iUIS 2023 Keynote Speakers
Keynote Lectures are the cornerstones of IUIS 2023. Twice a day, all delegates have the opportunity to hear two preeminent scientists present on their topic of expertise.
Biography
James Patrick Allison is an American immunologist and Nobel laureate who holds the position of professor and chair of immunology and executive director of immunotherapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. His discoveries have led to new cancer treatments for the deadliest cancers. He is also the director of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) scientific advisory council. He has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T-cell development and activation, the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy, and is recognized as one of the first people to isolate the T-cell antigen receptor complex protein. In 2014, he was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences; in 2018, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Tasuku Honjo. The scientists’ groundbreaking work on the immune system has paved the way for a new class of cancer drugs that are already dramatically changing outcomes for patients.
Biography
Emmanuelle Charpentier was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for her joint work with Jennifer Doudna on the development of a method for genome editing. This technology, known as CRISPR-Cas, is revolutionizing research in the life sciences. CRISPR-Cas has opened entirely new possibilities in biotechnology and biomedical gene therapies that have an impact on society and humanity. Charpentier is Scientific and Managing Director at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. Charpentier has devoted most of her scientific career to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of diseases, with a particular interest in infections caused by Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria such as Listeria, staphylococci and streptococci.
Biography
Prof Linda-Gail Bekker is the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town and Chief Executive Officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. She is an NRF A-rated physician scientist and infectious disease specialist. Her research interests include programmatic and action research around antiretroviral roll out and TB integration, prevention of HIV in women, youth and MSM. She has led numerous investigator-driven studies in HIV treatment, prevention and tuberculosis. Bekker is involved in a number of COVID19 vaccine trials and co-leads the Sisonke Phase 3B study which has seen the vaccination of 500 000 health care workers in South Africa. She is a past president of the International AIDS Society (2016-2018) and served as the International Co-Chair of the 9th IAS Conference, the 22nd International AIDS Conference, and the 2021 Research 4 Prevention Conference.
Biography
Vishva M. Dixit is Vice President of Research at Genentech. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS). He also serves on the medical advisory board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Gates Foundation Discovery Experts Group.
Dixit’s achievements in cell death research are detailed in Nature (2008, 453:271-273), Nature Cell Biology (2010, 12(5):415), Trends in Pharmacological Sciences (2013, 34(11):596-598) and Cell Death & Differentiation (2019, 26:597-604). These accounts highlight the pervasive excitement in the heydays of apoptosis research and his foundational contributions.
Biography
Alain Fischer obtained his medical degree (pediatrics) in 1979, he became professor of immunology at Paris Descartes University, then in 1991 director of an INSERM unit “Normal and pathological development of the immune system”. He was head of the “Pediatric Immunology and Hematology” unit (UIH) at the Necker Hospital (AP-HP) from 1996 to 2012. In November 2002, he was elected full member of the Academy of Sciences and in 2011 of the Academy of Medicine. He was the co-founding of the Imagine Institute for Genetic Diseases and its director (2007-2016). Alain Fischer was elected as an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine in 2017 and of the U.S. Academy of Sciences in 2019. Alain Fischer is an emeritus professor at the Collège de France, Chair of Experimental Medicine. His work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Jeantet Prize (2001), the INSERM Grand Prix (2008), the Robert Koch Prize (2014), the Japan Prize (2015). Alain Fischer’s work has been devoted to the study of the human immune system through the characterization of numerous genetic defects and the understanding of their physiopathology. He developed gene therapy since 1999.
Biography
Christopher Garcia is a professor in the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Structural Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a member of the National Academies of Science and Medicine. In addition to his role at Stanford, Garcia is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies, including Alexo Therapeutics, Surrozen, and 3T Biosciences. After receiving his Ph.D. in Biophysics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Garcia conducted postdoctoral research at Genentech, where he immersed himself in the nascent technologies of protein engineering and recombinant protein expression, and then at The Scripps Research Institute. Garcia’s research integrates approaches in structural biology, biochemistry and protein engineering to understand how cell surface receptors sense environmental cues through the engagement of extracellular ligands, and transduce signals. The overarching theme of Garcia’s laboratory is to elucidate the structural and mechanistic basis of receptor activation in systems relevant to human disease, and to exploit this information to design and engineer new molecules with therapeutic properties.
Biography
Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert joined the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University in 1994 and became part of the Jenner Institute (within NDM) when it was founded in 2005. Her chief research interest is the development of viral vectored vaccines that work by inducing strong and protective T and B cell responses.
Professor Gilbert is Principal Investigator at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford and Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. This vaccine, tested by the University of Oxford in clinical trials of over 23,000 people in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, is now in use in over 180 countries in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and is estimated to have saved more than six million lives.
