LinKinVax Introduces its Scientific Advisory Board with the Appointment of Three Leading Experts in Immunology and Epidemiology

• Prof. Anna Giuliano, Moffit Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, USA
• Prof. Sharon Lewin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia
• Prof. Giuseppe Pantaleo, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LinKinVax, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announces the creation of its Scientific Advisory Board with the appointment of three experts in immunology and epidemiology.

“We are delighted to welcome Prof. Anna Giuliano, Prof. Sharon Lewin and Prof. Giuseppe Pantaleo to our Scientific Advisory Board. The world-class expertise of these scientists in infectious diseases, immune diseases and cancer will be crucial to LinKinVax, which is developing a DC-targeting vaccine platform for these diseases. I look forward to working with each one of them as we continue to advance LinKinVax's mission to develop effective, safe, and accessible vaccines for the highest number of patients,” declares Prof. Yves Levy, Co-Founder and Chief Medical & Scientific Officer of LinKinVax, Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board.

Anna R. Giuliano, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology, is the founding director of the Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer (CIIRC) at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida. Early in her career, she worked on the links between human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and cervical cancer in women, before moving on to other HPV-related male and female cancers. Prof. Giuliano, currently leads a CIIRC research team at the Moffitt Cancer Center to accelerate the development and use of vaccines and compounds to prevent and treat cancer.

Sharon Lewin, FRACP, PhD, Prof. of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, is the Director of The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia. Her work focuses on basic and translational research to develop a cure for HIV and to understand the interaction between the virus and hepatitis B. She pioneered new ways to quantify small amounts of virus that persist on treatment and novel strategies to eliminate latent virus. She is President of the International AIDS Society, which has over 17,000 members and President of the Scientific Advisory Board to the main funding agency for infectious disease research in France, ANRS-MIE. In 2022, she was awarded the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) Outstanding Female Researcher Medal.

Giuseppe Pantaleo, M.D., Prof. of Medicine, is Head of the Immunology and Allergy Division and Head of the Laboratory at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland. He has made major contributions to the understanding of the immunopathogenesis of HIV infection, COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, as well as in basic immunology. He has also played a major role in the development of HIV vaccines and HIV and COVID-19 treatments based on neutralising antibodies. Prof. Pantaleo received several international awards and coordinated several European consortia, and he is a member of the HIV Vaccine Trial Network (HVTN). Prof. Pantaleo is an Executive Director of the Swiss Vaccine Research Institute (SVRI), which has been working with the Vaccine Research Institute (VRI) for many years to coordinate clinical trials on HIV vaccines. He is a co-investigator of the ANRS VRI06 Phase I clinical trial of an HIV vaccine candidate, the clinical development of which will be managed by LinKinVax.

“We are very pleased to have convinced these leading experts to join our scientific committee. Their skills and experience in immunology and epidemiology will help guide and optimise all aspects of our clinical development plans for our DC-targeting vaccine platform. Our platform was shown to be robust and safe, and to provide effective answers to unmet needs in infectious diseases such as SARS-Cov 2and its variants, HIV, and cancer treatments." said André-Jacques Auberton Hervé, Co-Founder and CEO of LinKinVax.

About LinKinVax technology
LinKinVax’s vaccine platform is built around a humanized monoclonal antibody, which is fused with regions of pathogens of interest, targeting the CD40 molecule expressed by dendritic cells, DC, which play a key role in stimulating the immune system. The results obtained demonstrate the benefits of this strategy owing to the small quantity of antigens required to activate the immune system, with or without an adjuvant, and its ability to trigger a lasting cellular and humoral and immune response. The platform also benefits from the experience and safety profile of the protein-based vaccines that have been widely used for over 30 years now. Four products are in or about to enter clinical trials: a prophylactic vaccine for HIV, currently in phase I/IIa led by VRI/Inserm/ANRS-EID), multivalent SARS-CoV-2 vaccine covering variants of interest, a pansarbcoronavirus covering 38 members of the sarbcoronavirus family in addition to SARS-CoV-2 and a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus-related cancers treatments.

About LinKinVax
LinKinVax was founded in 2020 and is led by two internationally renowned personalities in the worlds of medicine, industry and business, namely André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Honorary Chairman and founder of SOITEC, and Prof. Yves Levy, MD, PhD, immunologist, and Director of the Vaccine Research Institute (VRI/INSERM/UPEC). LinKinVax is developing an innovative protein-based vaccine platform that can accelerate availability of vaccines by leveraging the research conducted at the Vaccine Research Institute (VRI). This DC Targeting-based protein vaccine platform can adapt to changes and mutations in the target pathogens.

For further information, please visit www.linkinvax.com