Alba Grifoni, PhD

Research Assistant Professor at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology

She firmly believes that combining B and T cell targets is crucial for designing next-generation vaccines to better prepare for future pandemics. The mission of her lab is to provide the T cell knowledge necessary to achieve this goal. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications and more than 20,000 citations, Prof. Grifoni has made significant scientific contributions in understanding how T cell responses combat viral infections, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research focus in the past decade has expanded from the Flaviviridae, Coronaviridae, Orthopoxviridae, Herpesviridae, and Retroviridae families to now include the Arenaviridae, Paramyxoviridae, and Enteroviridae families. This expansion aligns with the list of viral families of pandemic concerns listed by WHO and NIAID, showcasing a general commitment to advancing global health.

Joseph Marcotrigiano

Senior investigator in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID)

He performed graduate studies at The Rockefeller University under the direction of Dr. Stephen K. Burley and determined the first structures of the eukaryotic, translation initiation machinery. After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Marcotrigiano became a Merck Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation at the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C under the direction of Dr. Charles M. Rice and determined the structures of critical factors in the hepatitis C virus replication machinery. The Marcotrigiano laboratory is committed to understanding how positive-sense, RNA viruses enter human host cells, replicate, and evade the immune response. Dr. Marcotrigiano has been selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar and a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Microbiology.

Christian Münz

Professor and Co-Director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zürich, Switzerland

Christian Münz has been trained in immunology at the German Cancer Research Institute in Heidelberg, Germany, the University of Tübingen, Germany, and the Rockefeller University in New York, USA. He became Assistant Professor and Head of Laboratory at the Rockefeller University in 2003. In 2008 he was recruited as Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Institute of Experimental Immunology to the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and became Full Professor in 2015. Since 2010 he is also Visiting Professor at the Imperial College in London, UK. In 2006 he received the Burroughs Welcome Fund Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award for his studies on antigen processing via macroautophagy, and in 2012 the Sobek Award for his studies on the association of Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infection with multiple sclerosis (MS). He is an expert in EBV specific immune control and humanized mice as preclinical models for human oncogenic gamma-herpesvirus infections, and has published more than 300 peer reviewed papers and review articles on these topics

Tijana Ivanovic

Born in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia), earned a B.S. in microbiology and molecular genetics from UCLA in 1999, and a Ph.D. in virology from Harvard University in 2008

She carried on postdoctoral work with Steve Harrison (Harvard University), funded in part by a L’Oreal Fellowship for Women in Science, developing single-particle methods based in TIRF microscopy for studying virus membrane fusion. As an Assistant Professor at Brandeis University, she led an independent research program focused on viral assembly, virus-host interaction, and viral adaptation. In May 2023, her lab relocated to the Laboratory of Viral Diseases within NIAD/NIH, where she continues her research efforts into essential viral mechanisms and ways to discourage undesired viral adaptation. Tijana believes that deep mechanistic understanding of virus function that can come from advanced techniques is at the cusp of delivering breakthroughs in our understanding of how to combat viruses that are a major threat to the human population

Ruth Kutalek

Prof. Ruth Kutalek is a Medical Anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Department of Social- and Preventive Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna.

Her research currently focuses on anthropological perspectives of infectious diseases, especially community perspectives on Ebola Virus Disease, Lassa fever, and measles, including the involvement of health workers in epidemics. She has also done work on vaccine hesitancy, migration of health workers and access to health care for migrants; as well as environment, health and vulnerabilities; and One Health. She has conducted research in several countries in West and East Africa and supported the WHO in missions in Liberia and Sierra Leone (Ebola) and in Nigeria (Lassa fever). Prof. Kutalek is also engaged in the development of curricula in various settings, specifically in introducing aspects of diversity, culture & health in the curriculum for undergraduate medical studies. She has published widely and is reviewer for several journals in the social sciences, public health and tropical medicine. Prof. Kutalek is principal investigator of the EU funded projects SoNAR-Global (https://sonar-global.eu), and ISIDORe (https://isidore-project.eu). Prof. Kutalek is an active member of the Vaccine Safety Initiative (https://www.vi-vi.org) since 2013, contributing social science perspectives to challenges such as measles vaccine hesitancy and antimicrobial resistance.