GOVERNANCE
Organisational structure
The CAPTIVATE organisational structure comprises three distinct consortium bodies:
Strategic body: Steering Committee
Members: Irina Meln (EVI), Youlia Serikova (UQTM), Agnieszka Gromadka (NOI), Clemens Kocken (BPRC), Meta Roestenberg (LUMC), Sander Wuyts (IMW), Hedda Wardemann (DKFZ), Jake Baum (UNSW).
​
Implementation bodies:
Coordinator and Project Management Team Members: Irina Meln (EVI), Adriana Vives (EVI), Irene Nkumama (EVI).
​
Work Package Leaders: Erica Pasini (BPRC), Pieter Meysman (IMW), Youlia Serikova (UQTM), Meta Roestenberg (LUMC), Adriana Vives (EVI).
​
Advisory bodies: Independent Scientific and Ethics Advisory Committee (SEAC)
Members: ​
Dr. Rieke van der Graaf is Head and Associate Professor of Bioethics at the University Medical Center Utrecht, Julius Center, Dpt of Bioethics and Health Humanities, Netherlands. She is also Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Bioethics in Utrecht. Her research interests are global justice in international research, the integration of care and research, fair subject selection and the ethics of innovative research designs. Dr. Rieke van der Graaf is part of the Health Council of the Netherlands (Committee on Vaccinations), and she is a member of the DSMB of NIH/NIAID. Between November 2019 and January 2021, she worked as reviewer of the Ethical Guidelines for HIV Prevention Research at UNAIDS/WHO.
Prof. Dr. Steve Pascolo, trained as an immunologist at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France), Steve Pascolo used mouse models to test and develop mRNA-based vaccines (direct injection of mRNA) during his post-doc in Tuebingen, Germany from 1998 till 2000. In 2000, he co-founded CureVac with Dr. Hoerr and Dr. von der Mulbe. Steve Pascolo was Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of the company from 2000 till 2006, developing the technology, implementing the worldwide first pharmaceutical (GMP) production of synthetic mRNA and starting in 2003 the worldwide first clinical studies where humans (including himself) got injections of in vitro transcribed mRNA. In 2006, he joined the oncology department of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland and continued the development of immunotherapies based on RNA. In 2008, he founded Miescher Pharma to support this work. In 2013, he joined the dermatology department of the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. In 2017, Steve Pascolo implemented in the University of Zurich an academic mRNA platform https://www.cancer.uzh.ch/en/Research/mRNA-Platform.html. In collaboration with several research and clinical departments in Zurich he optimizes, tests and implements mRNA based vaccines and therapies.
Dr Paul G. Thomas is a Member of the Department of Host-Microbe Interactions at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. His work focuses on understanding the principles of T-cell receptor recognition and specificity during development, infections, and tumors. Dr. Thomas obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology and Philosophy at Wake Forest University. His doctoral training at Harvard University focused on the innate immune response to Schistosoma-associated carbohydrates and their role in promoting Th2 responses. After graduate school, he relocated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Peter Doherty on T-cell responses in the influenza model. In 2009 he started his independent lab, from which he has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers on TCR biology, immunological mechanisms of disease severity in human viral infections, and cellular immunology.
Prof. Hviid is a Professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen. He has conducted research on the immunology and pathogenesis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria since the late 1980s. Prof. Hviid’s research is mostly based on field studies in Africa – mainly in Sudan and Ghana. In 1991, he co-founded the Centre for Medical Parasitology (CMP) in Copenhagen, which has grown since to becoming a leading hub of European malaria research. For more than 20 years, his research has been focused mainly on the role of clonally variant parasite antigens, in particular PfEMPl, in malaria pathogenesis and as targets of naturally acquired protective immunity to the disease. Research capacity building and collaboration with colleagues in Africa has been an integral part of his research activities throughout. Prof. Hviid is an international faculty member at the West-African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), University of Ghana. His laboratory participates in the Legacy project of the Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS). Prof. Hviid is Fellow of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (FASTMH, Class of 2013) and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (Class of 2019).
Dr Carlota Dobaño is the head of the Malaria Immunology Group and coordinates large multicenter studies on naturally acquired and experimentally immunity to malaria. She is also faculty on MSc Global Health, Vaccinology Module. In 1992 she graduated in Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the Universitat de Barcelona. In 1994 she completed an MSc in Applied Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, developing her thesis project at Anthony Holder’s lab in the Departament of Parasitology, NIMR, MRC, London. In 1999 she obtained her PhD degree at the laboratory of Jana McBride (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) in the study of immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum, with research work conducted at the Malaria Project and Wellcome Trust Centre, Blantyre, Malawi, in collaboration with Malcolm Molyneux and Terrie Taylor. During 1999-2002 she was a postdoctoral fellow working on malaria vaccine development at the laboratory of Denise Doolan, Malaria Program, Naval Medical Research Center, USA, directed by Stephen Hoffman. In 2003 she joined ISGlobal and the Manhiça Health Research Centre, Mozambique.
Dr Lindsey Wu is a Technical Officer in the WHO Global Malaria Programme. Her work focuses on R&D guidance for malaria vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, and she was a focal point for the recent WHO recommendation of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine. Prior to WHO, she was a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she is currently an Honorary Assistant Professor. At LSHTM, her research involved clinical trials and field studies on malaria interventions and the development of immunological assays for serological surveillance of infectious diseases. She has a PhD in Malaria Epidemiology from LSHTM and has also held research posts at the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College and the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford.