SESSION 8:
THE FUTURE
September 11, 2024
Professor Terry Nolan is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, and former head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (or VIRGo) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He was the Foundation Head of the Melbourne University School of Population and Global Health between 2001 and 2019.
Prof. Nolan is a pediatrician and clinical epidemiologist, graduated in medicine and in medical science from the University of Western Australia, trained in paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and at the Montréal Children's Hospital, and received a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University in Montréal.
Presentation: Future Vaccines for Communicable Diseases: The Near Horizon
Dr. Nicholas Jackson was appointed CEO and Executive Director of NIVI in 2024. NIVI comprises two divisions: the Novo Nordisk Foundation Vaccine Accelerator (NVAC), a company to expedite the development of vaccine candidates by advancing CMC and clinical development, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Vaccines and Immunity (NCVI), a cutting-edge research and translational sciences facility anchored to University of Copenhagen. By harnessing both airway and circulating immunity, NIVI aims to drive groundbreaking vaccine R&D targeting respiratory pathogens.
Presentation: Future Innovation in Vaccines
Professor Kristine Macartney is a paediatrician, infectious disease specialist and vaccinologist. She is the Director of the Australian National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) and with the Faculty of Medicine and Health at University of Sydney. She is senior editor of the Australian Immunisation Handbook, a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), Chair for the Australian TGA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines (ACV) and Chair of World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS). Through NCIRS Global Health program and as founding Chair of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA) she leads programs of support to more than a dozen countries in the Indo Pacific region in immunisation system strengthening.
Presentation: The Future of Immunisation; Ensuring Disease Prevention and Better Health
SESSION 7:
VACCINE SAFETY, CONFIDENCE & HESITANCY
August 28, 2024
Julie Leask AO is a professor and social scientist in the University of Sydney, School of Public Health where co-leads the Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation research group. Her research focuses on what people think, feel and do about immunisation; vaccine programs and policies; and risk communication. She is member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and visiting fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. She has had numerous advisory roles with WHO including past chair of the Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination working group. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in 2024.
Presentation: Addressing Low Confidence in Vaccine Safety
Heidi J. Larson, Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science,London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine(UK); Institute for Health Metrics &Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle(USA); and University of Antwerp and KULeuven, Belgium. Prof Larson is Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project .Her research focuses on managing risk and building public trust and coooperation in the context of pandemics and other crises. In 2021, Prof Larson founded the Global Listening Project to investigate ecosystems of trust and public experiences and trust relations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prof. Larson previously lead vaccine strategy and communication at UNICEF and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away. In 2021 she was awarded the 2021 Edinburgh Medal for Science.
Presentation: State of Vaccine Confidence 2024: Why We Need To Build Trust
Dr Helen Petousis-Harris is an Associate Professor in the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Co-Director of the Global Vaccine Data Network. A general vaccinologist, her research focuses on vaccine safety, vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, and public health. Dr. Petousis-Harris has been involved in advancing the understanding of vaccine safety, particularly in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. She has published on the efficacy and safety of vaccines, contributing to the development of immunisation policies both in New Zealand and internationally. She also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on epidemics and vaccines. Helen has been a regular blogger and media spokesperson in this field for many years.
Presentation: Vaccine Safety in a Changing World
SESSION 6:
IMMUNISATION EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION
August 14, 2024
A/Prof Frank Beard is Associate Director at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Sydney, Australia, where he heads up the vaccine preventable disease surveillance, vaccine coverage, program evaluation and social science teams, and Associate Professor at The University of Sydney School of Public Health. Dr Beard is a public health physician with extensive experience in vaccine preventable disease epidemiology, vaccine coverage analysis and immunisation program evaluation.
Presentation: Coverage and Immunisation Information Systems – Australia and Internationally.
Darren Westphal is an epidemiologist and leader in public health communicable disease control. He is currently the vaccine team lead in the Immunisation Program at the Western Australia Department of Health. His work has included research and surveillance in vaccine preventable diseases, otitis media, and tobacco control. He has an interest in contributing to the evidence base through surveillance and disease control, data analysis and epidemiological research aimed at improving population health outcomes.
Presentation: A Mumps Outbreak in Immunised Young Aboriginal Adults - What Did it Mean?
Associate Professor Meru Sheel is a vaccinologist and applied epidemiologist at the University of Sydney. Dr Sheel leads the Infectious Diseases, Immunisation and Emergencies (IDIE) group at the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and Sydney School of Public Health and the University of Sydney. Dr Sheel studied science and biotechnology at Manipal University, India following which she earned a PhD in life sciences from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Queensland University of Technology working on new vaccines for bacterial pathogens - group A streptococcus. Dr Sheel also holds an MPhil in Applied Epidemiology from the Australian National University.
