Dr. Angela Ikeme holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree with an emphasis in Executive Leadership and a master’s in nursing education. She holds a California Registered Nurse License and has spent over 33 years in clinical and administrative nursing. She is an Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Francisco, California, a Clinical Nurse Leader, aco-founder and the Executive Provost of Merit College of Nursing Sciences in Nigeria. She is an advocate for high-quality education for nurses, ensuring that nurses learn and provide evidence-based, quality, and safe patient care, an advocate for equity and social justice, a mentor, an inspirational speaker, and a published author. She is committed to building community through partnership and collaboration. She is an enthusiastic and authentic leader with a strong passion and respect for others. She is a co-author of “Voices of Triumph: Stories of African Women Immigrants in America. Dr. Ikeme belongs to several professional and community organizations, such as the American Nurses Association, the National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America, Registered Nurses Professional Association, Nigerian Igbo Catholic Community of San Jose, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honors Society, etc.

Dr. Darlene Labonte is a seasoned clinical development executive with deep scientific expertise and strong strategic business acumen. Her career spans the full translational spectrum—from early preclinical research to executive leadership—focused on accelerating the delivery of innovative therapies to patients worldwide. She began her professional journey in preclinical research at Yale University, later advancing into leadership roles at pioneering biopharmaceutical companies including Regeneron, ImClone, and Eli Lilly. Throughout her career, Darlene has partnered with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations such as Syneos, VaxInnate, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, and Advaxis, where she has played a key role in shaping and executing global clinical development strategies. Driven by a mission to translate scientific innovation into meaningful patient impact, Darlene brings a unique ability to bridge rigorous science with business strategy. She has contributed to respected scientific publications and holds an MBA in Business Leadership, equipping her to deliver measurable results at the intersection of research, development, and corporate strategy.

Dr. Tsvetelina Mandova Demetrio is a pharmacist by training who earned her PhD from the Paris Descartes Faculty of Pharmacy, France, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She specializes in the hit-to-lead value chain for small molecules, with a dual focus on excipients andActive Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). Her research centers on the therapeutic potential of nature-derived products for infectious diseases and antivirals, as well as excipients for parenteral vaccine formulations. With over a decade of experience leading industrial R&D at the Gilson Group in France, she possesses deep expertise in process scale-up, automation, and computational analysis. By utilizing Quality-by-Design (QbD) frameworks and adhering to FDA and ICH standards, she manages the entire continuum from early discovery to industrialization. Ultimately, her career is dedicated to translating natural sources into viable, scalable, and clinical-grade therapeutics.

Dr. Georgios Stathopoulos is a Technical Officer in the Department for Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at the World Health Organization (WHO), where he focuses on improving access to vaccines. He also serves as the Department’s focal point for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in immunization. In 2022, Georgios co-led the operational taskforce for the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX mechanism. Prior to joining WHO, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, supporting strategy development with a focus on global public health and the energy sector. He has also undertaken independent consultancy roles as a data scientist, working on projects related to internal displacement and education. Georgios holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Engineering from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), an MSc in Systems and Control from Delft University of Technology, and a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.

Dr. Sohrab Ahmadvand is a scientist at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, with over ten years of experience in academic, clinical, and industrial settings, specializing in infectious viral diseases and vaccine development. He has contributed to numerous research and industrial vaccine projects across bacterial and viral pathogens, from surveillance and sample collection to vaccine testing and commercialization. He also has several years of experience as a Vaccine Project Manager in the pharmaceutical industry, bridging research and applied vaccine development. A former Alexander Humboldt Fellow, Dr. Ahmadvand has published and patented multiple findings, received awards and grants for academic excellence and innovation, and is currently developing cutting-edge veterinary vaccines and adjuvants using self-assembling protein nanocage (SAPN) platforms through international collaborations.

Dr. Stefania Bambini is a Global Regulatory Affairs Associate Director at GSK Vaccines with more than 25 years’ experience in the vaccines industry, specializing in preclinical investigation and regulatory strategy. She earned a degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies from the University of Siena, Italy, and a PhD in Industrial Biotechnologies from the University of Milano‑Bicocca. Stefania began her career in preclinical research at Novartis (formerly Chiron), where she played a pivotal role in the development of a meningococcal B vaccine. After joining Global Regulatory Affairs at GSK in 2013, she focused on the meningitis vaccine franchise and led efforts to advance a pentavalent meningococcal vaccine from early development through regulatory approval in the United States. She recently expanded her interest to monoclonal and bispecific antibodies and investigational vaccines targeting key priority human pathogens, with particular focus on antimicrobial resistance. She has published more than 30 papers in peer‑reviewed journals.

Dr. Beckie Ingram is a Reader of Immunity to Infection at Queen’s University Belfast, where she established her research group in 2009. Following postdoctoral positions at Imperial College London, where she characterised protective immunity to prevent HIV progression in collaboration with the Uganda Virus Research Institute, and developed vaccines against biothreat organisms, she has built a translational research programme focused on bacterial infections. She has led the preclinical arm of multinational vaccine studies and made cutting-edge contributions to understanding lymphocyte responses, developing biologically relevant in vivo models, and advancing novel antibiotics, immunotherapeutics, and vaccines. She is a member of the HEA All-Island Vaccine Research and Training Alliance (AVIRT), supporting the next generation of vaccinologists. Currently, she is leading the development of vaccines to combat antimicrobial resistance through her spin-out company, VacTimmune.

