Dr. Ethel Maciel currently serves as the Secretary of Health Surveillance and Environmental Health in the Brazil Ministry of Health. Dr. Maciel is a professor at the Nursing Department of UFES and was vice-rector from 2013 to 2020. She has a master’s degree in Public Health Nursing from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), a doctorate in Collective Health/Epidemiology from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and postdoctoral studies at the universities of California and Johns Hopkins, both in the United States, always with research in the area of tuberculosis.

From 2019 to 2022, Maciel served as president of the Brazilian Tuberculosis Research Network. She also represented the Brazilian government in the Brics TB Research Network and is part of the Executive Committee of the Brazilian Network of Women Scientists. 

As Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, Jeremy Farrar oversees the work of the Science Division, bringing together experts and networks working in science and innovation from around the world to guide, develop and deliver high quality health policies and services to the people who need them most. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Farrar was Director of the Wellcome Trust, where he oversaw a series of major reforms, restructuring and growth. Before joining Wellcome, Dr Farrar spent over 17 years as Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam. Dr Farrar was the founding chair of WHO’s R&D Blueprint and the founding director of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) that led on to the work of the RECOVERY Trial and the UK COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium.

Daniel Soranz is a doctor, specialized in Family and Community Medicine by the Brazilian Medical Association (AMB), with master’s degree in Public Health Policies and PhD in Epidemiology, both by Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). He is Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Health Secretary since 2021, a position he previously held from 2014 to 2016, and the most-voted Federal Deputy in his party, due to his commitment to the public health system, especially during the covid-19 pandemic, when he led the biggest vaccination campaign in the history of the country.

With his guidance, the city of Rio de Janeiro went through a record expansion in the Family Health Strategy, going from 3,5% to 80% coverage. He’s also responsible for the creation of the biggest specialized healthcare center in Latin America, which provides diagnostic images, medical consultation with specialists, and ophthalmology procedures for the whole city.

Dr Miguel Aragon is a Physician and Doctor of Medicine from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, and Master of Public Health from Umea University, Sweden. He has 35 years of experience working in international technical cooperation with WHO and UNICEF in Africa, and PAHO in Central America and Paraguay. Since February 2020, he has been serving as Coordinator of Communicable Diseases, Elimination Response, and Environment at PAHO Brazil. His areas of expertise include the prevention, control, and elimination of communicable diseases, environmental health determinants, and emergency and epidemic response.

Mark Feinberg, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician scientist who currently serves as President and CEO of IAVI. At IAVI, he leads a global team working to advance the development of vaccines and other biomedical innovations to protect against infection with HIV, TB, and other infectious diseases that disproportionately impact people living in low- and middle-income countries. IAVI’s mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable and globally accessible public health solutions. Prior to joining IAVI in 2015, Feinberg served as chief public health and science officer with Merck Vaccines. In this role, he helped advance the development and global availability of vaccines against rotavirus, human papillomavirus, and other infectious diseases. Previously, he spent more than 20 years exploring HIV/AIDS pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention research and the biology of emerging diseases in both academia and government. Feinberg played a central role in the creation of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) which was established to help better prepare for and respond to emerging infectious disease threats.

Ruben Rizzi, physician by training, SVP of Global Regulatory Affairs at BioNTech. I joined the company in December 2019 just before the pandemic, and I have been the global regulatory lead for BioNTech for our COVID-19 development. Currently, I am still supporting the lifecycle of our COVID-19 vaccine, and I am co-leading the Global Regulatory Affairs department at BioNTech and working closely with the teams that are responsible for the development of BioNTech´s pipeline, post-approval activities and labelling.

Nina Russell M.D. is Director, TB & HIV Research and Development, at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she is responsible for the development of TB and HIV vaccines, TB Drugs, and HIV biologics and small molecules. She and her team work closely with the Gates Medical Research Institute and other partners to advance the foundation’s portfolio of TB products, including the Phase 3 trial of the M72 vaccine, the Phase 2b trial of the MTBVAC vaccine, the Phase 1 BioNTech mRNA vaccine, and a pipeline of TB drug candidates. She also oversees the Collaboration for TB Vaccine Discovery.

