Dr. Jim Kublin is currently Executive Director of the COVID-19 Prevention Network and HIV Vaccine Trials Network based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  He is also the Medical Director of the Seattle Malaria Clinical Trials Center, a translational research center established by Fred Hutch and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute to test experimental malaria vaccines and drugs in human clinical trials. Jim is also a Clinical Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington and runs a lab focused on the impact of the microbiome on vaccine responses.  Jim has conducted extensive research on HIV, TB and malaria in South America, SE Asia, and Africa, including clinical trials of novel therapies and vaccines. The Gates Foundation awarded Jim a Grand Challenges Exploration award to apply high-throughput system analyses to malaria vaccine development. Before moving to Seattle, Jim was Director, HIV Vaccines – Infectious Diseases, for Merck & Co., Inc where he played a key role in the development and implementation of HIV vaccine studies, overseeing the coordination of clinical assays, site identification and development, government and ethical approvals and providing guidance on vaccine policy issues. Jim completed his B.S. and M.D. at Georgetown University and received his M.P.H. and completed a residency in Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Jim continued work in vaccine development and molecular epidemiology while attending the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine for his fellowship in Vaccinology at the Center for Vaccine Development.