In college, Dr. Reed majored in Microbiology, obtaining both a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987 and a Master of Science degree in 1990 from Oklahoma State University. In 1995 he graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with a Ph.D. in Immunology. From 1995 to 1999 Dr. Reed worked in the laboratory of Dr. Leo Lefrancois and Dr. Lynn Puddington at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, CT. Under their tutelage, Dr. Reed gained expertise in studying T lymphocyte responses to antigens entering through the intestinal mucosa and respiratory tissues. In 1999, Dr. Reed moved to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases where he served as a Microbiologist developing animal models and testing vaccines against a number of pathogens, including anthrax, plague, Venezuelan equine encephalitisvirus , Eastern equine encephalitis virus, as well as the Ebola and Marburg viruses. Along with his collaborators, he was awarded the 2003 Army Research & Development Award for the successful design and testing of new vaccines for Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses in nonhuman primates, work that was instrumental in initiating phase I clinical trials of these vaccines. In 2008 Dr. Reed became the manager of the Aerobiology core at the University of Pittsburgh’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. In that role, Dr. Reed develops animal models for respiratory and biodefense pathogens and tests medical countermeasures designed to protect against those pathogens.

Dr Barry Walker is P.I. of the Immunology and Cellular Immunity section within the Biotherapeutics group at NIBSC. The main area of interest is the study of cellular immune responses involved in protective immunity to pathogens and in particular, pathogen specific immunity elicited through vaccination - with a focus on M tuberculosis, the causative organism of tuberculosis. Dr Walker established the first murine aerosol challenge facility for tuberculosis in the UK undertake evaluations of new vaccine approaches. Dr Walker provides expert guidance and advice on preclinical-clinical development of TB vaccines and is also involved on work targeted at harmonisation and standardisation of the clinical immunological assays used in TB vaccine trials. Parallel work preparing and characterising standards and reference materials for these clinical trials is also a major interest.

Dr. De-chu C. Tang is the Scientific Founder, Vice President of Research, and Chief Technical Officer at Vaxin Inc.  He obtained his PhD in Microbiology from Indiana University in 1989.  He carried out his postdoctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  He joined the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1994 and subsequently founded Vaxin Inc. in 1997.  Dr. Tang was a pioneer during the development of DNA vaccines, noninvasive epicutaneous vaccines, adenovirus-vectored influenza and anthrax vaccines.  He is serving as an editorial member of Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination and Expert Review of Vaccines.  He received the Wallace H. Coulter Award for innovation and entrepreneurship in 2000; Vaxin Inc. was selected as a Tech Museum Awards Laureate in 2007.

Matthias Imöhl, Institute of Medical Microbiology, National Reference Centre for Streptococci, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany. He has obtained a qualification in Transfusion Medicine in 2005. He has completed a specialisation in Laboratory Medicine in 2004. He has received his MD in Bochum, Germany 1999.

Philippe Krebs is a Research Associate at the Scripps Research Institute, USA. He completed undergraduate at Université Fribourg / Institute of biochemistry. Philippe Krebs is author of more than 30 research articles.

Robert Martin Jacobson (born September 20, 1958) is the chair of the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at the Mayo Clinic and a full professor of pediatrics at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester, MN. He received his B.Sc in Chemistry in 1980 from Butler University also in Indianapolis, IN. Besides administrative responsibilities related to being chair, he regularly sees young patients as a member of the Division of Community Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. His research area is in vaccinology, with a focus on delivery, effectiveness and adverse consequences. Jacobson co-leads the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic with Greg Poland. He is also involved with the Clinical Research Training Program in the Mayo Medical School.

Associate Professor in Medicine - College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic
Regional Director - Mayo Health System Practice-Based Research Network,
Vice Chairman - Department of Nephrology, Luther Midelfort
Mayo Health System MacMillan Management Scholar Award -  Mayo Clinic
Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN)
Fellow of the West African College of Physicians (FWACP)
Editorial board member/reviewer of reputable journals, including Editorial Board member, Quarterly Journal of Medicine.
Over 80 publications in print
Two book chapters
 

Zhao Lu is a Research Associate in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences in College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, USA.

Robert J. Amato is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Director in the Division of Oncology at The University of Texas Medical School – Houston.He received his D.O. from The University of North Texas in Fort Worth, Texas in 1983.He is serving as an editorial board member for 3 journals and is a reviewer for a variety of other medical journals. He has 300+ publications over his career.