Presentation: Measles in the Asia-Pacific
Stephen Lambert is a public health physician who works part-time for Queensland Health, in the Communicable Diseases Branch, and for the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. He is a passionate vaccine advocate. Stephen’s research interests include general communicable diseases epidemiology and assessing vaccine program impact and effectiveness. When not talking about vaccines, Stephen enjoys gardening, particularly growing banksias, and walking his dog, Ted, whilst listening to Sufjan Stevens and political or true crime podcasts.
Presentation: Surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Disease (VPDs) – How Does it Work?
Prof Bette Liu is an Associate Director at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) in Australia and leads the Population Health Group which specialises in the use of large-scale linked data systems to provide evidence to support the introduction and evaluation of national vaccination programs. She also has appointments at UNSW and the University of Sydney. She is a medically trained epidemiologist with extensive national and international experience in the design, conduct and analysis of large-scale epidemiological studies using prospective cohorts, record linkage of administrative heath data, and e-medical records.
Presentation: Using Coverage and Surveillance Data to Estimate Vaccine Effectiveness.
SESSION 5:
IMMUNISATION PROGRAM ADVICE & DELIVERY
July 31, 2024
Dr Nick Silberstein trained in West Australia, graduating in 1981 and has predominantly practised as a general practitioner with special interests including immunisation. He has implemented immunisation programs in Australia and the United Kingdom but also in developing countries through work with Médecins sans Frontières. Nick has recently completed eight and a half years as a representative on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.
Madeline Hall is a Nurse Practitioner specialising in vaccine preventable diseases and with a special interest in vaccine safety. She has extensive experience in vaccine preventable diseases and is involved in advanced health assessments and risk screening of adults with specific vaccination requirements, such as persons who have had a previous serious or unexpected adverse event following immunisation, immunocompromised persons and those at occupational risk. Madeline was a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) from 2012 to 2021 and has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines since 2020.
Presentation: Immunisation Across the Lifespan at the Coal Face
Dr Sonya Ennis is the Associate Director of Immunisation at NSW Health. Her interest in immunisation began in 2003 when she joined the National Meningococcal C Vaccination Program and was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Immunisation Unit for many years before taking on the Associate Director’s role in 2018. Before joining the immunisation unit, Sonya was a Registered Nurse in ICU for many years. Sonya completed a Master of Public Health in 2008 and a Professional Doctorate of Public Health in 2018 where her research interests were measles and pertussis control in vulnerable populations.
Presentation: A Road-map to the Strategic Roll-out of a NSW Maternal Vaccination Program
Dr Mario Melgar is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist. He currently heads the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at Hospital Roosevelt, a public hospital in Guatemala City at UNOP, a Pediatric Oncology Unit in Guatemala City. In academics, he has coordinated the first Pediatric Infectious Diseases fellowship in Guatemala for the past 10 years. In research, he has participated in several epidemiological studies and clinical trials, and has presented several posters, oral presentations, and papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is currently the director of CECLISA, a research centre in Guatemala City. Mario was previously a president of the Advisory Committee for Vaccines in Guatemala and is currently serving as Chair of RNA steering committee (NITAG Network of the Americas) and chair of GNN steering committee (Global Nitag Network).
Presentation: National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups
SESSION 4:
ROLE OF INDUSRTY
July 17, 2024
Dr Angus Forster, Chief Technology Officer, Vaxxas. He has worked in medical product development and commercialization for 25 years and in vaccine product development since 2012. At Vaxxas, Angus has overall responsibility for R&D and leads the company’s vaccine development programs, including leading multiple Phase I studies in Australia. His areas of experience include clinical operations, CMC (formulation / analytical development), medical device design / development, quality and risk management. Prior to Vaxxas, he worked as a life sciences consultant and commenced his career with GlaxoSmithKline (UK) within pharmaceutical development of new chemical entities. Angus has Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics and undergraduate qualification in Pharmacy.
Presentation: Vaccine Product Development - Industry Perspective
Jennifer Herz, GAICD, co-founded Biointelect in 2011, offering end-to-end strategic commercialisation services to the biopharmaceutical sector. She has over 30 years of experience in commercial, business development and scientific affairs within the biopharmaceutical industry across Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
Early in her career, she played a pivotal role at Sanofi Pasteur, establishing and managing the company as a major provider of vaccines in Australasia.
Presentation: The Role of the Vaccine Industry in Development and Commercialisation
Prof Trent Munro has over 25 years’ research and development experience, including as an executive at Amgen, one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies. He is currently an Industry Professor at the University of Queensland and Senior Vice President of Therapeutics at Microba Life Sciences, where he leads the Company’s therapeutic strategy to progress its drug development programs and pharma partnering engagements.
