Dr. Shoenfeld has been working in his laboratory for years on deciphering the mechanisms of autoimmune diseases, and developing specific drugs for them, such as specific IVIG. He has educated a long list of students (N=43) being today heads of departments and institutes. His research includes experimental work on depression in autoimmune disorders such as in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis. One of Israel's top physicians and scientists, who has dedicated his life, as an investigative physician to deciphering the causality and mechanism of autoimmune diseases, to provide care for patients, and to develop innovative treatments, as well as to spread the scientific information through the professional and popular literature. In 2011, Dr. Shoenfeld described the new "ASIA" syndrome also recognized as "Shoenfeld's syndrome" (ASIA - Autoimmune Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants), and delineated the major and minor criteria (published in J. Autoimmunity 2015). His clinical and scientific works focus on autoimmune/rheumatic diseases, and he has published more than 1990 papers in journals such as New Eng J Med, Nature, Lancet, PNAS, J Clin Invest, J Immunol, Blood, FASEB, J Exp Med, Circulation, Cancer and others. His articles had over 65,000 citations. He has written more than 350 chapters in books, and has authored and edited 28 books, some of which became cornerstones in science and clinical practice, such as: "The Mosaic of Autoimmunity", "Infections and Autoimmunity", the textbooks "Autoantibodies" and "Diagnostic criteria of autoimmune diseases", "The environment geoepidemiology and autoimmune diseases", all of which were published by Elsevier and sold by the thousands. His book "Vaccines and Autoimmunity" was published by Wiley Blackwell Pub in 2015. He is on the editorial board of 32 journals in the field of autoimmunity and rheumatology, and is the founder and the editor of the IMAJ (Israel Medical Association Journal) the representative journal of science and medicine in the English language in Israel, and also is the founder and Editor of the "Autoimmunity Reviews" (Elsevier) (Impact factor 8.4) and Co-Editor of "Journal of Autoimmunity" (IF=7.9). For the last 20 years Dr. Shoenfeld is the Editor of "Harefuah" – The Israeli journal in medicine (Hebrew) and edited the Israel Medical Encyclopedia (10 volumes, 5000 items). He had organized over 20 international congresses in autoimmunity.

Director Emeritus at Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, and at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany. Founding Director (1993), Director of Department of Immunology at Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin (1993 to 2019). Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Charité University Clinics Berlin, Germany. Faculty Fellow of Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas. Studied biology at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, 1977 PhD (highest degree, summa cum laude). From 1987 to 1991 Professor for Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and from 1991 to 1998 Full Professor for Immunology at University of Ulm. Doctor Honoris Causa from Aix-Marseille University. Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP Edin). Honorary Professor of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru; Guest Professor at Tongji University, School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; Visiting Professor at Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China. Scientific interests: immunity to bacterial pathogens with emphasis on tuberculosis and rational design of vaccines and biosignatures. Developer of a tuberculosis vaccine in phase III clinical efficacy trial. Former President and honorary member of the German Society for Immunology; former President of European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) and of International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). Initiator of the global Day of Immunology to raise public awareness in immunology, jointly organized by EFIS and IUIS annually. Chair of the Board of Schering Foundation. Member of the Scientific Advisory Board and member of the Board of Trustees of Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Co-Chair of the Scientific Committee of World Health Summit. Board Member of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) from 2010 to 2013. Member of the Scientific Board of Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) from 2009 to 2014. Member of the Strategic Advisory Committee of European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) from 2014 to 2018. Member of the Executive Committee of Robert Koch Foundation from 2003 to 2019. Scientific advisor on “Health” for G7 summit in Elmau, Germany, in 2015 and for G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017. Numerous prestigious scientific awards, most recently Gagna A. & Ch. Van Heck Prize in 2018 from FNRS, Belgium. Coordinator of several international and interdisciplinary projects, e.g. Grand Challenge 6 of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2005 to 2016. > 900 publications mostly in high-ranking journals with > 72,000 citations, amongst the 0.01% most cited scientists of ca. 7 million scientists in 22 major scientific fields globally (PLoS Biol 17(8): e3000384, 2019), h-index of 141 (Google Scholar) / 111 (Thomson/ISI). Editor or member of editorial boards of numerous international scientific journals; member of numerous professional societies and academies including American Academy of Microbiology, Berlin–Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, World Innovation Foundation and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

Jan Holmgren, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and founding Director of the Gothenburg University Vaccine Research Institute. He has published > 600 papers in microbiology, immunology and vaccinology, mainly on the mechanisms of disease and immunity in cholera and other gastrointestinal infections, mucosal immunology, and the development and evaluation of oral cholera vaccine (OCV) and related mucosal vaccines.His many scientific awardsinclude e.g. Jahre (Norway), Jeantet (Switzerland), Soderberg(Sweden), Fernstrom(Sweden), Sabin (USA), and Mahidol (Thailand); he is an elected member of several scientific academies; and he has served on the boards of many international health and science organisations, e.g. Gavi, icddr,b and IVI.

Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is also University Professor at Baylor University, Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, Faculty Fellow with the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies at Texas A&M University, and Health Policy Scholar in the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. Dr. Hotez is an internationally-recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. As head of the Texas Children’s CVD, he leads a team and product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus, diseases affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide, while championing access to vaccines globally and in the United States. In 2006 at the Clinton Global Initiative he co-founded the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to provide access to essential medicines for hundreds of millions of people

Dr. Hodge is a Senior Investigator and head of the Recombinant Vaccine Group in the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. Dr. Hodge received his Ph.D. in Comparative and Experimental Medicine from the University of Tennessee, and his MBA from the George Washington University. He was awarded tenure in 2016. Dr. Hodge is active in the area of tumor immunity, and has made significant contributions to the design and development of novel recombinant vaccines and vaccine strategies for cancer immunotherapy including a) recombinant vectors to deliver tumor antigens, b) the use of costimulation to enhance antitumor T-cell responses, c) the combined use of vaccines with radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted small-molecule therapeutics. The concepts and therapeutics developed within the Recombinant Vaccine Group have been translated into many randomized multi-center trials at numerous Cancer Centers.

Dr. Jishu Shi is a Professor of Vaccine Immunology at College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University. He is also a Fellow at the Biosecurity Research Institute and the Founding Director of U.S.-China Center for Animal Health (2010-), Kansas State University. Having worked at Pfizer and multiple academic institutions in the U.S. in the last three decades, Dr. Shi’s research focuses on novel vaccines and diagnostic assays for high consequence animal diseases including classical swine fever (CSF), African swine fever (ASF), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS), other emerging viral diseases of swine in the last decade. Several of his research discoveries have been licensed to the animal health industry for product development. In addition to research, Dr. Shi also teaches DVM students and promotes global collaborations in veterinary medicine education through international partnerships among universities, animal health companies, industry associations, and government agencies.

Dr. James Gulley is an internationally recognized expert in immunotherapy for cancer. He graduated from Loma Linda University in California with a PhD in microbiology in 1994 and an MD in 1995. As part of this eight-year MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program, he completed a dissertation on tumor immunology. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University in 1998, followed by a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Gulley serves within the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) of the National Cancer Institute as Chief of the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch (GMB), the Director of the Medical Oncology Service (CCR), and also Head of the Immunotherapy Section within the GMB. He has been instrumental in the clinical development multiple immunotherapeutic agents and has led multiple first-in-human immunotherapy studies through phase 3 clinical trials. He was the coordinating PI of an international trial of avelumab that led to regulatory approval. He serves as the coordinating PI of the international bintrafusp alfa, a bifunctional agent targeting PDL1 and TGF-beta. He also leads a number of rationally designed, cutting edge combination immunotherapy studies.

Jonathan F. Lovell is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo.His work has been recognized with several distinctions including the NIH Early Independence Award (2013), the Biomedical Engineering Society Young Investigator Award (2015), an NSF CAREER award (2016), the young investigator award from the Society of Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (2018) the Basic PDT Research award from the International Photodynamic Association (2019), and the ETH Lectureship in Pharmaceutical Sciences (2020). His research interests center around developing new tools to treat or prevent disease

