg based).  Several weeks later her laboratory produced two second generation reassortants, NYMC X-181 and X-181A, with even better growth properties; several flu manufacturers continued production of swine flu vaccine with these reassortants.  X-179A and X-181 continue to be used in the seasonal trivalent (or quadrivalent) vaccine as the H1N1 component.

All available candidate vaccine viruses including our NYMC seeds are listed at the WHO website: http://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/en/.

The Bucher lab is supported by the influenza vaccine manufacturers through their organization, IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations), Influenza Vaccine Supply Task Force, based in Geneva.

Allan R. Goldberg, PhD

Avacyn Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Goldberg is currently the President and CEO of Avacyn Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company that is developing a next generation of anti-bacterial drugs characterized by their inability to induce detectable drug resistance.  The Company’s lead drug candidate was developed at Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. through a research collaboration which he conceived and initiated with The Rockefeller University.   He is Partner Emeritus and co-founder of The Channel Group, and has been instrumental in the formation and development of a number of start-up life science companies. In addition, he co-founded previously a venture management partnership called PrimeTech Partners that created, financed, and developed several companies engaged in biomedicine.  Through PrimeTech Dr. Goldberg was a scientific and business co-founder and director of ZyStor Therapeutics, Inc., a Milwaukee-based biotechnology company that developed a protein manufacturing and delivery platform technology for the treatment of various lysosomal storage diseases, including an enzyme-based protein therapeutic for Pompe disease that is currently entering a Phase II/III clinical trial.  BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NasdaqNM: BMRND) acquired ZyStor in August, 2010.  Prior to founding PrimeTech Partners, Dr. Goldberg was founder of Innovir Laboratories, Inc., a public biotechnology company that engaged in developing technologies based on harnessing the natural ribozyme RNase P for pharmaceutical and genomic research and the treatment and prevention of disease.  Dr. Goldberg was a professor of virology and the Richard King Mellon Foundation Fellow at The Rockefeller University prior to founding Innovir.  Dr. Goldberg has been a consultant to several pharmaceutical companies and to several private and public academic institutions.  He was on the Board of Directors of Astex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(NasdaqGM: ASTX), a pharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics for solid tumors and hematological malignancies.  Astex was sold to Otsuka Pharmaceuticals in October 2013.  Dr. Goldberg earned a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Princeton University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Jennifer Henry, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Keynote Speaker

Nancy J. Cox, PhD

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Nancy J. Cox, PhD, is Director of the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Director of CDC’s World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Control of Influenza. She received a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology from Iowa State University in 1970. Dr. Cox was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study in England at the University of Cambridge where in 1975 she earned a doctoral degree in virology. Dr. Cox began her career as a postdoctoral fellow, first at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and subsequently at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was selected as the Chief of the Molecular Genetics Section of the Influenza Branch in 1983, Chief of the Influenza Branch in 1992 and as Director of the Influenza Division in 2006. She serves frequently as a WHO temporary advisor for influenza vaccine virus selection and has worked with WHO to expand and improve WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. In her capacity as Director of CDC’s WHO Collaborating Center for Influenza, she has organized and participated in numerous WHO activities and national and international training courses on influenza epidemiology, surveillance, virus isolation and virus characterization. Dr. Cox is the recipient of numerous scientific and achievement awards, including CDC’s Charles C. Shepard Science Awards in 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She was recognized by Time magazine as one of the “Time 100: The People Who Shape our World” and by Newsweek magazine for the “Giving Back Awards” in 2006.  In addition, Dr. Cox was awarded the Service to America Medals Federal Employee of the Year for 2006.  She is the author and co-author of over 250 research articles, reviews and book chapters.

Speakers

Kathy Coelingh, PhD

MedImmune

Kathleen L. Coelingh, PhD is Senior Director, Medical and Scientific Affairs at MedImmune, the biologics unit of AstraZeneca.  She has authored 70 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is responsible for strategic health policy regarding MedImmune’s nasal influenza vaccine.