Dr Sania Nishtar joined Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on 18 March 2024. A trained medical doctor, Dr Nishtar has built an outstanding career over 30 years as a national and global leader. She served as a Senator in her home country of Pakistan; as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation; and as a Federal Minister with responsibility for re-establishing the country’s Ministry of Health. Dr Nishtar has fulfilled several leadership positions in civil society and international organisations; founded a health reform non-profit NGO think tank in Pakistan; co-authored dozens of academic papers and books; and published in leading newspapers. A graduate of Khyber Medical College and King’s College London, she has received many international awards; in 2020, the BBC named her among 100 inspiring and influential women around the world.

Suvanand Sahu is the Deputy Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership in Geneva. He is a strong advocate for innovations in prevention and care, universal and equitable access, and people-focussed work. Sahu is a medical doctor and public health specialist with over 2 decades of experience in TB alone. He has been with Stop TB in Geneva since 2009. Prior to that he worked on TB for several years in India with WHO and contributed to the work of WHO in India and South-East Asia. He has also worked on polio eradication in India.

Paulina Siniatkina is an artist and activist who works with a form of autobiographical reflective research. Her socially-oriented practice is driven by her own survival of tuberculosis (TB) in 2015 and is dedicated to fighting stigma and rethinking what is considered “conventional.” She is an author of “Hold your breath”, a series of paintings that were made during her seven months of isolation in a TB hospital in Moscow. In 2016 Paulina was one of the 20 founding members of TBpeople, a global network of people affected by tuberculosis. In 2017, she initiated, curated and illustrated the project “Tuberculosis and You”, an easy-to-read guide for people experiencing tuberculosis.  She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Ricardo Arcêncio is from Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. He graduated from the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing in 2003. After graduation, Dr. Arcêncio completed the Masters and Doctor of Public Health Program at the University of São Paulo. During the doctoral phase, he was a trainee in the ICOHRTA AIDS/TB at Johns Hopkins University. He is a full professor at the University of São Paulo College of Nursing, working with infectious diseases and tuberculosis, specifically in operational-epidemiological studies. He is also the head of the Brazilian Tuberculosis Research Network “REDE-TB”. Dr. Arcêncio is an Adjunct Faculty Member at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Contributes to training foreign researchers: Mozambique, Nigeria, São  Tomé and Prí­ncipe, and Guinea-Bissau.

Patrick Agbassi is a seasoned global health expert with over 15 years of experience, specializing in TB research, community engagement, and other diverse health topics. He is currently a key advocate for TB-affected communities as a member of several high-profile advisory groups, including the Community Advisory Group of Unite4TB, the WHO Working Group on the Global Introduction of New TB Vaccines, the innovation constituency of Stop TB Partnership and the Global Tuberculosis Community Advisory Board (TB CAB), where he has served as Chair since July 2018. His contributions to TB research and advocacy are also reflected in his work on TB product access and protocol reviews. As the Founder and Managing Director of Enovpharm, he has been instrumental in advancing public-private partnerships to improve healthcare delivery in West Africa.

I am a TB survivor and advocate, here to share an important truth: TB is 100% curable with the right diagnosis and timely treatment. Despite being a century-old disease, there is still no effective vaccine. Imagine the peace of knowing you are protected from TB with a vaccine—less fear, less stigma, and less uncertainty about treatment outcomes. That’s why I am raising my voice for those suffering in silence. We need better diagnostics and more funding for TB vaccine research. With a vaccine, we can prevent future infections, and with accurate diagnostics, we can provide quality healthcare to those who need it most.

Researcher with experience in tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis diagnosis, surveillance, quality management, biosafety and laboratory network management

Master of Science from the University of São Paulo

PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the Federal University of SãoPaulo

MBA in Health Innovation Management from Institute Butantan

Technical Director of the Tuberculosis and Mycobacteriosis Laboratory of Institute Adolfo Lutz

Vice President and Coordinator of the Mycobacteria Area of the Brazilian Tuberculosis Research Network (REDE-TB)

Advisor Professor of the Postgraduate Program of the Coordination of Disease Control of the São Paulo State Department of Health

Coordinator of the São Paulo Network for the Rapid Molecular Tuberculosis Test

Coordinator of the São Paulo Network for Tuberculosis Infection diagnosis

Supervisor of the Network of Laboratories for Tuberculosis Diagnosis in the State of São Paulo

Scientific advisor in the area of biosafety, laboratory quality, development of diagnostic tests and laboratory layout

Prof Gavin Churchyard is physician scientist and CEO of The Aurum Institute NPC, a not for profit, proudly South African, Global Health Impact Organization. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Witwatersrand, School of Public Health, and an adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. He is the co-Chair of the National Institutes of Health Cross-Network TB vaccine Working Group. He is the principal investigator on numerous TB vaccine and preventive treatment trials. He has contributed to international guidelines for TB and HIV and has published widely in the areas of TB and HIV treatment and prevention.

