CEPI has appointed eight new experts to its Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), an external expert group which provides guidance and recommendations to CEPI on R&D programmes and broader outbreak response efforts.
The new members' scientific input, guidance and challenge will be critical in the continued implementation of the CEPI 2.0 strategy, which aims to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures to tackle emerging infectious diseases and enhance global preparedness for future epidemic and pandemic threats.
As the global landscape of vaccine development and manufacturing continues to evolve at pace, in March 2024 CEPI launched a recruitment drive seeking additional experts and global health professionals with extensive experience across relevant scientific and product development disciplines to join its SAC.
Eight new experts have been selected to join the SAC through a rigorous review process of candidates based on expertise, experience, and geographical representation. The appointments were approved by the CEPI Board in May 2024.
The new SAC members are:
- Associate Professor Ifedayo Adetifa, Independent Public Health Expert, Nigeria
- Dr Paula Goldin, Senior Medical Director PPD, Thermo Fisher, Argentina
- Dr Beth-Ann Griswold Coller, Consultant, BCG Vaccine Consulting LLC, USA
- Professor Kevin Kee-Jong Hong, Korea mRNA Vaccine Initiative, Korea
- Dr Luciana C. C. Leite, Head of Recombinant BCG Laboratory, Instituto Butantan, Brazil,
- Dr Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, Head of Epidemiology and Global Health Department, Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Mr Sly Ngoni Mutyavaviri, Senior GMP Inspector, Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe and SADC Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation Inspections Coordinator, SADC Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation, Zimbabwe
- Dr Andre Siqueira, Public Health Researcher, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Brazil
As the Chair of CEPI’s Scientific Advisory Committee, I am delighted to welcome these new members to our team. Expanding our collective expertise is crucial, given the rapidly changing vaccine development and manufacturing landscape, and ongoing threats of a future pandemic. I’ve no doubt that CEPI will greatly benefit from the fresh perspectives and extensive experience that our new appointees bring alongside that of our existing member.
The work we do at CEPI depends entirely on the quality of our scientific understanding and our ability to keep track of the rapid advances in the biology and technology of vaccine development. As we near the mid-way point of CEPI 2.0, the guidance and insights provided by our Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) have been and will continue to be crucial to advancing our work and tackling the challenge of emerging infectious diseases. We are delighted to welcome both the SAC’s returning and new members. These newest members extend the SAC’s global representation and expertise and we are thrilled to have them join our efforts to build a pandemic-free future.
SAC members terms last for three years and are renewable. Twenty-seven current members of the SAC will continue in their roles. These members are:
- Professor Alash'le Abimiku - International Research Center of Excellence, Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria
- Dr Vincent Ahonkhai - Gwynedd Consultancy Group, LLC, USA
- Emeritus Professor Vineeta Bal - Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India
- Dr Rick A. Bright - Bright Global Health, USA
- Dr Paula Bryant - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Assistant Professor Yunlong Cao - Peking University, China
- Dr Peter Dull - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
- Professor Azra Ghani - Imperial College London, United Kingdom
- Mrs Rebecca Grais – Pasteur Network, France
- Professor Glenda E. Gray - South African Medical Research Council, South Africa
- Dr Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo – World Health Organization, Switzerland
- Dr Emmanuel Hanon (Chair) - Vicebio, Belgium
- Professor Ken J. Ishii - International Vaccine Design Center, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan
- Professor Amine Kamen - McGill University, Canada
- Professor Michael King (Vice Chair) – University of Virginia, USA
- Dr Gary Kobinger – Galveston National Laboratory/Institute for Drug Discovery, University of Texas Medical Branch, USA
- Dr Phil Krause – World Health Organization, USA
- Professor Marc Lipsitch – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA
- Mr Dominique Maugeais – RH Solutions, France
- Dr Laura Palomares Aguilera (Vice Chair) - Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico
- Dr Peter Paradiso - Paradiso Biologics Consulting, LLC, USA
- Professor Stanley Plotkin - University of Pennsylvania, USA
- Dr Marie-José Quentin-Millet - MJQuentinMillet Consulting, France
- Professor Rino Rappuoli - Fondazione Biotecnopolo di Siena, Italy
- Lynda Stuart - Institute for Protein Design, USA
- Professor Linfa Wang - Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
- Professor George Warimwe - KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya and University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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