SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Katalin Karikó is professor at University of Szeged and adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, where she worked for 24 years. She is former senior vice president at BioNTech SE, Mainz, Germany, where she worked between 2013-2022. She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1982. For four decades, her research has been focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the ultimate goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA, which widened the therapeutic potentials of mRNA. Her patents, co-invented with Drew Weissman on nucleoside-modified uridines in mRNA provided the foundation to create the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.

Norbert Pardi

Dr. Norbert Pardi holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics. He has been working at the University of Pennsylvania since 2011. His research interest is the development of mRNA-based therapeutics with particular focus on new generation vaccines. He explored the development of a novel protein delivery platform using nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and used it to generate highly effective mRNA-LNP vaccines targeting various pathogens.

Daniel J. Siegwart

Daniel J. Siegwart is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biochemistry, and the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center (SCCC) at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He holds the W. Ray Wallace Distinguished Chair in Molecular Oncology Research and serves as the Director of the Program in Genetic Drug Engineering, Director of the Drug Delivery Program in Biomedical Engineering, and Co-leader of the Chemistry and Cancer Program in the NCI-designated SCCC. He received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Lehigh University (2003), and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University (2008), studying with Professor Krzysztof Matyjaszewski. He also studied as a Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo with Professor Kazunori Kataoka (2006). He then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at MIT with Professor Daniel Anderson and Professor Robert Langer (2008-2012). His research laboratory utilizes materials chemistry to enable targeted nanoparticle delivery of genomic medicines. Their efforts led to an understanding of the essential physical and chemical properties of synthetic carriers required for therapeutic delivery of siRNA, miRNA, tRNA, pDNA, mRNA, and gene editors. His lab has been at the forefront in the design of synthetic carriers for gene editing and has applied these technologies for correction of genetic diseases and treatment of cancer. They reported the first non-viral system for in vivo CRISPR/Cas gene editing. Recently, they developed Selective ORgan Targeting (SORT) lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which was the first strategy for predictable tissue specific mRNA delivery and gene editing. They ultimately aspire to utilize chemistry and engineering to make a beneficial impact on human health.

Galit Alter

Galit Alter, PhD, is the Vice President of Immunology Research at Moderna. She spent 20 years at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard where she developed new tools to define correlates of immunity against a range of viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections to inspire next generation vaccines and therapeutics. She now leads efforts within Moderna to both define the mechanism of action of mRNA vaccines as well as to develop novel strategies to engineer immunity to promote highly effective immune responses across populations and across the globe.

BioNTech

Patrick Baumhof

Patrick Baumhof, PhD
Senior Vice President Technology
trained in Chemistry, at the University of Leipzig. His scientific expertise includes chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and immunology. He joined CureVac in July 2007 when he was responsible for the development and preclinical testing of new formulations for mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. He is inventor of several patents and he co-authored several publications on mRNA technology. Currently he is Senior Vice President Technology at CureVac AG.

Mathias Vormehr

Dr. Mathias Vormehr is Senior Director Individualized mRNA Therapeutics and platform research lead for individualized cancer therapies at BioNTech SE. An immunologist by training, he has driven the development of first‑in‑human mRNA cancer therapeutics and cytokine candidates into clinical testing. He conducted his diploma thesis at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and obtained his doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Mainz. His work has led to multiple patents and high‑impact publications in journals including Nature, Nature Medicine and Cancer Cell.

Mustafa Diken

Dr. Mustafa Diken received his Ph.D. in tumor immunology from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz under the provision of Prof. Ugur Sahin and is currently serving as Director of Disease Research Center at Translational Oncology Institute (TRON) as well as Vice President Vaccines & Immunology at BioNTech SE. His research focuses on the development of novel cancer vaccines based on antigen-encoding messenger RNA (mRNA) and the elucidation of immunomodulatory mechanisms for cancer immunotherapy. His research led to novel mRNA vaccines which are currently being tested in several clinical trials and development of an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Diken is also a board member and the scientific program director of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), a non-profit organization aimed at advancing cancer immunotherapy.

Moderna

Kate Jeffrey

Dr. Kate Jeffrey is Vice President at Moderna in Boston, where she leads efforts on immunology research in platform and therapeutics. Previously, she directed a laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital as Associate Professor of Medicine, with faculty appointments in Harvard Immunology, Harvard Virology, and the Broad Institute. Kate earned her B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Melbourne and her Ph.D. from the Garvan Institute, followed by postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Jeffrey is internationally recognized for her work in immunology, epigenetics, and autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Honors include the Rockefeller Women in Science Award, Rainin Innovator Award, Claflin Award, and MGH Research Scholarship. Beyond her scientific work, she co-founded the Imagine Science Film Festival, serves on the board of directors of the Garvan Institute, and has delivered a TEDx talk on autoimmune disease.

Jonathan Hoggatt

Jonathan Hoggatt, PhD, is a biotechnology leader at Moderna, where he advances platforms and programs that translate cutting-edge science into impactful medicines. His work spans cross-functional strategy and execution across discovery through early development, with emphasis on enabling technologies that improve speed, quality, and scalability, including delivery science and AI-enabled R&D.

He previously served as Harvard Medical School faculty and directed an NIH-funded translational research program focused on hematopoietic stem cell biology, immunology, gene therapy, and regenerative medicine. His discoveries have led to multiple patents and translation toward clinical development. He is a scientific co-founder of Magenta Therapeutics and contributed to multiple programs that advanced into clinical trials. Jonathan also serves in professional leadership roles spanning gene therapy and non-viral delivery, including with the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).