A universal influenza vaccine: the BiondVax story

Abstract

Interview by Paolo Reveglia, Assistant Commissioning Editor

Tamar Ben-Yedidia has more than 15 years of experience in the field of immunology, with specific expertise in the development of vaccines. She started her career with Biotechnology General Ltd (Rehovot, Israel), working on the development of a recombinant hepatitis B vaccine. She joined the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) in 1994, and under the auspices of Ruth Arnon in the Department of Immunology, worked on the design of a peptide-based vaccine against several pathogens and focused on influenza. She continued this work when she left the Weizmann Institute in 2004 to join BiondVax (Ness Ziona, Israel). Ben-Yedidia is often invited to address conferences around the world and is widely published, with numerous refereed articles and invited reviews in various renowned scientific journals. She received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute after completion of her doctoral thesis entitled ‘A peptide-based vaccine against influenza’.

Prior to joining BiondVax in October 2009, Wayne worked for 5 years as an Investment Banker. He worked for 4 years for Lehman Brothers in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group, mostly in London. After leaving Lehman Brothers as a Director in June 2008, Wayne joined UniCredit Markets and Investment Banking Division, and was based in their Tel Aviv office. Wayne holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (PA, USA). He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and a qualified attorney in South Africa, and holds BCom and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Tamar Ben-Yedidia is employed by BiondVax Pharmaceuticals as the chief Scientific Officer. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.