2^nd International conference on Flu November 01-02, 2016 San Francisco, California, USA

Biography:

Donald Pinkston Francis is a Physician trained in Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases. He has received his Doctorate in Science (in Virology) from Harvard School of Public Health. He has also served 21 years for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention including assignments with WHO’s Smallpox Eradication Program in Sudan, India and Bangladesh. Beginning in 1993, he focused on vaccine development at Genentech and VaxGen before starting a not-for-profit vaccine development organization in 2004, Global Solutions for Infectious Diseases. He regularly consults for ‘WHO’ and other international organizations on vaccine development for influenza and dengue and on WHO’s eradication program for polio.

Abstract:

The World Health Organization states that, “Though the world is better prepared for the next pandemic than ever before, it remains highly vulnerable, especially to a pandemic that causes severe disease. Nothing about influenza is predictable, including where the next pandemic might emerge and which virus might be responsible.” WHO’s preparations to minimize the impact of influenza virus related disease cover a wide variety of activities that include surveillance of circulating viruses (in both birds and humans), supplying current circulating virus reagents for clinical diagnosis of cases, efforts to expand influenza vaccine production in lower and middle income countries and collaboration and support of trials to evaluate vaccines in people. The surveillance efforts are essential to identifying circulating viruses so subsequent control activities can be matched to the strain and clinical severity of the disease. In 2014, 142 laboratories in 112 countries joined together in what is known as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System. The laboratories in that system tested more than 1.9 million clinical specimens. To speed the diagnostic capabilities for this rapidly changing infection, WHO supplies reagents capable of identifying the latest circulating viruses; for example for the 2009 when the H1N1 outbreak was declared a public health emergency, WHO shipped out diagnostic reagents to laboratories within seven days. More recently WHO has put in place influenza specific systems to speed new vaccine production technologies and set systems to speed each country’s regulatory approval system for influenza vaccines. These activities are crucial to protecting the public’s health against the constant onslaught of new and emerging influenza viruses.

Biography:

Ananda M Chakrabarty is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Chicago. His research interest involves development of promiscuous bacterial protein/peptide drugs with anticancer, anti-viral and anti-parasitic activities. He is the Co-Founder of two start-up companies, CDG Therapeutics Inc., in Chicago and Amrita Therapeutics in India.

Abstract:

It is now well-known that many pathogenic bacteria with long term residence in the human body as biofilms consider the human body as their habitat and try to protect it from outside invaders such as cancers, viruses and parasites through secretion of protein weapons. In one instance, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen, secretes a protein azurin on contact with cancer cells. Upon release, azurin enters preferentially to cancer cells and interferes in cancer cell growth through multiple mechanisms involving complex formation with various cellular proteins in cancer cells that promote cancer cell growth. Such complex formation then leads to loss of function of such cancer growth promoting proteins. Thus azurin is known to induce apoptosis in cancer cells, as well as interfere in rapid cancer cell growth, through stabilization of tumor suppressor protein p53. Azurin also forms complexes with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and cell surface associated receptor tyrosine kinases such as EphB2 to inhibit angiogenesis and cell signaling in cancer cells to inhibit their growth. A chemically-synthesized 28 amino acid fragment (Azurin 50-77), termed p28, has completed a phase I trial in 15 stage IV cancer patients with metastatic tumors that were resistant to all conventional drugs and these patients had a life expectancy of about 6 months. P28 not only showed very little toxicity but also significant beneficial effects including partial and complete regression of the tumors in four patients, significantly prolonging their lives. P28 has also shown similar lack of toxicity but good efficacy in several pediatric brain tumor patients. The University of Illinois at Chicago holds many patents on azurin/p28 as anticancer and anti-infective agents and the patent eligibility issues on such products of nature will be discussed.

Biography:

Marek Malecki MD PhD is President of the Phoenix Foundation, Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Principal Investigator for the National Institutes of Health. He earned the MD degree at the Medical Academy, Poznan followed by Residency/Fellowships in Molecular Medicine in Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Cancer Center, Vienna, Cancer Center, Amsterdam, NL, and Cancer Center, Warsaw. He earned the PhD degree at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw followed by the postdoctoral fellowships in molecular biology at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Salzburg, ETH, Zurich, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Cancer Center, Amsterdam, Biozentrum, Basel. Over the last 20 years, he held faculty positions in Oncology, Molecular Medicine, and Pharmacology, at the top teaching hospitals and medical universities in the USA. There, he acquired solid experience in streamlining advances in genomics and proteomics into novel strategies of therapy, as well as in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows. He was elected by his students and fellow faculty to the Honor Society for Excellence in Teaching and as a Faculty Role Model. His research, as the Principal Investigator, was continuously funded by the grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health since 1989. He is the first or senior author on the peer-reviewed publications in the high impact journals, which are indexed on the PubMed and justified  hisrecommendation to the Faculty of 1000 Prime. He is the inventor of the gene therapies, therapeutic vaccines, and regeneration of tissues, which are published at the USPTO and WIPO with the sequences available through the NCBI. He was elected to serve as the Editor in Chief in peer-reviewed, open-access journals in Science, Technology, and Medicine, as well as Editorial Board Member and Reviewer at many others.