Biography
Laurie H. Glimcher, MD is the President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
She is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the former President of the American Association of Immunologists. She served on the Vice President’s Blue Ribbon panel. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Analog Devices, Inc.
Dr. Glimcher’s research identified key transcriptional regulators of protective immunity and the origin of pathophysiologic immune responses underlying autoimmune, infectious and malignant diseases.
Aside from her research efforts, Dr. Glimcher has been a staunch proponent of improved access to care, health policy, and medical education, while simultaneously serving as a pioneering mentor and role model for cancer research trainees and for all women in science.
Biography
An NRF A1 rated scientist, CEO and President of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Professor Glenda Gray is a qualified pediatrician and co-founder of the internationally recognised Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto, South Africa. Prior to her appointment at the SAMRC, she was the Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, an affiliate of Wits University. Glenda’s global profile includes a role as Co-PI of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), an international collaboration for the development of HIV/AIDS prevention vaccines.
As the COVID-19 pandemic developed, she was among the first to lead public discourse on the issue, and to move quickly to establish COVID-19 vaccine trials in South Africa, utilizing the experience and network developed over the years for the HIV vaccine work. Glenda served as a Protocol Co-Chair of the multi-country Ensemble Study investigating the single-dose Ad26.COV2.S vaccine as an emergency response intervention. When South Africa’s national vaccine roll-out faltered, her international stature enabled her to negotiate a donation of 500 000 doses of the Ad26.CoV.2 vaccine before any emergency use authorization was available and conduct a phase 3B open-label study in health care workers, called the Sisonke Study.
She received South Africa’s highest honour – the Order of Mapungubwe – for her pioneering research in PMTCT. Other prestigious accolades include the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for significant contributions in the field of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Selected as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Forbes top 50 women in Africa, honorary degrees include: DSc (honoris causa Simon Fraser University), DSc (honoris causa Stellenbosch University), and LLD (honoris causa Rhodes University). She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Science of South Africa, the African Academy of Science and the World Academy of Science. She is fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She is a member of the board of GARDP, AAHI and a member of the WHO TB-STAG.
Biography
Henry Mwandumba is an African Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme. He works on the tuberculosis phagosome in the University of Malawi College of Medicine, and served as President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies. Mwandumba studied medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1990. He specialised in general practice and infectious diseases in Liverpool.
Mwandumba is based in Blantyre. He works with the Wellcome Trust and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He studies the impact of HIV and concurrent pulmonary infections, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, on innate pulmonary immunity. Mwandumba investigates the mechanisms behind susceptibility and resistance to TB in an effort to reduce the occurrence of HIV-associated TB. He is also involved with the development of new therapies for TB. In 2017 Mwandumba was awarded a Medical Research Council African Leader Award. In 2018 he was made Deputy Director of the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust (MLW) research program, where he leads the Mucosal Immunology Group. In 2019 Mwandumba was awarded the Royal Society Africa Prize.
Biography
Timothy A. Springer is an American biochemist and immunologist. He received his Bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley and his PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University in 1976. He is currently the Latham Family Professor in the Departments of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Springer discovered many of the molecules and mechanisms of cell-cell adhesion in the immune system, including LFA-1, Mac-1, CD11c/CD18, CD2, LFA-3, ICAMs 1, 2, and 3, selectin-mediated rolling, and the three steps required for homing of leukocytes from the bloodstream into tissues. He has characterized integrins at every level from original discovery and function to the structures of the three states in the conformational ensemble, thermodynamics and ligand-binding kinetics, and kinetics of conformational transitions. He has received the Crafoord, Gairdner, and Lasker awards and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The work in his lab and companies he has founded, LeukoSite, Moderna, Scholar Rock, and Morphic Therapeutic have resulted in many therapeutics including Entyvio for ulcerative colitis and Covid19 vaccines.
Biography
Özlem Türeci is a German physician, scientist and entrepreneur. In 2008, she co-founded the biotechnology company BioNTech, which in 2020 developed the first messenger RNA-based vaccine approved for use against COVID-19. Türeci has served as BioNTech’s chief medical officer since 2018. Since 2021, she has been Professor of Personalized Immunotherapy at the Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON) and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She studied medicine at Saarland University in Homburg and received her doctorate from the Medical Faculty of Saarland in 1992. Her research focused on the identification and characterization of tumor-specific molecules and the development of immunotherapies against cancer. In 2002, she completed her habilitation qualification at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in the field of molecular medicine. Özlem Türeci works as a medical scientist and basic researcher in the field of immunology. She researches target structures in order to develop new therapies against cancer, infectious diseases and diseases of the immune and nervous systems. One focus is on the identification and characterization of tumor-specific molecules and the development of personalized therapeutic approaches.
