22 Feb 2019 Professor Helen Marshall joins GPN Vaccines’ Scientific Advisory Board
Adelaide, Australia, 22 February 2019 – GPN Vaccines is pleased to announce Professor Helen Marshall has joined the Company’s Scientific & Advisory Board.
Prof Marshall is a NHMRC Practitioner Fellow who holds the position of Professor of Vaccinology in the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide and is the Deputy Director of the Robinson Research Institute, as well as the Medical Director of the Vaccinology and Immunology Research Trials Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide.
Prof Marshall has been an investigator on more than 50 paediatric, adolescent and adult clinical trials including studies on influenza, pertussis, meningococcal and human papillomavirus vaccines. She was also the lead investigator on the “B Part of It” study, the largest study of its kind globally assessing the herd immunity impact of GSK’s meningococcal B vaccine. Over the past 15 years she has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers in high quality general medicine and specialist journals across diverse disciplines and has been awarded 16 National Health & Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council grants and foundation and industry grants totalling more than $28 million.
Professor Marshall commented on her appointment “I am very excited by the prospects of the Gamma-PNTM vaccine and delighted to join GPN’s Advisory Board. As a clinician researcher committed to improving global health through the introduction of effective vaccines, it is a real pleasure for me to be part of a project, conceived and developed here in Adelaide, which is about to enter clinical testing for the first time.”
GPN Vaccines’ Chairman & CEO, Dr Tim Hirst commented, “We are thrilled to have Prof Marshall join our Scientific & Advisory Board. Her extensive experience of vaccine trials is very important to us at this time as we build a world class team that will plan and implement a first in human clinical trial of our innovative pneumococcal vaccine.”
About GPN Vaccines
GPN Vaccines is a private biotechnology company developing a vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is responsible for causing life-threatening pneumonia, bacteraemia and meningitis, as well as otitis media (middle ear infections). Each year it causes 1-2 million deaths worldwide, killing more children than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. There are now 98 different serotypes of S. pneumoniae and the best vaccine currently on the market only protects against 13 of them. Gamma-PN – GPN Vaccines’ new S. pneumoniae vaccine is being developed to protect children and adults against all S. pneumoniae strains, regardless of strain serotype.