The TRANSVAC Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is composed of five experts external to the programme who review and advise on:

• The scientific and technical orientation of the strategic plan.
• The progress and results of the entire work programme of the initiative.
• The future directions, pitfalls and novel technologies relevant to the programme.
• Mediate any scientific disagreements that cannot be remedied by the Steering Committee.
• Assess the milestones and deliverables reached by the consortium.
• Advise on the development of the formal selection criteria of proposals for the use of the infrastructures offered.
• Peer-review the scientific and experimental quality of proposals offered for training and service activities and will produce a report of their findings for consideration by the User Selection Panel (USP).

Standard Operating Procedure of the Scientific Advisory Committee

Prof Jonathan Luke Heeney (Chair)

University of Cambridge

Prof Jonathan Luke Heeney is Professor of Comparative Pathology at the University of Cambridge. His work bridges both Veterinary and Human medicine, infectious diseases and oncology. He has over 20 years of experience working with both academia and industry to navigate vaccine candidates through preclinical development to clinical trial. His laboratory studies cross-species transmissions of viral diseases and the mechanisms of immunity in new and established hosts; his team has developed new technologies for the detection and monitoring of viruses, and the characterization of new and novel pathogens. Jonathan Heeney has made key contributions to AIDS vaccine development including defining the central role of T-helper responses in vaccine induced immunity, in demonstrating viral vaccine protection from cell-associated challenge and the role of chemokine responses in protective immunity. He has a comparative approach to vaccine development with the establishment of clinically definable endpoints early in the preclinical evaluation process. Jonathan Heeney pioneered the use of immune correlates in rational vaccine development and is the founder of an international series of meetings on correlates of protective immunity to HIV/AIDS. Read more

Prof Claire Boog (Vice chair)

Netherlands Vaccine Institute

Prof Dr Claire Boog currently is the Scientific Director of the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (NVI) since 2009. She was previously NVI’s Deputy Scientific Director (2007-2009), and held various leading positions at this institution since 2003. Further previous positions include heading the department of Immunology of the Laboratory of Vaccine Research of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM, the Netherlands), as well as the lead of the Department of Transplantation Immunology at the CLB, in Amsterdam. She is also a Professor at the department Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Professor Boog is involved in various scientific national and international collaborations and programmes, including institutions as WHO and the European Commission. She is co/author of more than 100 peer reviewed publications in the fields of immunology and vaccinology.
Her main research interests are: 1) Adaptive immunity research (e.g. defining immunological correlates of protection at the T and B cell level after natural infection and vaccination), 2) Innate immunity research ( e.g. rational design of adjuvants), 3) Improving vaccines (e.g . TB vaccine) and 4) Improving process development (e.g via PAT or platformtechnology).

Dr Allan Saul

Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health

Allan Saul was appointed to head the newly created Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH) in September 2007. He currently oversees programs to develop vaccines for Salmonella and Shigella.  Prior to joining NVGH, Dr Saul has a long-standing experience in the development and testing of experimental malaria vaccines at the National Institutes of Health (USA) and at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (Brisbane, Australia). As part of that program he has had extensive experience with taking new adjuvants into human trials.

Dr Roland Dobbelaer

Private Consultant

Roland Dobbelaer, Dr Sc., holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry (thesis on BCG vaccines) and retired mid 2007 as head of the Section for Biological Standardisation of the Scientific Institute of Public Health in Brussels, where he was responsible for the National Control Authority Batch Release of vaccines and plasma derivatives operating in the EU Network of Official Medicines Control Laboratories.  In this position, he advised the Belgian Medicines Agency and, as a member of the EMEA CHMP Biologics Working Party, also the European Authorities in matters of licensing and regulation of biologicals.  During a number of years until 2006 he was the chair of the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardisation (ECBS) and until March 2007, he chaired the EMEA CHMP Vaccines Working Party. Until January 2008 he chaired the Biological Standardisation Steering Committee of the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and the European Pharmacopoeia Expert Group N° 15 on vaccines.
Roland Dobbelaer currently acts as an advisor in regulatory and scientific matters to a number of private and public vaccine R&D projects (incl. vaccines against Pertussis, Shigellosis, Tuberculosis, Malaria, Meningitis, Influenza) and to regulatory authorities (incl. WHO, EMEA).

Prof Samuel J. McConkey

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Samuel J. McConkey is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He is also a Consultant at several Irish hospitals, as well as to Irish Aid, and is a member of the Technical Advisory Group (to the Taoiseach’s Initiative on HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases. He is a board member of the national regulatory for medical and social care in Ireland, Health Information & Quality Authority (HIQA). Professor McConkey is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London as well as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. His main research Interests lie in the prevention and control of the infectious diseases of relevance for resource-poor countries, including developing and evaluating new vaccines, studies of acquired immunity and molecular pathogenesis, and anthropological and political science studies of drivers and consequences of stigma. The area of promoting and evaluating use of data-based scientific evidence in public policy for example malaria control, migrant health.