Dr. Projan is the former Senior Vice President and Head of Infectious Diseases & Vaccines Innovative Medicines at MedImmune. He had previously served as VP and Global Head of Infectious Diseases at Novartis and VP and Head of Biological Technologies at Wyeth. Dr. Projan is an expert in infectious diseases, having worked many years with both basic and applied research, successfully led four programs resulting in the approval of novel anti-infective drugs and produced more than 110 peer-reviewed publications. He is currently Principal in his consulting company Beat the Reaper, LLC.
Dr Projan received his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Columbia University under Jim Wechsler and a BS from MIT. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Public Health Research Institute, where he studied plasmid replication, antibiotic resistance, and staphylococcal virulence in collaboration with Richard Novick.
Viliam (Vilo) Pavliak, PhD is an expert in a vaccine development with over 28 years of experience in the industrial, academic and non-for-profit vaccine R&D for developed and emerging markets. He provides strategic direction, tactical oversight, and technical expertise to vaccine development activities at Gates MRI consisting of analytical and formulation development, Drug Substance & Drug Product process development, scale-up, tech transfer, pre-clinical and clinical manufacturing, and commercial scale development. Before that, he was Head of Vaccine Development at International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul, South Korea, where he led process and assay development activities and technology transfers to developing country manufacturers. Prior to IVI, Dr. Pavliak spent 17 years at Wyeth/Pfizer where he directed vaccine characterization work and the development of analytical assays for release of conjugate vaccines and intermediates for vaccine programs, including Prevenar®, Staphylococcus aureus 4-Antigen (SA4Ag) Vaccine, Neisseria meningitidis LOS based conjugate vaccine and Group B Streptococcus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Pavliak led preclinical development and evaluation of vaccines against several Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria at Nabi and Univax Biologics Inc.
Dr. Pavliak did his postdoctoral research with Dr. Neil Glaudemans at the NIH/NIDDK, Bethesda, Maryland, USA and Dr. Harold Jennings at the Institute of Biological Sciences, NRC, Ottawa, Canada. He received his MS and PhD in Biochemistry from the Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia. He also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of GlycoNet (Canadian Glycomics Network, Alberta, Canada).
Dr. Szymanski is a Professor at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Associate Department Head of Microbiology at the University of Georgia. She was the first to discover N-linked protein glycosylation in bacteria and has been exploring bacterial glycomics for three decades. She combines her expertise in food safety, animal health and autoimmune diseases with novel therapeutic platforms developed during her postdoctoral fellowship at the Naval Medical Research Center vaccine program, the key findings while employed at the National Research Council of Canada, and the translational advances during her tenure as an Alberta Innovates Technology Futures Scholar at the University of Alberta where she cofounded VaxAlta, a company creating glycoconjugate vaccines for livestock and human health applications.
Dr. Szymanski has published over 130 publications and multiple patents and has served as President of the Society for Glycobiology and President of the Canadian Society of Microbiologists. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Distinguished Research Professor.
Mario F. Feldman is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine, in St Louis. He graduated with a B.S. in Biotechnology from the National University of Rosario, Argentina and received a Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He then held postdoctoral positions at the University of Basel and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland. Before joining Washington University, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, where he cofounded VaxAlta, a spin-off company dedicated to livestock vaccines. Dr. Feldman’s current research focuses on the pathogenesis of the multi-drug resistant bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii. He is recognized for his work characterizing secretion systems, microbial glycans, and outer membrane vesicles. He has coauthored over 110 publications in prestigious journals and he has been awarded with multiple NIH grants.
Dr. Feldman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He was awarded the 2025 Rachael Schneerson – John Robbins Award for his significant contributions to bioconjugate vaccine glycoengineering. He had previously received the Canadian Institute of Health New Investigator Award.
Mr. Moutier is Senior Vice-President, Vaccines & Immune Therapies, AstraZeneca. In this capacity, he is responsible for R&D, Commercial, Medical Affairs and cross-functional activities for the unit. AstraZeneca’s Vaccines & Immune Therapies Unit is building an innovative portfolio of transformative products including antibodies and vaccines to tackle some of the leading global public health threats across viral respiratory diseases, serious bacterial infections, and chronic viral infections.
Benjamin joined AstraZeneca in 2011 and has held different leadership positions at global and local level. He was Vice-President, Global Franchise Head, Haematology where he was instrumental in expanding the franchise pipeline, driving commercial performance and advancing the broader haematology strategy. He was a member of the Cell Therapy Enterprise Leadership Team, and a key contributor to AstraZeneca’s cell therapy efforts, actively shaping future capabilities in this space. He has also served in other leadership positions across the Respiratory and Oncology businesses, including Head of Oncology, France, and Global Commercial Head, Immuno-Oncology.
Throughout his time at the company, Benjamin has delivered rapid growth, achieved numerous successful launches, and delivered on multiple Phase III clinical trials.
Benjamin started his career at the Boston Consulting Group, as a Consultant in Strategy, Operations and Corporate Development, working with large pharmaceutical companies and healthcare authorities across US and Europe.
Benjamin graduated from Ecole Centrale Paris with a Master’s in Applied Mathematics and from Sciences-Po Paris with a Master’s in Economics.
Dr. Harding is the primary founder of Omniose dating back to 2017 when he left his academic position to lead company formation, laboratory space development, and research activities. He is the main innovator and driver for all Omniose R&D activities, including its bioconjugation platform. Dr. Harding has refined Omniose’s bioconjugation technology for use in developing bioconjugate vaccines against multiple bacterial targets, including, Group B Streptococcus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. He has devised eight awarded SBIR/STTR grants totaling more than $14M in non-dilutive funding, fueling Omniose’s R&D pipeline and company growth. In addition, he has authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts in distinguished journals and is the inventor of 11 different patent families encompassing methods of use and composition of matters pertaining to Omniose’s bioconjugation technology.
Dr. Harding conducted his Postdoctoral Fellowship under Dr. Mario Feldman’s mentorship at Washington University in St. Louis focusing on microbial glycobiology. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from The Ohio State University and a B.S. from the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.
He currently serves on the Klebsiella pneumoniae Working Group of the World Health Organization Collaborative Open Research Consortium on priority bacterial pathogens.
Dr. Cooke has over thirty years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with a focus on vaccines. He was previously CEO of NovaDigm Therapeutics, CEO of Mojave Therapeutics, COO at AVANT Immunotherapeutics, and SVP at Ology Bioservices. Prior to his leadership roles in the biotechnology industry, he held several positions at Merck establishing a global vaccine-focused marketing and sales organization.
Dr. Cooke was the Biotechnology Industry Representative to the U.S. National Vaccine Advisory Committee during 2015-2023. He currently serves on the Klebsiella pneumoniae Working Group of the World Health Organization Collaborative Open Research Consortium on priority bacterial pathogens. He was previously on the Advisory Board of Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) and was an observer on the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines and Antimicrobial Resistance. He was also Co-Chair of the BIO Vaccine Policy Advisory Committee and was on the Incentives for Vaccines Working Group of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. Dr. Cooke was the Vaccine Industry Representative to the Working Group of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance during its formation in 2000.
Dr. Cooke has a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry and an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.S. from Saint Joseph’s University.
