Key Function Committee Leadership

Laboratory Sciences Committee Chair

Dr. Ahmed is a member of the National Academy of Science and a world-renowned immunologist whose work during the past decade has been highly influential in shaping our current understanding of memory T cell differentiation and anti-viral T and B cell immunity. As Director of the Emory Vaccine Center, the long-term goal of Dr. Ahmed's research is to understand the mechanisms of B and T cell immunological memory and to use this information to develop new vaccines for the prevention and treatment of disease. The Ahmed laboratory uses highly sophisticated cellular and molecular techniques to study antigen-specific immunological memory in murine, primate, and human systems. 

A major area of focus is identifying cellular molecules that regulate the generation and maintenance of CD8 and CD4 T cell and humoral immunity. One such molecule is mTOR that was recently identified as a major regulator of memory CD8 T cell differentiation. Another area of focus is to develop strategies to restore function in virus-specific T cells during a chronic viral infection such as HIV or Varicella-zoster virus (VZV). Another approach of the Ahmed laboratory is understanding humoral memory development and maintenance. Dr. Ahmed’s lab has co-developed a novel method for rapidly generating human monoclonal antibodies after vaccination. This research has shown that broadly cross-reactive antibodies that recognize multiple influenza viruses can be generated after influenza vaccination in humans. These studies give rise to the possibility that a universal influenza vaccine could be developed soon.

Email

404-727-3571

Mentoring and Career Development Committee Chair

Dr. Edwards has spent much of the last four decades conducting clinical trials in infectious diseases and vaccine research at Vanderbilt; in leading NIH-funded VTEU, CDC, and industry-funded multicenter vaccine and surveillance initiatives; in designing, conducting, and analyzing pivotal Phase I-III studies on vaccines and therapeutics; in facilitating networking with basic and clinical investigators; and in mentoring a cadre of young investigators who have gone on to be leaders in translational research.  Her extensive clinical, epidemiologic, and vaccine trial experience include studies of many important human pathogens; Haemophilus influenzae, Bordetella pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, tuberculosis, malaria, influenza, vaccinia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), rotavirus, and Human Papillomavirus (HPV).  She has provided expert consultation to the FDA, CDC, NIH and WHO through membership on pivotal advisory committees.  Her success in stimulating young people to pursue careers in infectious diseases and in training of young investigators in research is evident in that many of her trainees have received NIH K, R, and U01 series funding launching their successful academic careers, and in her three prestigious awards for mentorship; the IDSA Walter Stamm Mentorship Award, the Maureen Andrews Mentorship Award from the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Vanderbilt University Medical School Award for Excellence in Mentoring Post-doctoral Fellows and Residents in Research.   Dr. Edwards will lead the Mentoring and Career Development Committee of IDRCD LG. Combining the extensive mentorship resources at the eight academic medical centers, the infrastructure of two NIH-funded Vaccinology T32 Training Grants and other existing T and K series grants within the network, and the considerable mentorship experiences and opportunities afforded by the leaders involved in the IDCRC.

Email

615-322-8792

Performance Evaluation Committee Co-Chair

Dr. Farley leads a large infectious diseases division at Emory made up of nearly 70 faculty members with a large research portfolio. She is an international expert in clinical disease and pathogenesis of Haemophilus Influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. She serves as the academic Principal Investigator for the Georgia Emerging Infections Program (EIP), a CDC-funded surveillance network of ten national sites conducting applied epidemiologic and laboratory research focused on invasive bacterial pathogens (many vaccine preventable), influenza, foodborne diseases, and healthcare-associated infections, with a focus on antibiotic resistant infections and C. difficile. She is Past-President of the American Federation for Medical Research and a longstanding council member and Past-President of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. She has served on the Women’s Committee, the Program Planning Committee and the Public Health Committee in IDSA. She is a past member of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products and she currently serves on the Pneumococcal Vaccine Working Group for CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The collaborative EIP research program has been highly productive, providing population-based assessment of the epidemiology and risk factors for important bacterial infections, including adult and pediatric Group B streptococcal infections, pneumococcal disease and community-associated MRSA, and performing post-licensure vaccine effectiveness studies.

Email

404-727-2279

Quality Assurance and Ethics Committee Chair

Dr. Hendrix has 30 years of research experience in the pharmacology of drugs, mostly of antiretroviral drugs for HIV treatment and prevention. His research focuses on development of antiretroviral drugs to prevent HIV infection. His lab also supports numerous HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis development studies from phase I to phase III, largely as leader of the Pharmacology Core Laboratory of both the Microbicide Trial Network and HIV Prevention Trials Network.  Dr. Hendrix’ lab and clinical group have developed novel methods for quantitative assessment of drug concentration in complex biological matrices and in three-dimensional space. In addition, using data derived using these methods, models of drug absorption, distribution, and clearance were developed using pharmacometric methods. His team has also applied these methods to intensively sampled phase I studies as to supporting randomized clinical trials providing a broad context of benchtop and clinical pharmacology research for trainees.  Deeply committed to training, mentoring, and promoting inclusive and supportive research environments, Dr. Hendrix is providing a robust and broad-based research training experience with a rigorous, ethical, and individually-tailored scientific training of young pharmacologists through laboratory and clinical studies. He is the Wellcome Professor and Director, Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Director of the Drug Development Unit in the Division.

