Potential Risks and Benefits of Gain-of-Function

Research: Second Symposium

HARVEY V. FINEBERG (Chair), President, Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation, San Francisco, California
RONALD M. ATLAS, Professor, University of Louisville, Kentucky
RUTH L. BERKELMAN, Rollins Professor and Director, Center for Public
Health Preparedness and Research, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
BARRY R. BLOOM, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and
Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Professor of Public Health, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
DONALD S. BURKE, Dean, Graduate School of Public Health and Director,
Center for Vaccine Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PHILIP DORMITZER, Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer: Viral
Vaccines, Pfizer Vaccine Research and Development, Pearl River, New York
BARUCH FISCHHOFF, Howard Heinz University Professor, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
CHARLES N. HAAS, Betz Professor or Environmental Engineering, Drexel
University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
MICHELLE M. MELLO, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, and Professor
of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine,
Stanford, California
SIR JOHN SKEHEL, Emeritus Research Fellow, Mill Hill Laboratory Francis
Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom

Harvey V. Fineberg (NAM), M.D., Ph.D., is the President of the Gordon

and Betty Moore Foundation and served two consecutive terms as President
of the Institute of Medicine (2002-2014). He served as Provost of Harvard
University from 1997 to 2001, following thirteen years as Dean of the
Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career
to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. His past research
has focused on the process of policy development and implementation,
assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines, and
dissemination of medical innovations. Dr. Fineberg helped found and served
as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and has been a
consultant to the World Health Organization. At the National Academy of
Medicine, he chaired and served on a number of panels dealing with health
policy issues, ranging from AIDS to new medical technology. He also served
as a member of the Public Health Council of Massachusetts (1976-1979), as
chairman of the Health Care Technology Study Section of the National Center
for Health Services Research (1982-1985), and as president of the
Association of Schools of Public Health (1995-1996). Dr. Fineberg is co-author
of the books Clinical Decision Analysis, Innovators in Physician Education,
and The Epidemic that Never Was, an analysis of the controversial federal
immunization program against swine flu in 1976. He has co-edited several
books on such diverse topics as AIDS prevention, vaccine safety, and
understanding risk in society. He has also authored numerous articles
published in professional journals. Dr. Fineberg is the recipient of several
honorary degrees and the Stephen Smith Medal for Distinguished
Contributions in Public Health from the New York Academy of Medicine. He
earned his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
Ronald M. Atlas, Ph.D., is Professor of Biology and Public Health at the
University of Louisville. After receiving his master's and PhD degrees from
Rutgers University, he became a postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory where he worked on Mars life detection. He is chair of NASA's
Planetary Protection Subcommittee, co-chair of the American Society for
Microbiology (ASM) Task Force on Biodefense, and a member of the FBI
Scientific Working Group on Microbial Genetics and Forensics. He also served
as president of ASM and was a member of the NIH Recombinant Advisory
Committee. His research has included development of detection methods for
pathogens in the environment. Dr. Atlas is author of nearly 300 manuscripts
and 20 books, and regularly advises the U.S. government on policy issues
related to the deterrence of bioterrorism.
Ruth Berkelman (NAM), M.D, is the Rollins Chair and Director of the
Center for Public Health Preparedness and Research at the Rollins School of
Public Health at Emory University. Dr. Berkelman is a globally recognized
expert in public health, infectious diseases, and disease surveillance. After
graduation from Harvard Medical School in 1977, she completed a pediatric
residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and internal medicine residency

