Dr. Dong Yu currently is Senior Vice President of Research at Dynavax Technologies. Prior to joining Dynavax, Dr. Yu was the Head of Preclinical R&D US at GSK Vaccines. He received the PhD from University of Connecticut Health Center. He was a faculty member at Washington University in Saint Louis and the Head of Microbial Molecular Biology at Novartis Vaccines prior to joining GSK Vaccines in 2015. Dr. Yu authored over 40 publications in various journals and books. His publications reflect his research interests in virology, infectious diseases, and vaccines.

Dr. Benjamin Petsch, Senior Director Prophylactic Vaccine Research at CureVac AG, Benjamin Petsch joined CureVac in 2010 as a scientist in the vaccines department developing mRNA based vaccines against infectious diseases and is heading the department since 2013. He received his university degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and performed his doctoral thesis at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Tübingen, where he continued as a postdoc and research group leader working on mRNA vaccination against Influenza and on intervention of Influenza replication using small molecules. Dr. Petsch has a 10+ years scientific experience on mRNA based prophylactic vaccines.

Foreword - RNA technology overview

Conventional mRNA-based technology & mode of action

Benjamin Petsch (benjamin.[...]) (CureVac) - confirmed

Self-amplifying RNA-based technology & mode of action

Jeffrey Ulmer (jeffrey.b.[...])/Dong Yu (dong.x.[...]) (GSK) - confirmed

Delivery and formulation technologies

Yizhou Dong [...] (Ohio State) - confirmed

Drew Weissman [...] (U Penn) - confirmed

RNA for other indications (immunotherapies/oncology, molecular therapies - a potential topic)

Tim Wagenaar (Timothy.[...]) (Sanofi) - tentatively confirmed, likely working with Biotech; Backup - Katalin Karikó (BioNTech)

Production and capabilities

Heinrich Haas (Heinrich.[...]) (Biontech) - waiting for response; Backup - Juan Andres (Moderna)

Clinical development

Tal Zaks (Tal.[...]) (Moderna) - tentatively confirmed; Backup - Anna Collén (AstraZeneca)

Other considerations (e.g., safety, regulatory issues, challenges)

Mark Tracy ([...]) (Tracy Bioconsulting) - waiting for response