Pandemic Influenza: Prospects for an H5 Vaccine

This talk will review recent studies in humans examining the immunogenicity of Avian Influenza vaccines and cover some data on influenza immunity in general.

Presenter(s)

Dr. Greenberg is currently the Senior Associate Dean for Research and Training and the Joseph D. Grant Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a part time physician at the Palo Alto VA Hospital. Dr. Greenberg has spent the past 30 years studying viruses that infect the gastrointestinal tract, lungs and liver. He is particularly interested in rotaviruses, a class of viruses that cause severe and often fatal diarrhea in children, especially in poor countries. He was an inventor of an early rotavirus vaccine and his studies have helped define the nature of rotavirus immunity and pathogenesis. Dr. Greenberg's research also focuses on hepatitis C virus and influenza and, in general, on areas related to host immunity or pathogenesis.

Dr. Greenberg received his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College and his MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed residency training in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He served as a medical officer in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nine years before joining the Stanford faculty as an Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology in 1983. Dr. Greenberg has served as Chief of the Division of Gastrointestinal Medicine, as Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the Palo Alto VA Hospital and as Acting Chair of the Department of Medicine on two occasions.

Dr. Greenberg's national and international stature has led to his election to various scholarly societies such as the ASCI, AAP and the AAAS and to his appointment to editorial positions on a number of scientific journals, including American Journal of Medicine, Virology, and The Journal of Virology. He is the president elect of the American Society of Virology. He is a frequent speaker and participant at various international workshops and symposiums on microbial pathogenesis, immunity and vaccination, and he served as the chair of the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals. Dr. Greenberg took a two-year leave of absence from Stanford (2001-2002) at which time he was the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior VP for Research at a local biotech company, Medimmune Vaccines. During that time he worked on developing a live attenuated influenza vaccine that was subsequently licensed by the FDA.