Portrait of Dr. Ted M. Ross

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Ted M. Ross

About Dr. Ross. Ted M. Ross did his undergraduate and graduate studies in Zoology and Microbiology at the University of Arkansas in 1982–9. He received Doctorate from Vanderbilt University in 1996. He was awarded the inaugural Sidney P. Colowick Award in Outstanding Graduate Research. Dr. Ross performed a post-doctoral fellowship for 2 y at Duke University on HIV biology of viral entry and 18 months at Emory University on vaccine development for HIV and influenza viruses. He then started his own laboratory as Principal Investigator at East Carolina University and in 2003 moved the laboratory to the University of Pittsburgh in the Departments of Medicine-Infectious Diseases, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and as a founding member of the Center for Vaccine Research. Dr. Ross is currently the Director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology and Professor in Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia. He is the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Chair in Emerging and Zoonotic Pathogens. He is a scientist with experience in the fields of virology, vaccines, immunology, and microbiology. Dr. Ross' research focuses on designing, developing and testing vaccines for viral diseases often at the interface of zoonotic and human interface, such as influenza, but also dengue, chikungunya, respiratory syncytial virus and HIV. He is the senior investigator that developed computationally-optimized broadly reactive antigen (COBRA) technology for the universal, rational design of vaccine candidates for influenza viruses. He and his laboratory has developed DNA, recombinant protein and virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza pre-clinical and clinical research trials. He has multiple high impact publications in pre-clinical vaccine assessment in mice, ferrets, and non-human primates, is the primary investigator on externally funded research projects. He is conducting his research with external funding from a variety of federal agencies, foundations and corporate sponsors. In 2013, Sanofi-Pasteur licensed the COBRA HA vaccine technology for its Universal Influenza Vaccine Development Program. Dr. Ross has published more than 130 papers and book chapters on infectious disease and vaccine development. He has been an invited speaker at more than 100 national and international conferences and participates in several vaccine working groups, including at the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization. He is an Editorial Board member of Vaccine. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current HIV Research. In addition, he has been an ad-hoc reviewer on NIH study sections and a reviewer for 14 different journals. He served as the Treasurer of International Society for Vaccines from 2012–2015 and now is the current Secretary (elected 2015) and has served as the Co-Chair of the 8th and 9th Vaccine and ISV Congress in Philadelphia (8th) and Seoul (9th).