Presentation: An Industry Focused Perspective on Strategic Vaccine Development
SESSION 3:
ECONOMICS & REGULATION
July 3, 2024
Prof Maarten J Postma (29/01/1960) holds the chair Global Health Economics at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and the faculty of Economics & Business, both at the University of Groningen. Also, he is Prof in Pharmacoeconomics at the Departments of Pharmacy at the University of Groningen, Pharmacology at the Airlangga University (Surabaya, Indonesia) and Pharmaceutical Care Innovation at Universitas Padjadjaran (Bandung, Indonesia).
Presentation: Economic Benefits of Vaccines against Respiratory Illness.
Professor John Skerritt AM is Enterprise Professor in Health Research Impact at the University of Melbourne. In this role he advises and supports research teams and the University to increase impact from product development (product commercialisation options and pathways, including clarification of regulatory and funding processes) and impact from health policy research. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health of the University of Sydney. He has been appointed to the Order of Australia for “service to public health administration and governance, and to scientific research”.
Presentation: Vaccine Regulation for Efficacy, Safety and Quality – Australian and International Reflections
Associate Professor Natalie Carvalho is a Health Economist based at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne where she leads the Economics of Global Health and Infectious Diseases Unit. She coordinates the Health Economics & Economic Evaluation specialisation of the Master in Public Health (MPH) and the MPH Research Capstones and is Coordinator of Economic Evaluation 1. She is a Chief Investigator on two current Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centres of Research Excellence (CREs) focused on control of infectious diseases in Australia and the Asia Pacific.
Presentation: Basics of Health Economics and Economic Evaluation in Relation to Vaccines
Associate Professor Michael Nissen has over 30 years’ experience in clinical medicine (infectious diseases & paediatrics) and clinical laboratory microbiology with a particular interest in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases and the diagnosis of infectious diseases in hospital, public health and industry settings. He is the inaugural Director of Research-The Prince Charles Hospital and a Senior Medical Officer at the Queensland Adult Specialist Immunisation Service-Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.
SESSION 2:
VACCINE EVALUATION: CLINICAL TRIALS & REAL WORLD EVIDENCE
June 19, 2024
Professor Julie Simpson is Head of Biostatistics and Director of the Methods and Implementation for Clinical and Health (MISCH) research Hub at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. She has 30 years experience collaborating on multidisciplinary research projects with clinicians, laboratory scientists, epidemiologists and health policy-makers at universities and hospitals (and even refugee camps) worldwide, and has published over 350 papers. Her main area of research is the integration of biostatistics and mathematical modelling to improve the control of infectious diseases.
Presentation: Vaccine Clinical Trials – Aiming to Have Impact
Professor Peter Richmond is a Consultant Paediatric Immunologist and Paediatrician at Perth Children’s Hospital, and is Head of the Immunology Department at the Child and Adolescent Health Service in WA. He also heads the Vaccine Trials Group within the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at the Telethon Kids Institute, and is Head of the Discipline of Paediatrics at the UWA Medical School. His major research interests are in the prevention of meningitis, pneumonia, respiratory infections and otitis media. He has authored over 300 scientific publications in these areas and has worked in vaccine research for over 25 years.
Presentation: Vaccine Clinical Trials – Aiming to Have Impact
SESSION 1:
IMMUNOLOGY & MODERN VACCINE DESIGN
June 5, 2024
Professor Dale Godfrey is an NHMRC Investigator Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy for Health and Medical Sciences, Past President of the Australasian Society for Immunology, and founder and Past President of the Melbourne Immunotherapy Network. Godfrey’s area of interest has for many years been in the field of unconventional T cells, spanning NKT cells, MAIT cells, group 1 CD1 restricted T cells, and gd T cells, including their development, function and therapeutic potential.
Presentation: The Fundamentals of Vaccine Immunology
Professor Paul Young is Professor of Virology, currently seconded to Research Development in the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s Office of Research and Innovation at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research group studies the molecular basis of virus induced disease, develops new and improved diagnostics as well as vaccine and therapeutic control strategies for a range of viral pathogens of both human and animal origin. With colleagues at UQ, he co-led an Australian consortium that developed a COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, based on an innovative UQ patented platform technology, the Molecular Clamp.
Presentation: Vaccine Technologies and Design
Professor Barney S. Graham is an immunologist, virologist, and clinical trials physician who is a thought leader on structure-based vaccine design, application of mRNA delivery technology, and pandemic preparedness. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Rice University, a medical degree from the University of Kansas, and completed internal medicine residency, chief residencies, ID fellowship, and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. He joined the NIAID Vaccine Research Center at NIH as a founding member in 2000 and retired as Deputy Director of the VRC in 2021.
Presentation: Vaccine Design – From Concept to Market