Rosane Cuber Guimarães is originally from Brasília and currently lives in Rio de Janeiro. She holds a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, a master’s degree in Biochemistry from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and a doctorate in Health Surveillance from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Currently, she is a senior technologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. She has experience in the field of Public Health, with an emphasis on Public Health, mainly working on the following topics: viral vaccine development, yellow fever vaccine, plant-based platforms, regulation, quality management systems, biosimilars, and biosafety. She is the deputy director of Quality of Bio-Manguinhos and took part in the actions against the pandemic. In this context, she implemented and managed the Testing Support Units for COVID-19 and was also responsible for coordinating the transfer process of AstraZeneca’s analytical methodology to carry out the Quality Control of the Oxford vaccine produced at the Institute. She is a professor in the Professional Master’s Program in Immunological Technology – Bio-Manguinhos / Fiocruz and an associate member of the Brazilian Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Biological Products Committee of the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia, and the Quality and Regulation Advisory Council of the International PDA.

Jackie is 32 years old. She was born in San Diego, California and grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. In 2019, she got diagnosed with drug-susceptible, active pulmonary TB and underwent RIPE treatment for 10 months. As an active member of Somos TB and We Are TB, two TB advocacy and support groups, she has been participating in weekly support meetings which focus primarily on providing a safe space for TB-affected people and she has engaged in advocacy efforts mainly by sharing her story and helping educate US lawmakers, healthcare professionals, and different communities around the globe.

Dr. Darrah joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Vaccine Research Center (VRC) in 2002 as a post-doctoral fellow in the Cellular Immunology Section under Dr. Robert Seder and began studying the cellular mechanisms by which vaccines mediate protection. She transitioned to a Staff Scientist in 2009 and became Head of the VRC’s Tuberculosis (TB) Unit in 2016. Her team’s work focuses on how vaccine route and dose influence lung-resident immunity and protection against TB, and on defining correlates of protection to facilitate translation of novel TB vaccines from pre-clinical animal models into humans.

Eder Gatti Fernandes graduated in Medicine from the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul. He attended the Medical Residency in Infectious Diseases at the Emílio Ribas Institute of Infectious Diseases, São Paulo. He did the Training in Field Epidemiology by the Training Program in Epidemiology Applied to the Services of the Unified Health System of the State of São Paulo – EPISUS-SP. He holds a Master’s degree in Collective Health from the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Santa Casa de São Paulo and a PhD in Collective Health from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo/FMUSP. He is a doctor at the Emílio Ribas Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Surveillance Center and is currently Director of the National Immunization Program (DPNI) of the Ministry of Health.

Dr Birgitte Giersing is a team lead in the Product and Delivery Research Unit, in the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals (IVB) department, WHO. She leads IVB’s work on new TB vaccines, and the TB Vaccine Accelerator secretariat within the Science Division. As the secretariat for IVB’s Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC), her role includes establishing new tools and mechanisms to identify vaccine R&D priorities, and to effectively partner with country, regional and global immunization stakeholders to accelerate regulatory approval and uptake in low- and middle-income countries. Birgitte has been at WHO for almost 10 years, and previously held vaccine product development roles in industry and the non-profit sector.

Rupali J. Limaye, PhD, MPH, MA, is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in the Departments of International Health, Epidemiology, and Health, Behavior and Society. She also serves as the Associate Chair for Research for the Department of International Health. An expert in vaccine behavior and decision-making, including vaccine hesitancy and acceptance, she leads several grants focused on vaccine acceptance, communication, and education. In her 20 years of working in global health, she has worked in more than 30 countries from both research and implementation perspectives, on topics including immunization, family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and alcohol, and teaches classes on global disease program and policies, misinformation, health behavior change, and persuasive communication.