Prior to joining MedImmune, Dr. Coelingh was a senior staff fellow in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases for ten years at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).  While at the NIH she led the team that discovered the mouse monoclonal antibody that neutralizes Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which was humanized at MedImmune and is licensed for prevention of serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in high-risk pediatric patients.  She began her career as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Webster in the Division of Virology at St. Jude Childrens’ Research Hospital, Memphis, TN.

Dr. Coelingh earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Calvin College and her doctorate degree in epidemiologic science from the University of Michigan.

Manon M. J. Cox, PhD, MBA

Protein Sciences

Dr. Cox joined Protein Sciences in 1998 as Director of Business Development, became Chief Operating Officer in 2000 and became CEO in 2010. Previously, she was with Gist-brocades, a Dutch company specializing in fermentation. She held various management positions at Gist-brocades, including in Research and Development, Manufacturing and Business Development. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Pall BioPharmaceuticals and iCubed, the Board of Directors of United Way, Meriden & Wallingford, and the Education Committee of the Netherlands-America Foundation. Dr. Cox holds a Doctorate from the University of Wageningen, received her MBA with distinction from the University of Nijenrode and the University of Rochester, NY and holds a Doctorandus degree in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Ruben Donis, PhD

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ruben Donis, DVM, PhD, serves as the Associate Director for Policy, Evaluation and Preparedness for the CDC's Influenza Division. Formerly, Dr. Donis served as chief of the Molecular Virology and Vaccines Branch in the Influenza Division.

Dr. Donis earned his Veterinary Medicine diploma from the University of Buenos Aires and his PhD in Virology from Cornell University. He completed his postdoctoral work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where he specialized in influenza molecular virology. Prior to joining CDC in 2003, Dr. Donis served on the faculty of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he participated in the leadership of the UNL Center for Biotechnology, and conducted research on influenza and flavivirus molecular biology.

At CDC, Dr. Donis oversees pandemic risk assessment studies that analyze structural, functional and epidemiological properties of emerging influenza viruses and coordinates vaccine preparedness activities. He also integrates collaborations with partners, including the WHO, OIE and FAO, to monitor the evolution and pandemic potential of animal influenza viruses and develop candidate viruses for vaccine production. Dr. Donis has more than 25 years of research experience with influenza virus molecular biology and virus-host interactions. Dr. Donis also serves as an adjunct professor of microbiology at Emory University.

Philip R. Dormitzer, MD, PhD

Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics

Philip R. Dormitzer, MD, PhD is Head of US Research, Global Head of Virology, and Vice President at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a practicing physician, who is board certified in Internal Medicine. After studying anthropology at Harvard College and carrying out a field study of the Efe Pygmies in the Ituri Forest of Zaire, he completed his M.D. and Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at Stanford University.  Dr. Dormitzer completed house-staff training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in the Harvard Combined Infectious Diseases Training Program.  As an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Dormitzer led a structural virology laboratory that determined the structures of the rotavirus neutralization antigens. At NV&D, Dr. Dormitzer has held positions leading vaccine research and development teams. In 2009, he led the research component of the Novartis response to the H1N1v influenza pandemic, supporting the development and licensure of three pandemic influenza vaccines in the most rapid vaccine response in history.  Dr. Dormitzer’s research team of approximately 80 scientists, most based at the NV&D Cambridge Research Center, work on next generation vaccines against influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, parvovirus B19, and cytomegalovirus, among other targets.

David P. Greenberg, MD

Sanofi Pasteur US

David P. Greenberg, MD, is Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Sanofi Pasteur US located in Swiftwater, PA. He joined the company 9 years ago, after serving as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Vaccine Research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh from 1996 to 2004. He continues his affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics. After completing training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Dr. Greenberg served on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from 1985 to 1996. Dr. Greenberg has extensive experience in clinical and laboratory-based infectious disease research. His clinical research interests have focused on evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of bacterial and viral vaccines for the prevention of infections caused by Bordetella pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, Neisseria meningitidis, influenza, hepatitis B, polio, and others. Dr. Greenberg has published his original research in well over 50 peer-reviewed articles. He is a fellow of both the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and American Society for Microbiology.