The TRANSVAC Steering Committee is the main and final decision making body in the partnership and is responsible for:

• Monitoring and discussing the progress of the overall strategic objectives of the initiative.
• Ensuring that the work package framework proposed within this document is implemented.
• Taking the decisions needed to effectively implement the work programme and achieve the deliverables and milestones.
• Facilitating any changes and/or additions to the partners involved in the initiative.
• Discussion and agreement on the financial allocation and distribution of resources according to the proposed work programme.
• Initial arbitration of any issues that could not be resolved within the working groups.

Standard Operating Procedure of the Steering Committee

Dr Odile Leroy (Chair)

European Vaccine Initiative

Odile has been the Executive Director of the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), formerly European Malaria Vaccine Initiative (EMVI) since 2006. Odile has spent most of her career in vaccine development, as a scientist in Africa for nine years, followed by Corporate Clinical Director of airborne vaccines for ten years at Pasteur Mérieux Connaught (Sanofi Pasteur). She joined EMVI in 2002 as Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Director, and from 2005 to 2006, she headed the European and Developing Countries’ Clinical Trial Partnership as Executive Director. Odile is a member of the Science Board of the Brighton Collaboration, coordinator of three EC FP7 consortia, including the vaccine infrastructure project TRANSVAC, and a member of the WHO product development group for the measles aerosol project. Odile is a trained physician who has specialised in the areas of epidemiology, clinical pharmacology, and vaccinology.

Prof Stefan Kaufmann (Vice-Chair)

Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Stefan H.E. Kaufmann. Founding director and director of the Department of Immunology of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. Professor for microbiology and immunology at the Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin, and honorary professor at the University Clinics Benjamin Franklin, Free University Berlin. From 1987 to 1991 professor for medical microbiology and immunology, and from 1991 to 1998 full professor for immunology at the University of Ulm. President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). Past president and honorary member of the German Society for Immunology. Past President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS). Scientific interests: immunity to bacterial pathogens with emphasis on tuberculosis and rational vaccine design.

Dr Barry Walker

HPA National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
Dr Barry Walker is a Principal Scientist in the Biotherapeutics Group at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (a centre of the Health Protection Authority) and is the lead scientist in the Immunology and Cellular Immunity Section. He has maintained an active research interest in tuberculosis and the immunology of vaccines against poverty related diseases, including HIV and malaria. Dr Walker trained in immunology at the University of Western Australia, and completed his Ph.D. in the immunology of renal transplantation. Subsequently he moved to the UK, to the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, where his interest in mycobacterial infection and vaccinology was fostered. After a period at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, he moved to his current position at NIBSC where has continued his involvement in tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

Dr Ed Remarque

Biomedical Primate Research Center

Dr Remarque obtained his masters degree in Medical Biology at Leiden University in 1988 and started as a research scientist at the Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University. He obtained his PhD on the humoral response to influenza vaccination in the elderly in 1996. In 2002 he joined the BPRC to work on the clinical development of an Apical Membrane Antigen 1-based (AMA1) malaria vaccine. His main research interests are: vaccine design, vaccine development, infectious diseases, adjuvant selection, animal studies, assay harmonisation, statistics and epidemiology.

Dr Jan Langermans

Central Veterinary Institute, Wageningen UR

Jan A.M. Langermans, Ph.D., has been Chairman of the Animal Science Department, BPRC, Rijswijk, The Netherlands since 2008. His research interests include the development of animal models for infectious disease research, vaccine development, and immunology. Jan received his Ph.D. in 1992 in Leiden (with honours), and was Assistant Professor at LUMC in Leiden from 1992 to 1996. He headed the Parasitic and Bacterial Immunology Department at BPRC, Rijswijk from 1996-2003, covering malaria, TB and schistosoma research. Jan was Director of the Experimental Animal Services and BioMedical Research, ASG Wageningen UR, Lelystad  between 2003-2008.

Prof Mahavir Singh

LIONEX

Dr Nicolas Collin

University of Lausanne

Nicolas Collin is Head of the Vaccine Formulation Laboratory at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The laboratory is a platform for global access to vaccine adjuvants and a training centre for vaccine formulation. Formerly, Dr Collin was technical officer at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, and coordinator of the WHO vaccine task force during the pandemic influenza (H1N1) in 2009. Prior to this, he worked four years as project leader for the industry (Merial, Lyon) and completed a post-doctoral training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Leishmania vaccines. Nicolas Collin is Doctor in Veterinary Medicine (National Veterinary School of Toulouse) and holds a PhD in Molecular Virology (University of Toulouse III).