Abstract:

The CDC reports 3697 deaths due to influenza in 2013. First line therapeutics recommended for the patients who are already suffering from influenza are systemic therapeutics: oseltamivir (oral), zanamivir (inhaled), peramivir (intravenous) for patients who present within first 48 hours from the initial symptoms and for people who are at the high risk of exposure. Additionally recommended are: amantadine and rimantadine. Meanwhile, the preventive vaccination of patients 6 months – 17 years of age reached only 49.9%. However, these measures promoted by the CDC are not meant for the general populations. Importantly, the main problem with these medications is that efficacy of prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations is hindered by the quickly changing genotypes of new strains of viruses. This leads to resistance to therapies of the new strains. Furthermore, with the changing genotype, surface displayed molecular profiles may also change. The changed phenotypes lead to ineffective therapies or absence of immune responses. Moreover, the development of the immune response takes time. It takes approximately 5-7 days for the 1st round of antibody generation. The booster shot or prolonged / secondary exposure is needed to yield the amplified response in 45-55 days. The sick patients cannot wait that long. Last but not least, the aforementioned therapeutics may inflict very serious iatrogenic adverse effects. To address these problems, by computer modeling and statistical analysis, we have designed and bioengineered universal therapeutic vaccine for influenza as the solution. It is capable of mounting an immediate, amplified, and reliable response, while avoiding  entirely adverse effects reported by the currently recommended therapeutics.

Biography:

Anthony S Gilbert has obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is a Member of the Institute of Clinical Research. He has served as an expert Member and Vice Chair of a National Research Ethics Service (NRES) committee, having been appointed by the Health Research Authority in the U.K. As a Principal Investigator, he has supervised and conducted viral challenge studies in order to further the quest to bring safer and more effective vaccines and antivirals to the global community. His research has been published in several medical and scientific journals, including Nature Medicine.

Abstract:

Since the beginning of the millennium, human viral challenge studies have successfully been conducted at hVIVO to develop a series of well-characterized virus stocks, whilst demonstrating that the Human Viral Challenge Model (HVCM) could be effective in offering clients a faster and cost effective route to market for their therapeutics. The Human Viral Challenge Model enables global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as leading academic groups and government institutions, to undertake scientific research, accelerate the drug development timeline and reduce the cost of bringing antiviral drugs, vaccines and diagnostics to market. The HVCM also enables fundamental research into the human response to infection and crucial research into modes of infection and transmission between individuals in the community. As hVIVO has grown and developed, the HVCM has become widely accepted as an alternative to traditional early stage field trials to show the efficacy of antiviral and vaccine therapeutics in Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Human Rhinovirus (HRV). By monitoring the entire disease lifecycle as subjects move from healthy to sick and recover back to healthy again, we can obtain high quality, longitudinal data from the before, during and after phases of disease. The model can be used to study the efficacy of new therapies and also to study the target disease itself.

Biography:

Palayakotai Raghavan is CEO and Founder of Nanorx Inc has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Oregon State University (1979) and a M.S in Chemistry (1972) from I.I.T Mumbai, India. He has worked on drug discovery for over 25 years at Columbia University, Max-Planck Institute, Germany, Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) and Boehringer Ingelheim. He has over 12 patents and another 15 pending patent applications 

Abstract:

Metadichol (US patent 8,722,093) is a Nano emulsion of long-chain alcohols found in many foods. It is commonly called Policosanol and is present in foods such as rice, sugar cane, wheat, peanuts. Metadichol acts on Nuclear Vitamin D receptors (VDR) (US patent 9,006,292) that are present in cells throughout the body to stimulate the immune system and inhibit a variety of disease processes, resulting from viral infections.

Studies with Zucker diabetic rats showed it was an effective ICAM-1 and TNF alpha and NFKB-1 inhibitor. ICAM-1 is the same receptor molecule used by the vast majority of viruses that cause the common cold, We tested for antiviral activity of Metadichol in Vero and MDCK cells infected with Influenza A, H1N1, Human Respiratory Syncytial viruses. Metadichol, showed no cytotoxicity and strongly inhibited cell death caused by each of the viruses tested.

Metadichol is a safe and effective inhibitor of enveloped viruses in humans. Since it is known to bind to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) (US patent 9,006,292), its mechanism of action likely involves the competitive displacement of virus particles from VDR’s on host cell membranes. Because it consists of natural components of common foods and has no known negative side effects, Metadichol has the potential to serve as a safe and novel, broad-spectrum antiviral treatment for enveloped viruses. 

Biography:

Manon M.J. Cox, MBA is President and Chief Executive Officer of Protein Sciences. Dr. Cox has received many honours and awards recognizing her stature as a leader in innovation and influenza including receiving a Doctorate in Humane Letters honoris causa from St. Joseph University and in 2015 elected fellow of the International Society of Vaccines. Dr. Cox holds a Doctorate from the University of Wageningen, received her MBA with distinction from the University of Nijenrode and the University of Rochester, NY and holds a Doctorandus degree in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Abstract:

Flublok is FDA approved for the prevention of influenza in adults 18 and older. Flublok is the first recombinant hemagglutinin influenza vaccine and is produced using the baculovirus-insect cell technology. This production platform provides an attractive alternative to the current egg-based influenza vaccine manufacturing process for a multitude of reasons including speed, scale-ability, cost and independence on eggs. The key advantage of this recombinant protein manufacturing platform is that a universal “plug and play” process enables manufacturing of new vaccine candidates within a matter of months while offering the potential for low manufacturing costs. Globally large scale mammalian cell culture facilities previously established for the manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies could be deployed for the manufacturing of vaccines in the event of an emergency or alternatively, manufacturing capacity could be established in geographic regions that do not have any vaccine production capability. Dependent on health care priorities, different vaccines could be manufactured in such facilities while maintaining the ability to rapidly convert to producing pandemic influenza vaccine when the need arise. The speaker will provide an update on the global manufacturing capacity established specifically for Flublok and present recently obtained comparative efficacy data demonstrating that Flublok is more effective than tradional vaccine in protecting older adults against mismatched influenza viruses. Acknowledgment: Protein Sciences Corporation was awarded a contract in June 2009 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to further develop this technology for the production of recombinant influenza vaccines for pandemic preparedness.