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

Alejandra Pera performed her PhD studies at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital (Madrid) and at the Università degli Studi of Milan, in 2009. Ever since, she has foccused her work on immunosenescence, particularly on the effect of CMV and age on NK and T cells’ phenotype and function. She has authored several works regarding this topic this year. As well, she has colaborated recently with Dr. Larbi at the Singapore Immunology Network and currently has a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract (Ministry of Science and innovation).

Case Study

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