Helen F. Schiltz, PhD.

Senior Director of Research and Development at Sabin Vaccine Institute

Background:

With confirmed COVID-19 cases approaching 3 million worldwide, 1 million of them in the states, and continuing to grow, scientists are pushing forward with efforts to develop vaccines and treatments to slow the pandemic and lessen the disease’s damage. Potential candidates include antiviral drugs, some of which are already in use against other illnesses, vaccines that could be used as a preventive measure against the disease, and more. This talk features the status quo for the most recent developments in COVID-19 therapeutics.

Agenda:

• 7:45pm, Online registration starts
• 8-8:45pm, Speech by Dr Schiltz
• 8:45-9pm, Q&A

About the speaker:

Dr. Schiltz Is currently the senior director of R and D at the Sabin Vaccine Institute. She has over 25 years of research and development and program management experience from biotech industry and US government.  She spent more than 10 years in molecular diagnostic industry for technology and product development to support cancer and infectious disease diagnostics.

Prior to Sabin Vaccine Institute, she was a program officer in the Office of Biodefense, Research Resources, and Translational Research (OBRRTR) of Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). She helped to establish the centralized biodefense reagent resources contract of $140 million, BEI Resources, a gateway to select agents and reagents that are essential for many researchers working in the biodefense and emerging infections arena.  She then became a program officer in the Drug Development Section (DDS) and served as the Acting Section Chief in 2009.  In her roles throughout the years in DDS, Dr. Schiltz has been instrumental in developing and implementing NIAID’s therapeutic portfolio, with over 20 novel antiviral and antibiotic development programs and over $800 million of total investment. She has advanced several antiviral programs into Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials and one program for NDA enabling development, including small molecule drugs and biologics for viral infection (such as smallpox, Dengue, influenza, Ebola, Marburg, and Yellow Fever, West Nile virus infection, and COVID-19), and novel antibiotics against multi-drug resistant Gram negative and Gram-positive bacteria.

In addition, Dr. Schiltz had served as the NIAID’s subject matter expert and representative on numerous US government interagency working groups for antiviral product pipeline and development strategy.

About Sabin Vaccine Institute

Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin), located in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organization promoting global vaccine development, availability, and use. Through its work, Sabin hopes to reduce human suffering by preventing the spread of vaccine-preventable, communicable disease in humans through herd immunity, and also hopes to mitigate the poverty caused by these diseases.

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a leading advocate for expanding vaccine access and uptake globally, advancing vaccine research and development, and amplifying vaccine knowledge and innovation.

Read More at https://www.sabin.org/