at Emory University. She began her public health career as an Epidemic

Intelligence Service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Following 20 years at the CDC where she served in various positions,
including Deputy Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, she
retired from the US Public Health Service as an Assistant Surgeon General in
2000. In 2001, she came full-time to the Rollins School of Public Health and
has worked on issues of preparedness, biodefense and biodefense policy, as
well as zoonotic disease research. She holds joint appointments in the
Department of Medicine and the Hubert Department of Global Health.
Elected to the National Academy of Medicine, she also serveds on the
National Research Council's Board on Life Sciences and serves as Chair of the
Public and Scientific Affairs Board of the American Society of Microbiology, as
a trustee at Princeton University. She was recently appointed to the National
Biodefense Science Board.
Barry R. Bloom (NAS, NAM), Ph.D., is Distinguished University Service
Professor and Joan and Jack Jacobson Professor of Public Health in the
Harvard School of Public Health. His research interests include immunology,
specifically, cell-mediated immunity, vaccine development, resistance to
infectious diseases, and pathogenesis of infectious diseases and
international health, specifically, tropical medicine (leprosy, tuberculosis,
leishmaniasis), immunological unresponsiveness and tolerance, and
international health issues and activities. Dr. Bloom continues to pursue an
active interest in bench science as the principal investigator of a laboratory
researching the immune response to tuberculosis, a disease that claims more
than two million lives each year. He has been extensively involved with the
World Health Organization (WHO) for more than 40 years. He is currently
Chair of the Technical and Research Advisory Committee to the Global
Programme on Malaria at WHO and has been a member of the WHO Advisory
Committee on Health Research and chaired the WHO Committees on Leprosy
Research and Tuberculosis Research, and the Scientific and Technical
Advisory Committee of the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for
Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Dr. Bloom serves on the editorial
board of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Dr. Bloom currently
serves on the Ellison Medical Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the
Wellcome Trust Pathogens, Immunology and Population Health Strategy
Committee. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Earth Institute at
Columbia University and the Advisory Council of the Paul G. Rogers Society
for Global Health Research. He is a member of both the National Academy of
Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
Donald S. Burke (NAM), M.D., is the Dean of the Graduate School of
Public Health, Director of the Center for Vaccine Research and Associate Vice
Chancellor for Global Health at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the
first occupant of the UPMC-Jonas Salk Chair in Global Health and a
Distinguished University Professor of Health Science and Policy. He was an

intern and resident in medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General

Hospitals and trained as a research fellow in infectious diseases at the Walter
Reed Army Medical Center. Dr. Burke has expertise in the prevention and
control of infectious diseases of global concern, including HIV/AIDS,
influenza, dengue, and emerging infectious diseases. He is a National
Academy of Medicine member and has served on previous NRC and NAM
committees including the Committee on the Special Immunizations Program
for Laboratory Personnel Engaged in Research on Countermeasures for
Select Agents and the Committee on Assessment of Future Scientific Needs
for Live Variola Virus. Dr. Burke received his B.A. from Western Reserve
University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Philip Dormitzer, M.D., Ph.D. is Head of US Research, Global Head of
Virology, and Vice President at Novartis Vaccines in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He is a practicing physician, who is board certified in Internal
Medicine. After studying anthropology at Harvard College and carrying out a
field study of the Efe Pygmies in the Ituri Forest of Zaire, he completed his
M.D. and Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Dormitzer
completed house-staff training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General
Hospital and a fellowship in the Harvard Combined Infectious Diseases
Training Program. He conducted his fellowship research in the Laboratory of
Molecular Medicine, led by Dr. Stephen Harrison. As an Assistant Professor of
Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Dormitzer led a structural virology
laboratory. The Dormitzer group and its collaborators determined the
structures of the rotavirus neutralization antigens by NMR spectroscopy, Xray crystallography, and near atomic resolution electron cryomicroscopy. At
Novartis, as Senior Project Leader for Viral Vaccine Research, he led global
vaccine research projects. In 2009, these projects included the research
component of the Novartis response to the H1N1v influenza pandemic,
supporting the development and licensure of three pandemic influenza
vaccines in the most rapid vaccine response in history. As Head of the Viral
Advanced Programs Global Team, he coordinated scientific and industrial
functions to advance novel viral vaccine projects toward licensure, with a
primary focus on an engineered RSV F subunit vaccine candidate, intended
for maternal immunization. As Head of US Vaccines Research, he now leads
approximately 70 scientists based at the Novartis Vaccines Cambridge
Research Center in their mission to discover new vaccines, support vaccine
development, and sustain licensed vaccines. The teams technology
platforms include structurally engineered antigens, adjuvants that target tolllike receptors, and self-replicating messenger RNA vaccines. In a BARDAfunded collaboration with the J. Craig Venter Institute and Synthetic
Genomics Vaccines, Inc., the team developed a process to synthesize
influenza vaccine seed viruses and deployed the technology in response to
the H7N9 influenza outbreak in China.

