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Mark T. Esser, Ph.D.

Vice President, Early Vaccines & Immune Therapies R&D
AstraZeneca

Dr. Esser joined AstraZeneca in 2010 and is Vice President of Vaccines and Immune Therapies early R&D at AstraZeneca. Mark is responsible for all antibody and vaccine discovery, research and translational medicine for AstraZeneca’s infectious disease programs bringing early science ideas from the concept to the clinic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mark led AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 monoclonal antibody (Evusheld™) program to a successful Emergency Use Authorization and supported R&D efforts for the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria™.  He also played a key role in the development and FDA approval of the RSV antibody Beyfortus™.  Mark serves on AstraZeneca’s Vaccines & Immune Therapies senior leadership team shaping R&D strategy and managing a portfolio of programs in different stages of development.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was the director of the Vaccine and Biologics Center of Excellence at Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) and prior to PPD he was at Merck Vaccines where he held positions of increasing responsibility and was instrumental in the approval of GARDASIL® for the prevention of cervical cancer. He is widely recognized for his contributions to vaccine and immunology research with numerous patents and over 110 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Esser received his B.S. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from University of Virginia and did his postdoctoral fellowship at the AIDS vaccine program at the National Institutes of Health.

Christian Harding, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

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 seven awarded SBIR/STTR grants totaling more than $11M 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 five 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.

Timothy Cooke, Ph.D., MBA

Chief Executive Officer

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 is on the Advisory Board of Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) and is an observer on the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines and Antimicrobial Resistance.  He was previously 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.

Christine Szymanski, Ph.D.

Co-Founder

Dr. Szymanski is a Professor at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Associate Department Head of Microbiology at the University of Georgia. She has been exploring bacterial glycomics for three decades. She combines her expertise in food safety and animal health with novel therapeutic diagnostic 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 100 publications 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 and has received the Peter Gallagher Memorial Glycomics Award for Contributions to Health and Medical Research.

Steven Projan, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisory Board Member

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 Pavliak, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisory Board Member

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).

Mario Feldman, Ph.D.

Co-Founder & Scientific Advisory Board Member

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 80 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 received the Canadian Institute of Health New Investigator Award.