Present position ▪ Professor, Institute of Advanced Studies of the Strasbourg University (USIAS), holds the chair in Therapeutic immunology ▪ Distinguished Class Research Director Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) emeritus (since August 2018) ▪Head and coordinator of the Drug discovery Center for cancer and inflammation Medalis awarded 'Laboratory of Excellence’ (2011-2020). ▪ Future Director of the Strasbourg Institute for drug development and discovery (IMS; 2021-2028). ▪ Former Chair and Director of the CNRS Unit entitled Immunopathology and therapeutic chemistry (2001-2017); former Director of the CNRS Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC), Strasbourg, France (2016-2017) sylviane.muller@unistra.fr cell +33 640 40 87 25 Academic Background ** Doctoral degree in Molecular Biology in 1978 (Strasbourg U.) ** Thesis in Science in 1984 (Strasbourg U.) ** Post-doctoral fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg (Germany) 1979-1981 Scientific production ** co-author of 267 publications in peer-reviewed journals and 115 review articles and chapters. ** ~30 patents (most are licenced). Research value **Co-founder of two companies Neosystem (1986) and ImmuPharma (2002). Research evaluation and promotion ** Member of the editorial board of several scientific journals and of international scientific Societies. ** Expert in national and international selection boards and committees ** Member of several scientific advisory boards (incl. EUCOR, the European campus). ** Numerous lectures in Europe, US and Japan, and participation of international meetings as invited speaker. ** Co-organization of eleven international congresses in the field of autoimmunity and lupus. ** Partner of several European grants (three of which are still ongoing / 2 Interreg and COST). ** Supervised 25 PhD theses (1 currently ongoing) and several post-doctoral fellows. ** Member of the Regional Committee of Ethics for Animal experimentation (CREMEAS; 2001-2012). Awards ** CNRS Silver Medal (2009), ** Paul-Ehrlich Award from the French Society of therapeutic chemistry and Janssen research & development (Johnson & Johnson) (2015) ** CNRS Innovation Award (2015) ** Léon Velluz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (2016) ** Finalist of the 2017 European Inventor Award (category Research) She is Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur (2010) and Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (2016). Research field - In 2001, S. Muller started her own CNRS laboratory at IBMC, where she focused her activity on systemic lupus erythematosus, which represents a prototype of autoimmune rheumatic disease. Pr. Muller’s team is interested in understanding the molecular and cellular pathways involved in autoreactive lymphocytes activation and the events leading to cell death/living phenomena (apoptosis, autophagy) that are central in lupus. Combining fundamental knowledge of lupus with a long-lasting experience in peptide immunochemistry, S. Muller and her team were able to develop a very novel strategy, based on synthetic peptides, designed to modulate the aberrant immune response and restore immune system functions in lupus mice and patients.On of these peptides is currently evaluated in various countries worldwide in advanced clinical trials for autoinflammatory diseases. Selected publications (recent) 1. Page N., Gros F., Schall N., Décossas M., Bagnard D., Briand J.