Shelly Malhotra leads the effort to ensure future access to IAVI’s innovations and crafts external engagement and resource mobilization strategies to support IAVI’s core mission. She drives external affairs for fundraising, advocacy and policy, and stakeholder engagement and is the architect of IAVI’s efforts to ensure the affordability, availability, acceptability, and broad adoption of vaccine and therapeutic candidates. Malhotra has worked in global health for two decades, with a focus on harnessing public-private partnerships to support access to innovations for the past 18 years. Previously, as the director of market access at TB Alliance, she oversaw launch planning and introduction for an innovative product development partnership for pediatric and adult TB regimens, including overseeing technical partnerships spanning 20+ high-burden countries to support introduction. Prior to her work with TB Alliance, Malhotra lived and worked in Cambodia, Thailand, and throughout the Asia Pacific region, where she led a range of global health, research, and capacity-strengthening initiatives with organizations including Hope Worldwide, AmeriCares, and the UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery.

Biologist, with clinical research experience in Pharmaceutical Company/CRO
Leadership, coordination and oversight clinical trials in humans throughout 30 years. Country Manager Spain & Portugal, Business Development Manager and Global Clinical Research Direction as some of the roles performed
From 9 years ago, head of clinical research department at Biofabri, oversighting all vaccines clinical trials, most of them with MTBVAC, vaccine against Tuberculosis disease in endemic countries
More than 200 conferences in international scientific Forums, Congress and more than 15 Abstracts & Publications
Advisory Committee of the TBVI member. Consortium Coordinator of 2 studies funded by EDCTP

Helen McShane FRCP, PhD, FMedSci is Director, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre; Professor of Vaccinology, University of Oxford; Deputy Head, Medical Sciences Division and an Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases.

Since 2001, Helen has lead the TB vaccine research group at the University of Oxford, and has expertise in vaccine design through to phase IIb efficacy testing. She led the development of the first candidate TB vaccine to enter efficacy testing, and now works on alternate routes of delivery and the development of controlled human infection models for TB and SARS CoV2.

Dr Elisa Nemes completed her PhD in HIV-specific T-cell immunology in Italy and France. She then worked on paediatric immune responses to HIV and TB in Cameroon. Associate Professor Nemes joined the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at the University of Cape Town in 2011. She is involved in clinical trials of new tuberculosis vaccines, development of immunodiagnostics and basic immunological studies on adaptive and innate immunity to M.tb in children, adolescents and adults. Her research focuses on identifying immune correlates of protection from M.tb infection and TB disease, which can facilitate development and assessment of new vaccines.

Biomedical scientist, specialized in Clinical Pathology and Public Health. Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Brasi­lia, with postgraduate studies in Big Data Analytics and Public Health and Environmental Management. She has 10 years of experience in managing strategic surveillance supplies. Since January 2023, she has held the position of General Coordinator of Supply Management and Cold Chain at the National Immunization Program Department of the Ministry of Health.

Professor Norbert Ndjeka is the Chief Director of TB Control and Management at the National Department of Health in South Africa. Previously, he served as Director, Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, Tuberculosis and HIV. Under his leadership, there has been a decline in the number of drug-resistant TB cases in South Africa and a remarkable improvement in the proportion of patients successfully treated for drug-resistant TB.

He is a family physician specialist with an interest in TB and HIV. He holds a diploma in clinical management of HIV and a diploma in management of health institutions. He is the author of numerous articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has coordinated and drafted treatment guides and training modules for drug-resistant TB in several countries in Africa.

He is currently the chair of the African Green Light Committee (Afro-GLC), a committee that advises WHO on how to manage drug-resistant TB. He is also president of the End TB Southern African Development Community (SADC) Committee. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Cape Town in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the fight against drug-resistant TB locally and globally. He is appointed as an Honorary Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

Peter Ngo’la Owiti is the director of Wote Youth Development Projects, a youth TB/HIV survivors led advocacy organization in Makueni, Kenya. Peter has a long history of family affected by TB and is passionate about advocacy on access TB tools and human rights globally. He has a master’s degree in environmental health and currently sits on Stop TB Partnership Board representing TB affected community and locally is in the thinktank of Network of TB Champions in Kenya and also board member of TB Proof of South Africa. He serves in many capacities including Gavi Civil Societies Steering committee, Welcome Community of practice, Community Advisory Panel of The Medicines Patent Pool Access to Covid Tools Accelerator (ACT-A). Interim Medical Countermeasures (i-MCM). He is a core group member and treasurer of TB Proof, an occupational health care workers organization that fights TB stigma. Peter is currently pursuing doctorate program in public health.

