Human Vaccines Project Appoints Dr. Moncef Slaoui as New Board Member

NEW YORK, March 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Human Vaccines Project, a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on decoding the immune system to improve human health, welcomes Moncef Slaoui, PhD, to its Board of Directors.

Moncef Slaoui, PhD, has had a highly distinguished career in vaccine R&D and has led the development of numerous vaccines that are in use worldwide. In 2016, he was recognized as one of Fortune Magazine's "50 Greatest World Leaders" for his work on under-researched diseases that are common in the developing world. Dr. Slaoui is currently a partner at Medicxi, a leading European venture capital firm.  

"We are honored to have Dr. Slaoui join the Project's Board of Directors. He brings tremendous expertise in technology development and vaccine research to the table that is specifically relevant to the Project's mission," said Wayne C. Koff, PhD, president and CEO of the Human Vaccines Project. "We look forward to his guidance on this next phase of development, as the Project's clinical research advances our understanding of the immune system."

Previously, Dr. Slaoui served as chairman of Pharmaceutical R&D and the vaccines division at GSK where he spearheaded the overhaul of its pharmaceutical R&D and redesigned its discovery organization. While at GSK, Dr. Slaoui engineered a vaccine pipeline that has had immense public health impacts, including vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus, two of the leading causes of childhood death worldwide, as well as vaccines against shingles and HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Dr. Slaoui earned a PhD in molecular biology and immunology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, he completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and was a professor of Immunology at the University of Mons, Belgium. He has authored more than 100 scientific papers and presentations.

"I am pleased to be able to use my experience to assist the Project in accomplishing its goal of helping scientists better understand how the immune system fights disease," said Moncef Slaoui, PhD, partner at Medicxi. "This is the kind of impactful work that will truly benefit global health."

About the Human Vaccines Project

The Human Vaccines Project is a nonprofit public-private partnership with a mission to decode the human immune system to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major global diseases. The Project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies. Support and funders for the Project include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Michelson Medical Research Foundation, GSK, MedImmune, Illumina, Sanofi Pasteur, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, Pfizer, Moderna, Boehringer Ingelheim, Aeras, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, University of California San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, J. Craig Venter Institute and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. To learn more, visit www.humanvaccinesproject.org and follow @HumanVacProject on Twitter.

For media inquiries, contact Kierstin Coatney at [email protected] or 716-378-1602.

SOURCE Human Vaccines Project