-P. & Muller, S. (2011) HSC70 blockade by the therapeutic peptide P140 affects autophagic processes and endogenous MHCII presentation in murine lupus. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 70, 837-843 (IF = 12.35) 2. Gros, F., Arnold, J., Page, N., Décossas, M., Korganow, A.-S., Martin, T. & Muller, S. (2012) Macroautophagy is deregulated in murine and human lupus T lymphocytes. Autophagy 8, 1113-1123 (IF = 11.10) 3. Zimmer, R., Scherbarth, H.R., Rillo, O.L., Gomez-Reino, J. & Muller S. (2013) Lupuzor/P140 peptide in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase IIb clinical trial. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 72, 1830-1835 (IF = 12.35) 4. Stricher, F., Macri, C., Ruff, M. & Muller, S. (2013) HSPA8/HSC70 chaperone protein: structure, function and chemical targeting. Autophagy 9, 1937–1954 (IF = 11.10) 5. Jeltsch-David, H. & Muller, S. (2014) Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus: pathogenesis and biomarkers. Nature Rev. Neurol. 10, 579–596 (IF = 19.819) 6. Macri, C., Wang, F., Tasset, I., Schall, N., Page, N., Briand, J.-P., Cuervo A.M. & Muller, S. (2015) Modulation of deregulated chaperone-mediated autophagy by a phosphopeptide. Autophagy 11, 472-486 (IF = 11.10) 7. Muller, S. & Radic, M. (2016) Oxidation and mitochondrial origin of NET DNA in lupus. Nature Med. 22, 126-127 (IF = 32.621) 8. Muller, S., Brun, S., René, F., De Sèze, J., Loeffler, J.-P. & Jeltsch-David, H. (2017) Autophagy in neuroinflammatory diseases. Autoimmunity Rev. 16, 856-874 (IF = 8.745) 9. Bonam, S.R., Partidos, C.D., Halmuthur, S.K.M. & Muller, S. (2017) An overview of novel adjuvants designed for improving vaccine efficacy. Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 9, 771-793 (IF = 12.108) 10. Wilhelm, M., Wang, F., Schall, N., Kleinmann, J.-F., Faludi, M., Nashi, E.P., Sibilia, J., Martin, T., Schaeffer, E. & Muller, S. (2018) Lupus regulator peptide P140 represses B-cell antigen differentiation by reducing HLA class II overexpression. Arthritis Rheum. 70, 1077-1088 (IF = 9.002) 11. Brun, S., Schall, N., Bonam, S.R, Bigaut, K., Mensah-Nyagan, A.G., de Sèze, J. & Muller, S. (2018) An autophagy-targeting peptide to treat chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies. J. Autoimmunity 92, 114-125 (IF = 7.607) 12. Li, B., Wang, F., Schall, N. & Muller, S. (2018) Rescue of autophagy and lysosome defects in salivary glands of MRL/lpr mice by a therapeutic phosphopeptide. J. Autoimmunity 90, 132-145 (IF = 7.607) 13. Bonam, S.R, Wang, F. & Muller, S. (2018) Autophagy: a new concept in autoimmunity regulation and a novel therapeutic option. J. Autoimmunity 94, 16-32 (IF = 7.607). 14. Retnakumar, S.V. & Muller, S. (2019) Pharmacological autophagy regulators as therapeutic agents for inflammatory bowel diseases. Trends Mol. Med. 25, 516-537 (IF = 11.021) 15. Bonam, S.R, Wang, F. & Muller, S. (2019) Lysosomes as a therapeutic target. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 18, 923-948 (IF = 57.000) For additional information http://bsc.unistra.fr/ http://www.usias.fr/ http://medalis.unistra.fr/