Shaun is a communications and advocacy specialist at IAVI. Shaun co-leads the TB Vaccine Advocacy Roadmap (TB Vax ARM) coalition and its related global advocacy initiatives, with a focus on evidence-based advocacy and policy interventions for TB vaccine development and implementation. They are also a founding co-chair of IAVI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Shaun holds a BA in biological sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in global health research from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. They are currently a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit, researching the resource mobilization and access landscape for vaccine development against NTDs.

Alex Schmidt serves as Head of Vaccine Development at the Gates Medical Research Institute. He joined Gates MRI in 2018, after 7 years with GSK Vaccines, where he led clinical vaccine development programs for dengue, RSV, and influenza virus vaccines. Prior to joining industry, he spent ten years in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, U.S. National Institutes of Health, and five years in academic medicine in Berlin, Germany. He started his research career in lab-based research on host-pathogen interactions for negative strand RNA viruses, and then focused on preclinical, translational, and clinical vaccine development. At the Gates Medical Research Institute, Alex leads vaccine development efforts for tuberculosis, malaria, and diarrheal diseases, and probiotics interventions.

Dr Scriba is Deputy Director, Immunology and directs the Immunology Laboratory of the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI), a research center at the University of Cape Town dedicated to clinical TB vaccine development. SATVI has completed more than 30 phase 1/2/2b clinical trials of novel TB vaccines. Dr Scriba’s research focuses on characterization of vaccine-induced immune responses, identification and validation of human TB biomarkers, immune correlates of risk of TB, and of protection against of TB.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan is a pediatrician from India and a globally recognized researcher on tuberculosis and HIV. She is currently the Chairperson of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation and Principal Adviser at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme in India. She has previously served as the WHO’s inaugural Chief Scientist and, before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes. She played a key role during the pandemic in coordinating scientific efforts at the WHO, as well as in setting up Covax, with a focus on equitable vaccine distribution to LMICs. She also served as the Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research from 2015 to 2017, where she focused on bringing science and evidence into health policy-making, building research capacity in Indian medical schools, and forging south-south partnerships in health sciences. From 2009 to 2011, she also served as Coordinator of the UNICEF/ UNDP/ World Bank/ WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, Geneva.

Lawyer by formation, holds a Masters Degree in International Relations and DSc. (PhD) in Health Policies by the Medical School of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Pioneered community engagement (CE) in TB in 2002 in Brazil and internationally. Has served as a member or delegate to several institutions, commissions and committees including the Stop TB, the Global Fund and the WHO Civil Society Task Force. Established and coordinates several community advisory boards (CAB) in Brazil and abroad and is currently an emeritus Global TB CAB member.

Dr. Marta Tufet Bayona is the Head of Policy at Gavi, where she leads the Vaccine Investment Strategy and the development of an evidence-based policy framework to guide scope, allocation and programming of Gavi funding. Before joining Gavi she was the Executive Director of the UK Collaborative on Development Research, ensuring strategic coherence across three UK government departments (FCDO, BEIS, DHSC) and research funders of international development (Wellcome, UKRI). She has also led development and implementation of large global health research funding programmes and partnerships whilst working at a range of funders including the Wellcome Trust; The Department of Health and Social Care, UK government; the African Academy of Sciences and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Frank Verreck earned his PhD in immunology from Leiden University and started working on tuberculosis and macrophage polarisation in the lab of Tom Ottenhoff at the Leiden UMC. For 20 years now, he is heading the TB Research & Immunology section of the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands. He has been involved in vaccine research in EC-funded framework programmes under TBVI governance and in collaborations with former Aeras Foundation. He is member of the NHP research community of the Gates’ CTVD. His team focuses on translational modelling of TB in NHP towards defining improved vaccination strategies and investigating fundamental aspects of protective immunity.

Elly works at the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), using over 15 years of experience in several aspects of vaccine research, to move the development of safe, effective and affordable TB vaccines forward. She earned her Ph.D. in immunology at Leiden University Medical Centre. In 2013 she joined Intravacc, a Dutch organization developing vaccines from discovery to phaseI/II clinical trials, where she worked as head of the department Clinical Development, Program Manager of Innovation, Program Manager of Bacterial Vaccines as well as Vice President R&D. In 2022 she shifted focus to global health by continuing her work on vaccine development both at TBVI and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD).

Dr. Gerald Voss is the acting Director of R&D Programs at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Gerald previously served as the Interim Director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise and the Scientific Director of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI). In the past, he was with GSK vaccines, overseeing the R&D portfolio for Diseases of the Developing World.