Email

410-995-9707

Performance Evaluation Committee Co-Chair

Dr. Marrazzo is a scientific leader in the fields of STI and HIV prevention, microbiology, and the microbiome of the female genital tract. Her extensive experience studying conducting translational research, evaluating the epidemiologic and clinical features of STI in national and international settings combined with my experience studying interventions to improve vaginal health support her important role in this effort. Dr. Marrazzo’s methodological expertise includes HIV/STI epidemiology, molecular microbiology and clinical trials. She has been centrally involved in numerous prospective studies of sexually transmitted infections (STI) and conducted several studies within the framework of the NIH-funded STI Clinical Trials Group (CTG), and currently chairs the Microbicide Trails Network (MTN) Biomedical Science Working Group. Since 2007, she has been the Protocol Co-Chair leading the VOICE (MTN 003) study, a large trial that studied HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) administered vaginally and orally to over 5,000 women at high risk for HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa. While at the University of Washington, she led the successful application as PI to re-establish the NIH-funded STI Cooperative Research Centers (CRC) U19, whose theme was the interaction between the human genital microbiome, local immunity, and STI susceptibility.  She currently services as Co-Director of the UAB STI CRC.

Email

205-975-5500

Training and Education Committee Chair

Dr. Ofotokun is an emerging leader in infectious diseases clinical research with an exceptional educational and career development background. He focuses on persons living with HIV, particularly affected women, developing HIV clinical and translational research programs, and on mentoring the next generation of researchers. He has led large programs in HIV clinical and translational research, HIV and STI focused women’s health research, clinical and translational research career development and research education, including co-founding the Emory osteo-immunology Clinical and Translational research group.  In addition, he is the PI of the multimillion-dollar Atlanta Women’s Interagency HIV Study. one of the largest longitudinal cohorts in the world aimed at studying age related comorbidities and other long-term impact of HIV among U.S. women.  His mentoring efforts have included leading the team (as administrative PI and Program Director) that successfully competed for the NIH Office of Research in Women’s Health-sponsored BIRCWH award (K12HD085850) aimed at building interdisciplinary research careers in women’s health at Emory. He has served as a lead mentor for over 30 trainees, most of whom have remained in academic medicine, and several of whom have received extramural funding including NIH career development awards.  In recognition of his contributions to clinical and translational research, mentoring, and research education, he has received several service awards including the 2017 Emory Infectious Diseases Division Paul Beeson’s Award.  Dr. Ofotokun has significant experience with large, multi-site clinical trials, including serving as a co-Vice Chair for an ACTG 1,800-subject clinical trial conducted at 52 sites across the country was designed with a goal of evaluating antiretroviral therapy regimens that are suitable for HIV-infected women of childbearing age. More recently, he led (as the administrative PI) a team of multi-disciplinary scientists from Emory, Virginia Common Wealth University, Richmond, VA, and Cornell University, New York, to successfully apply for the Emory Specialized Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) on Sex Differences (U54AG062334) and is also the administrative PI of the Emory Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR) R38 Program.  

Email

404-616-0659

Collaborations and Publications Committee Chair

Dr. Orenstein has an outstanding background in vaccinology and has co-edited the standard textbook in the field, Plotkin’s Vaccines, for the last five editions. Between 2012 and 2016, he served as Chairman of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee. One of the reports issued during this period dealt with strengthening global immunization including building global vaccine research and development capacity. He is the immediate past President of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), an organization dedicated to educating professional and public audiences on detection, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases. He also has significant experience in leading programs across multiple institutional platforms.  Dr. Orenstein spent 26 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) including 16 years as the Director of the United States Immunization Program. During the time he served as Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), the NIP eliminated indigenous measles and rubella, established an implementation science research group within NIP, built a comprehensive vaccine safety monitoring and evaluation system, strengthened surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases, and built a research agenda dealing with assessment of evaluating vaccine effectiveness and optimizing it as well as evaluation of various strategies to minimize the occurrence of vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2004, Dr. Orenstein joined Emory University as a Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Global Health with a focus on vaccine policy related research including implementation science, and then left Emory in 2008 to joint with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as Deputy Director for Immunization Programs with a focus on polio eradication. He returned to Emory in 2011 to serve as the Director of the Emory Vaccine Center, and Principal Investigator of a NIAID Contract, with Emory and the University of Georgia as a Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS), which is comprised of 5 programs across the US. The Emory-UGA CEIRS consists of projects to help understand influenza pathogenesis, surveillance in animal populations, immunologic response to vaccines and infection, and potential new platform technologies to develop improved vaccines.

Email

404-712-2466