Dr. Ana Alfaro Cruz is a physician and pathologist specializing in oncologic pathology. She earned her medical degree from Universidad Veracruzana and completed her residency and advanced specialty training in Pathological Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine, UNAM, and the General Hospital of Mexico City, where she has served since 2007. Dr. Alfaro holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (UNAM) and is a Level I National Researcher in Mexico’s National System of Researchers. She is currently a Specialist Physician “C” and Research Coordinator of the Pathological Anatomy Service at the General Hospital of Mexico City. In addition, she is actively engaged in academic teaching as a professor and adjunct professor at UNAM, IPN, and the Center for Teaching and Research in Genital Tract Pathology and Colposcopy.

Dr. Oneka Scott is the Maternal and Child Health Officer and National Immunization Manager at the Ministry of Health, Guyana. She has worked in public health since 2016 and has led national Maternal and Child Health and Immunization Programmes since 2018, overseeing vaccine policy implementation, performance monitoring, and service integration across multiple regions. Her technical work focuses on strengthening routine immunization systems, improving coverage performance toward ≥95% targets, reducing multi-dose vaccine dropout rates, and enhancing data quality and supervisory mechanisms. She has supported outreach expansion to underserved and hardtoreach populations and aligns national vaccine strategies with WHO and PAHO technical guidance. Dr. Scott holds a Master’s degree in International Public Health and has played a key role in strengthening routine immunization performance, expanding equitable access to vaccines, and aligning national strategies with global technical standards. Her professional interests include immunization systems resilience, maternal health outcomes, and implementation science in low-resource and geographically dispersed settings. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies, with a research focus on health systems strengthening and vaccine equity

Mrs. Esha Brahmbhatt is a Master of Public Health candidate at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where she studies the intersection of media consumption and health outcomes. She has conducted research on Alzheimer’s disease and epileptiform activity and holds a B.S. from NYU in Media, Culture, and Communication and Global Public Health. She is also the founder of Cabin Fever Magazine, an interdisciplinary publication bridging science and media.

Dr. Barnard-Matthee completed her undergraduate degree in Human Life Sciences with Psychology at Stellenbosch University, followed by an Honours degree in Biochemistryat the same university, focusing on manipulating soil bacteria to produce antimicrobial peptides with specific properties. She then pursued a Master’s degree in Biochemistry, shifting her research focus to characterizing enzymes involved in a novel steroidogenic pathway. She completed her PhD in the same department in 2020, studying the effects of novel androgens on the development and progression of prostate cancer. Afterward, she undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the Tygerberg Medical Campus, Stellenbosch University, where she researched the effects of mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosison iron metabolism, lipid composition and oxygen consumption as well as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the acquisition of mutations in M. tuberculosisinfections due to an increase in lost-to-follow-up cases. Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow in the Microbiology Department at Stellenbosch University, developing assays to determine the activity and quality of locally produced IVT enzymes used in mRNA vaccine production.

Dr. Iman Almahmis is a PhD researcher in Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at University Grenoble Alpes, France, specializing in immune memory and vaccine development. Her research focuses on mechanisms that enhance long-term vaccine-induced immune responses, using advanced immunological techniques including PBMC isolation, cell culture, flow cytometry, ELISA, and ELISPOT. With a strong background in clinical immunology and medical microbiology, she is experienced in data analysis, scientific writing, and multidisciplinary collaboration, and is passionate about advancing immunological research and innovation.

Dr. Gisele Umviligihozo is a virologist with a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Infectious Diseases from the University of London, UK. She is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Emory Vaccine Center, Emory University, and a Fellow of the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB and HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE). Dr. Umviligihozo has received numerous awards, including the QEII Diamond Jubilee Award, Fogarty Training Scholarship, and fellowships from SANTHE. Her research focuses on HIV transmission, evolution, and immune control in diverse populations, including female sex workers and MSM. She also investigates immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and sex differences in HIV persistence, aiming to advance HIV vaccine and therapeutic development.

Dr. Alireza Hanifehnezhad is a virologist specializing in viral vector, protein-based, and DNA vaccine platforms for both human and veterinary applications. His research focuses on adenoviral and baculovirus systems, oncolytic virotherapy, and vaccine development against zoonotic and emerging viruses. He holds patents for baculovirus-based and SARS-CoV vaccines and leads several government-supported projects in translational vaccine research. Dr. Hanifehnezhad’s current work integrates viral vector engineering, monoclonal antibody development, and immunological analysis to advance next-generation preventive and therapeutic strategies

Dr. Rodrigo Nunes is a biomedical researcher at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/Fiocruz, Brazil), where he coordinates projects on neglected zoonoses such as leptospirosis, rickettsioses, Lyme disease, hantavirus and arenavirus infections. His expertise integrates immunoinformatics, molecular biology, and immunology for the development of diagnostic tools and multi-epitope chimeric vaccines. He has authored impactful scientific publications, holds experience in international collaborations (including Fiocruz–USP–Butantan networks and UK-SEA Vax Hub initiatives), and has received distinctions such as the Alexandre Peixoto Award and the Brazil VERDE Early Career Researcher Bursary. Currently, Dr. Nunes is a CNPq Research Productivity Fellow (Level 1C) and a FAPERJ “Jovem Cientista do Nosso Estado”. He also plays a leading role in postgraduate education and scientific outreach in Brazil.

Dr. Axel Cyriaque Ambassa, Ph.D., is a Biochemist and Molecular Biology researcher at the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He earned his doctorate in 2024 with research on pulmonary tuberculosis and HIV co-infection, emphasizing molecular epidemiology, hepatotoxicity, and genetic polymorphisms. His research interests span infectious diseases (TB, HIV, HBV, COVID-19), pharmacogenetics, drug resistance, and vaccine immunology. Dr. Ambassa has authored several peer-reviewed publications and presented his work at major international conferences, including the EDCTP Forum. In addition to research, he lectures in biochemistry, molecular biology, and viral pathologies, and actively engages in international collaborations and scientific training programs.