Baruch Fischhoff (NAM), Ph.D., is the Howard Heinz University Professor

in the departments of Social and Decision Sciences and of Engineering and
Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, where he heads the Decision
Sciences major. A graduate of the Detroit Public Schools, be holds a B.S. in
mathematics and psychology from Wayne State University and an M.A. and
Ph.D. in psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a
member of the National Academy of Medicine and is past President of the
Society for Judgement and Decision Making and of the Society for Risk
Analysis, and recipient of its Distinguished Achievement Award. He was
founding chair of the Food and Drug Administration Risk Communication
Advisory Committee and recently chaired the National Research Council
Committee on Behavioral and Social Science Research to Improve
Intelligence Analysis for National Security and currently co-chairs the
National Research Council Committee on Future Research Goals and
Directions for Foundational Science in Cybersecurity and the National
Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium on The Science of Science
Communication. He is a former member of the Eugene, Oregon Commission
on the Rights of Women, Department of Homeland Securitys Science and
Technology Advisory Committee, the World Federation of Scientists
Permanent Monitoring Panel on Terrorism, and the Environmental Protection
Agency Science Advisory Board, where he chaired the Homeland Security
Advisory Committee. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological
Association, the Association for Psychological Science (previously the
American Psychological Association), the Society of Experimental
Psychologists, and the Society for Risk Analysis. He has co-authored or
edited 11 books: Acceptable Risk (1981); A Two-State Solution in the Middle
East: Prospects and Possibilities (1993); Elicitation of Preferences (2000);
Risk Communication: A Mental Models Approach (2002); Intelligence
Analysis: Behavioral and Social Science Foundations (2011); Risk: A Very
Short Introduction (2011); Communicating Risks and Benefits: An EvidenceBased Guide (2011); Judgment and Decision Making (2011); Risk Analysis
and Human Behavior (2011); The Science of Science Communication (2013);
and Counting Civilian Casualties (2013).
Charles N. Haas, Ph.D. is the L. D. Betz Chair Professor of Environmental
Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and
Environmental Engineering at Drexel University. His broad research interests
include drinking water treatment, bioterrorism and risk assessment. Specific
research activities include assessment of risks from exposures to deliberately
released agents; engineering analysis and optimization of chemical
decontamination schemes; microbiological risks associated with pathogens
in drinking water, biosolids, and foods; novel kinetic models for disinfection
processes and process control; and use of computational fluid dynamics for
process modeling. Dr. Haas is co-director of the Center for Advancing
Microbial Risk Assessment that is jointly funded by the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He

received his M.S. from the Illinois Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in
environmental engineering from the University of Illinois. He is currently a
member of the National Research Councils Water Science and Technology
Board.
Michelle M. Mello (NAM), Ph.D, JD, is a Professor at the Stanford Law
School and holds a joint appointment at the Stanford University School of
Medicine in the Department of Health Research and Policy. She is an
empirical health law scholar whose research is focused on understanding the
effects of law and regulation on health care delivery and population health
outcomes. Her investigations into the dynamics of medical malpractice
litigation, the effects of medical liability reforms, the ability of hospitals to
shift costs of medical errors to others, and allocating responsibility for
medical errors between hospital systems and individual physicians have had
particular impact. Prior to joining Stanford in 2014, she was a Professor at the
Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Schools Program in Law
and Public Health, as well as a Lab Fellow at Harvards Edmond J. Safra
Center for Ethics. Mello was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in
2013. Her work has also garnered the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award
from AcademyHealth, the leading professional organization for health
services and health policy research in the United States; a Greenwall Faculty
Scholars Award in Bioethics; and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Investigator Award in Health Policy Research.

Sir John Skehel (NAS), Ph.D., is a graduate of the University College of

Wales, Aberystwyth (1962) and gained his PhD from the University of
Manchester (1966). He did research at the University of Aberdeen (19651968) and was a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellow at Duke University
and at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research
(NIMR) Mill Hill (1968-1971). He was MRC staff scientist at NIMR from 1971 to
2006, Director of the WHO World Influenza Centre from 1975 to 1993, Head
of Infections and Immunity from 1985 to 2006 and Director of the NIMR from
1987 to 2006. He is a visiting scientist in the Division of Virology at NIMR. His
research is on the influenza virus haemagglutinin and neuraminidase
membrane glycoproteins and the mechanisms of their receptor binding,
membrane fusion and enzymic activities. He is a member of the Council of
Aberystwyth University and a Trustee of the Animal Health Trust. He was
elected Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 1983,
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984, Member of the Academia Europaea in
1992 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 (Vice-president
2001-2006). He was knighted in 1996. He was Honorary Professor of Virology

at Glasgow University, Liverpool John Moores University and University

College London and was awarded an honorary DSc from The Council for
National Academic Awards in 1990, University College London in 2004,
Liverpool John Moores University in 2007 and University of Padua (medicine
and surgery) 2010. He is Fellow of the University of Wales, and Honorary
Member of the Society for General Microbiology.