Prof. José Sánchez-Vizcaíno DVM, Ph.D, DhC. UNIVERSITY COMPLUTENSE OF MADRID SPAIN He was born in Murcia, Spain. He obtained his DVM and Ph.D. degree at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Subsequently, he did his postgraduate studies in animal immunology and virology at Cornell University, New York. Upon returning to Spain, he joined the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research (INIA) where was Chief of the Animal Virology Department (1985-1988), Chief of the Animal Health Department (1988-1993) and Founder Director of the Animal Health Research Center BSL3+ (CISA-INIA) (1993-2002).Since 2002, he is a full Professor of Animal Health at the ComplutenseUniversity of Madrid (UCM) (www.ucm.es), and Director of the World Organization for the Animal Health (OIE) Reference laboratory for African swine fever and African horse sickness. The scientific works of Prof. Sanchez-Vizcaino have studied immunological mechanisms, and new epidemiological strategies for the control of some of the main transboundary animal virus diseases (ASF, CSF, PRRS, SVD, FMD, AHS, BTv, etc.). His research has proven of much relevance to help control and eradicate different viral diseases, such as African and classical swine fever, African Horse Sickness, etc. He has more than 200 scientific publications in international high-impact journals. He is the author of various chapters in international prestigious books. He was the IP of more of 150 international and national competitiveresearch projects and director of 34Ph.D thesis. He was awarded with the Medal of Merit of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) and has gained international recognition to his outstanding services to global veterinary science (Paris, 5/24/2009). In addition, he has been awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Murcia (04/22/2010); furthermore he has been nominated “2013 George C. Poppensiek Visiting Professor in Global Animal Health” by the Cornell University (09/2013). His current scientific interest focuses on the study of epidemiology and preventive medicine for infectious animal diseases, as well as developing new diagnostic techniques, new generation vaccines and new strategies for their control. At present is the coordinator of the EU project VACDIVA for “a safe and effective ASV DIVA Vaccine” and the project of “the potential role of pets as reservoirs of COVID 19”. More information:https://www.sanidadanimal.info/es/

Silvio Tafuri was born in Brindisi (Italy) on 1980, 17 August. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery at Bari School of Medicine in 2005; In 2008, he achieved post-degree in Public Health and since 2013 he is Ph.D. in Hygiene, Public Health and Food Safety. He is a consultant of the Apulian Observatory for Epidemiology in the field of vaccination strategies, surveillance of infectious diseases and of adverse events following immunization. Since 2014, he is Assistant Professor and since 2020 Associate Professor of Public Health at the Bari School of Medicine. He works as consultant in the Public Health Unit of the Policlinico Bari General Hospital, in which he is charged of the management of vaccination activities. In 2017, he achieved the National Scientific Qualification for Full professor of Public Health. He is author of 222 articles published in international scientific journals (IF 430, h-index 2); the major part of scientific paper is in the field of vaccinology and of the prevention of infectious diseases.

Kathleen Hefferon received her PhD from the Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto and currently teaches microbiology at Cornell University. Kathleen has published multiple research papers, chapters and reviews, and has written three books. Kathleen is the Fulbright Canada Research Chair of Global Food Security and has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto over the past year. Her research interests include the use of biotechnology to promote global health. Kathleen lives in New York with her husband and two children.

Li Yu, Professor and Principle Investigator of Division of Livestock Infectious Diseases, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He focuses on the novel vaccines of FMDV, BRSV and BRV for research and development.

Dr. Stapleton completed medical school at the University of Kansas, and Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at the University of North Carolina. Following fellowship, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa where he is a Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Microbiology and Immunoloy. He conducts basic virology research on several positive strand RNA viruses including HAV, HCV, HIV, SARS CoV-2, and currently is working on viral modulation of immune cell functions. He has also conducted numerous HIV- and vaccine-related clinical trials. In addition to his work at the University, Dr. Stapleton has served or is currently serving on NIH and VA grant review study sections, the U.S. FDA Vaccines and Related Biologicals Advisory Committee, the U.S. FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee, the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses, and the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Infectious Diseases.

POSITIONS HELD - PhD (1996) University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the area of sciences - Studying the role of the antigenic presentation of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus - Coordinator of the Vaccine Area of the Virology Institute (2003-2014), - Referent in technological innovation 2015 to the present - Founder of INCUINTA: THE TECHNICAL-ORGANIZATIONAL PLATFORM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROJECTS. - Founder and Scientific Director of Bioinnovo SA the public-private technology-based company created by the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and Vetanco SA. (www.bioinnovo.com.ar) - Principal Investigator of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Buenos Aires Argentina Author in 63 publications in international indexed journals, Author in 7 national and international patents - International benchmark in Molecular Farming (production of vaccines and antibodies in plants) - More than 20 agreements of technological connection with national and international companies. - 14 national and international awards in the last 5 years.