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Scientific Advisory Board

PETER PIOT, MD, PhD

Scientific advisor

PETER PIOT

Microbiologist Peter Piot, MD, PhD, is Professor of Global Health at and the former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. After co-discovering the Ebola virus in 1976, he led pioneering research in HIV, women’s health, and infectious diseases. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (1995-2008). Professor Peter Piot has held positions at leading universities around the world and is currently Visiting Professor at KU Leuven.
He serves on numerous committees, funds, and boards dedicated to global health. His long list of accolades includes the Robert Koch Medal, the Gairdner Award in Global Health, the 2014 Time Person of the Year, and the Belgian title of Baron. He has published over 600 scientific articles and 16 books, including his memoir, No Time to Lose.

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BARNEY GRAHAM, MD, PhD

Scientific advisor

BARNEY GRAHAM

Barney Graham is an immunologist, virologist, and vaccinologist recognized for his work on viral pathogenesis and vaccine development. He is especially known  for his studies on RSV pathogenesis and immunity and the application of atomic-level structure, protein-engineering, mRNA delivery technology for making safe and effective vaccines. After obtaining a  BA in biology from Rice University and an MD from the University of Kansas School of Medicine, he completed internship, residency, chief residencies, Infectious Diseases fellowship, and PhD in Microbiology & Immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine where he was on the faculty until joining  the NIAID Vaccine Research Center at NIH as a founding member in 2000. He retired as Deputy Director of the VRC in 2021 and is now Professor of Medicine & Microbiology, Biochemistry, Immunology and Director of the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was named one of the world's 100 most influential individuals and one of the Heroes of the Year in 2021 by Time magazine and recognized as the Federal Employee of the Year by the Partnership for Public Service for his work on COVID-19 vaccine development.

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CAMILLE KOTTON, MD

Scientific advisor

CAMILLE KOTTON

Camille Nelson Kotton MD, FIDSA, FAST is the Clinical Director of Transplant and Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She spends the majority of her time seeing inpatients and outpatients, before and after solid organ and bone marrow transplant, as well as other immunocompromised hosts. Her interests include vaccination, travel medicine for transplant recipients, and reducing the infectious risks of immunocompromising medications. She has written numerous guidelines, articles and testbooks, and also speaks nationally and internationally on a regular basis. She is a prior president of the Transplant Infectious Disease section of The Transplantation Society and past chair of the Infectious Disease Community of Practice, American Society of Transplantation, and serves on the U.S. C.D.C. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP).

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GEERT LEROUX, MD, PhD

Scientific advisor

GEERT LEROUX

Geert Leroux-Roels earned his MD degree from the Ghent University in 1976. During his medical studies and the specialty training in internal medicine, he conducted doctoral research in clinical pathology and immunology. After achieving board certification in internal medicine and a PhD degree in biomedical sciences, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and the Laboratory of molecular biology at Ghent University. In 1989, he was appointed professor of medicine and director of the laboratory of clinical pathology.

Over the past three decades, Geert Leroux-Roels and his team have delved into the human immune response to HBV, HCV, HIV and influenza. They developed a small animal model (human liver in uPA-SCID mouse) facilitating in vivo study of hepatotropic pathogens such as HBV, HCV, HEV and Plasmodium falciparum (malaria).

Geert Leroux-Roels founded the Center for Vaccinology (CEVAC) at Ghent University and University Hospital, where he served as director for three decades. During this tenure the unit conducted more than 275 clinical vaccine trials, evaluating numerous candidate vaccines (including HAV, HBV, [HAV+HBV], HSV, HPV, HIV, TB, malaria) and various new adjuvant systems.

He has authored and co-authored of over 300 peer-reviewed articles and served as a member of several international societies and scientific advisory boards. Although he attained  Emeritus status on October 1, 2017, he remains actively engaged in the field of vaccinology and applied immunology as a study physician and co-investigator at CEVAC as well as a private consultant.

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ROGER PAREDES, MD, PhD

Scientific Advisor

ROGER PAREDES

Roger Paredes, MD, PhD, is Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and Principal Investigator of the Microbial Genomics Group at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, Badalona, Catalonia, Spain. He obtained his MD, PhD degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and specialised in HIV research at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, supported by a "la Caixa" grant for postgraduate studies. His team at irsiCaixa, leads pioneering research into the role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of HIV infection and pioneered studies on the clinical utility of HIV-1 deep sequencing in high- and low-income countries. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Dr Paredes has been the Spanish National Coordinator of key NIH/NIAID-funded randomized clinical trials, including ACTT-1 and 2 and the ACTIV-3/TICO and STRIVE platforms and has coauthored seminal publications on the role of different SARS-CoV-2 antivirals in preventing severe COVID-19 in high-risk populations. Such studies have defined the current standard of care of COVID-19. His department hosts the largest Long COVID Unit in Spain.

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