Thomas Böldicke received his PhD 1982 at the Max-Planck-Institut of Molecular Genetics, Berlin. He started his carrier as post doc at the German Research Centre for Biotechnology (GBF, Brunswick) in the Department of Genetics and Cell Biology by John Collins. Now he is senior scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI, former GBF) and project leader intrabodies. 2011 he qualified as a professor in molecular biology and cell biology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany. He is an expert in generating mouse and human hybridomas and in selecting and modifying recombinant antibodies. In the last decade he focused on the construction and characterization of intracellular antibodies. He has published 35 manuscripts.

Petra Reinke is a Nephrologist and specialist in transplantation medicine. She has led the Immunology research field and the GMP facility at the BCRT since 2006, and is a member of BCRT Steering Committee. Since 2007 she is also a member of the steering committee of the Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT). Petra Reinke's scientific work deals with the immunological processes and reactions that take place during and after transplantation.

Michael G. Hanna, Jr., Ph.D., a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, co-founded Vaccinogen in 2007 and served as Chairman and CEO. Currently, Dr. Hanna is Chairman Emeritus of the Company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Hanna is the discoverer and developer of Vaccinogen’s lead product, OncoVAX®, an autologous vaccine designed to elicit a specifc immune response against minimal residual disease after surgery. Vaccinogen believes OncoVAX® is the first product to show a significant reduction in recurrence of disease in stage II colon cancer patients. Prior to co-founding Vaccinogen, Dr. Hanna founded PerImmune Inc. in 1998, for which he served as President and Chief Executive Officer before it merged with Intracel Corp. later in 1998. He continued to work for Intracel Resources as Chief Scientific Officer and Chairman. From 1984 to 1997, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Organon Teknika/Biotechnology Research Institute and Senior Vice President of Organon Teknika Corporation, a subsidiary of Akzo Nobel, The Netherlands. During his tenure there, he developed and obtained approvals for TICE-BCG for the treatment of carcinoma in situ (CIS) bladder cancer, which remains the standard of care for preventing the recurrence of CIS and superficial bladder cancer. From 1975 to 1983, Dr. Hanna served as the Director of the National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research Center (MD USA). In this position, Dr. Hanna created a center of research excellence for the NCI, which pioneered the methods of cancer immunotherapy. He also established the Biological Response Modifier Program.. While Dr. Hanna was on staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1964-1975), he was also a consultant with NASA for the lunar receiving laboratory during Apollo 11 and 12, for which his expertise in immunology was used in the testing of the lunar core powder for immunogenic or pathogenic materials. In addition to cancer therapy research and development, Dr. Hanna has been involved in Homeland Security. He served as Chairman of the Department of Commerce Biotechnology Advisory Committee (1984-89) and also participated in the Department of Defense Technical Working Group for Biotechnology (1988–89). PerImmune completed a Department of Defense contract to manufacture the current effective therapeutic for Botulinum toxin, an equine heptavalent anti-toxin. Dr. Hanna’s research has resulted in over 225 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, and book chapters, and he holds 10 patents related to immunotherapy. Dr. Hanna has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards and has served on many editorial boards, including for Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. Dr. Hanna received his Ph.D. in experimental pathology and immunology from the University of Tennessee.

Mohamed E. Wagih is a life and accredited member of the Egyptian Association of Translators and Interpreters, and the president of the Canadian Academy of Sciences. He earned his PhD from the School of Land, Crop and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Australia in 1990 in Geneticist and Biotechnologist. He accumulated over 35 years of experience in tertiary education. Formerly, he is a Professor in the Faculty of Sciences, and the Academic Advisor of Al-Baha University from Jan 2012 to Aug 2016. He had worked at the University of New Brunswick, Canada since 2008-2012, Hasanuddin University, Indonesia 2004-2006, and Executive Director of the Biotechnology Centre, University of Technology, North of Australia 1992-2004, and University of Alexandria 1978-1982, 1989-1991, and 2006-2007. He was invited as a Visiting Scientist/Professor to ULP France, GERI Egypt, ICRASAT India, IRRI Philippines, and many others. He initiated and Chaired or became a Member of Organising Committees of numerous scientific forums, and published more than 100 scientific papers in a wide range of refereed Journals, text Books and monographs. He presented research papers in over 60 international conferences worldwide, and served as a member of the APEC Biotechnology Experts Group from 1997-2004

Prof. Jianxun (Jim) Song is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, USA. The base of expertise on T cell biology needed to perform his research began to develop while he was a postdoctoral scholar and research scientist from the years 2001-2007 under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Croft at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology. He became a junior faculty at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 2007, and extended his research on Developmental Immunology and Stem Cell Biology. As a PI on previous university-, foundation-, or NIH-funded grants, he laid the groundwork for the research by developing highly reactive T lymphocytes from pluripotent stem cells (PSC). His laboratory was the first to show that induced PSC differentiate into functional T cells for cell-based therapies. In addition to having the expertise to be successful with the research, he offers leadership and administrative skills that were developed during his independence as a mentor of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. In summary, he has a demonstrated record of successful and productive research projects in the area.

Bernhard Ryffel is currently research director at CNRS in the laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Embryology in Orleans, France and Professor and Head of Department of Immunology, University of Cape Town, RSA. Toward a strong experience in experimental inflammation and infectious models, his main current areas of research are immunopharmacology, inflammation and infectious diseases (tuberculosis, influenza, malaria, sepsis).