Science Advisory Board

• Jonathan Smith, Ph.D
  
  Jonathan Smith is one of our founding scientists and is the Chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. Read Dr. Smith's full bio.
• Charles Rice, Ph.D.
  
  Dr. Charles Rice is a Maurice R. and Corinne P. Greenberg Professor at Rockefeller University, where he serves as the Head of the Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease and as the Scientific and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Hepatitis C. A preeminent expert in the field of animal RNA virus replication and pathogenesis, Dr. Rice has made important contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms regulating RNA virus replication and transcription, building on alphavirus models. He has also worked on flaviviruses such as the yellow fever and hepatitis C viruses, and successfully made the first functional cDNA clone of the latter. Dr. Rice recently accepted a position at Rockefeller University to direct a new clinical and basic science research center being established to concentrate on hepatitis C. Dr. Rice earned his undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of California, Davis and later completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry and postdoctoral work at Cal Tech. He is now a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005).
• Marc Collett, Ph.D.
  
  Dr. Collett is currently Vice President of Research at Acambis Inc., a developer of vaccines, President and Founder of ViroDefense Inc, a private antiviral research, development and consulting firm, and Adjunct Professor in the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, Institute of Human Virology. Previously, he was a co-founder of ViroPharma Incorporated, a publicly traded antiviral pharmaceutical company, and served as its Vice President of Discovery Research from 1994 to 2004. Prior to ViroPharma, Dr. Collett served in various Research Director positions at PathoGenesis Corporation, MedImmune, Inc. and Molecular Genetics, Inc. Dr. Collett has also served on the faculty of the Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School and the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Collett received his BS and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan and conducted postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado.
• Myron M. Levine, M.D., D.T.P.H.
  
  Dr. Myron M. Levine is Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. During his 28 years at the University, he has fostered the discipline of vaccinology including: basic research on the pathogenesis of bacterial enteric infections and on the construction of vaccine candidates, clinical research to assess the safety and immunogenicity of candidate vaccines in adult and pediatric populations and epidemiological field research. He has also served the University of Maryland in many other capacities including Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine since 1985. His scientific credits encompass manuscripts, books, national and international committees/collaborations and numerous awards including a Life Science Achievement Award by the University of Maryland and the Gold Medal Award of the Albert B. Sabin Foundation. Dr. Levine received his M.D. from the Medical College of Virginia and completed a pediatric residency and pediatric infectious disease fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1974, he received a D.T.P.H. from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
• H. Kim Lyerly, M.D.
  
  Dr. Kim Lyerly is a professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine and the Director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, which fosters an active research program in cancer immunotherapies. Dr. Lyerly's overall research approach is to identify those therapies that generate sufficient T cell responses to specific tumor-associated antigens to inhibit the progression and metastases of the targeted cancer. He currently sits on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals, including Cancer Investigation, Clinical Cancer Research, and Cancer Gene Therapy. He received his M.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
• Peter Sarnow, Ph.D.
  
  Dr. Sarnow is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine. His laboratory is studying the mechanism by which certain microRNA molecules regulate expression of cellular and viral mRNAs, particularly in diseases such as hepatitis C. Dr. Sarnow received his Ph.D. in 1982 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, working on the functions of the adenovirus tumor antigens in the laboratory of Dr. Arnold J. Levine. He subsequently completed Post-Doctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. There he studied virus-host interactions in poliovirus-infected cells. Dr. Sarnow is an editor of Virology and is on the editorial board of Genes & Development, Journal of Virology and Molecular & Cellular Biology.
• Steve Udem, M.D., Ph.D.
  
  Dr. Udem is Senior Vice President Vaccine Development and Chief Scientific Officer at IAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and is an internationally recognized virologist and vaccinologist. Previously, he was Vice President of Vaccine Discovery Research at Wyeth where he led a department of 150 researchers. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Udem held senior academic positions at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the New Jersey Medical School. He received his undergraduate degree from City College of New York and his Ph.D. and M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.