Advisory Board and Editors Immunology
Hannes Stockinger
Head of the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology at the Medical University of Vienna and Chairman of one of the Center’s subunit, the Institute for Hygiene and Applied Immunology, where he is appointed as a full professor for molecular immunology. Further, current Chairman of the Federation of Austrian Scientific Societies. Served as officer for many other national and international scientific organizations and societies. For instance, long-lasting Treasurer of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS, 2006-2015), President of the Austrian Society for Allergology and Immunology (2000-2006), Board Member of the Austrian Science Fund (2005-2014). Identified and developed targets for diagnosis and therapeutic treatment of immunological and inflammatory diseases particularly on T cells and myeloid cells by monoclonal antibodies. The latter have been distributed to the community and used by health care centers, doctors and researchers for the diagnosis and therapy of immunological diseases and leukemias already for decades. The contribution to the understanding of how GPI-anchored receptor proteins transduce signals across the plasma membrane were fundamental for the identification and characterization of lipid rafts, membrane devices that are now recognized to control signaling across the plasma membrane. Published more than 180 papers with an h-factor of 47.
Ravi Tandon
I completed my Ph.D dissertation at the University of Zurich, Switzerland where the major focus of my PhD research project was the study of endogenous feline leukemia virus (enFeLV) in cats during exogenous feline leukemia virus (FeLV) infection. My interest in retroviruses led me into the HIV research after Ph.D. My postdoctoral research project at University of California, San Francisco was on HIV immunology. On completion of my Post Doc, I joined Dr Ndhlovu’s new laboratory at the University of Hawaii to pursue studies on HIV and Aging based on my expertise and experience to address a new area of HIV research in which have interest.
Currently my research work as an Assistant Professor at JNU, New Delhi, India is focused on aging in HIV-1-infected people. Approximately one in five individuals living with HIV infection in the United States is 50 years of age or older. This proportion continues to increase as HIV incidence remains stable and potent antiretroviral therapy has reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with HIV infection. However, premature aging and non-AIDS related morbidity including cancer seem to be a new big problem in HAART era. Chronic inflammation in treated HIV-1-infected subjects seems to play an important role in non-AIDS –related complications. The main goal of my research is to investigate the mechanism of HIV mediated accelerated aging/inflammation in HAART-suppressed HIV-1 infected people.
Ralph A Tripp
Dr. Tripp joined the University of Georgia in 2004 from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. He is a Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar working in vaccine and therapeutic studies in the Department of Infectious Diseases at UGA.
Research interests include understanding the mechanisms of immunity and disease pathogenesis associated with respiratory virus infection, and using this information to develop therapeutic protocols and vaccines that will confer long-term protective immunity.
Abhishek Tyagi
I have been working on the molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and metastasis for the last ten years, identifying signaling pathways that promote cancer progression using various in vitro and in vivo models. During this time, I have published 30 articles with more than 2000 citations, and 12 papers have been cited as being in the top 10% of the field. They have mostly appeared in high-impact journals such as Sci. Adv., Nat. Comm., J. Exp. Med., Clinical Can. Res., Oncogene, Cancer Res., Cancer Letters. My research is primarily concerned with mechanistic and translational studies of tumor-initiating cells, the microenvironment, and non-coding RNAs in the context of cancer progression and metastasis. My long-term research goal is to conduct basic and translational research to elucidate the underlying mechanism(s) driving cancer metastasis and identify therapeutic targets, especially for highly aggressive metastatic cancers. In addition, I also serve on the editorial boards of three cancer-related journals. Before joining the department of Cancer Biology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, I was a senior research officer (SRO) at the Delhi State Cancer Institute, India (Govt. of India).
I am or have been...
1. A self-motivated, goal-oriented cellular/molecular biologist with over 7 years of experience in oncology.
2. Substantial experience in designing and executing well-controlled in vitro and in vivo assays for preclinical drug discovery, synthetic lethal screening, biomarker identification, target validation, immunogenicity, and toxicity assessment
3. Capable of investigating signaling pathways with a variety of molecular and genetic tools
4. Enthusiastic team worker and expert in forming strategic collaborations
Sheetal Verma
Dr. Sheetal Verma is an expert in the field of infectious disease immunology, and works primarily on host immune responses to Tuberculosis (TB). She has published extensively on characterization and validation of immuno-pathological pathways that modulate disease outcomes in TB.
In her current role, she is responsible for overseeing the implementation of scientific protocols and research operations at multiple international sites as part of the RePORT International Consortium. Dr. Verma works closely with the Data Management and Operations Center of RePORT International in coordinating cross-institutional regulatory processes, biorepository management and supervising assigned staff at international research laboratories.
She is a co-investigator on multiple NIH/NIAID grants and is a valued member of the Rutgers NJMS community, due to her skills in the practice and teaching of research in high containment Biosafety Level 3 Laboratories (BSL3). In this capacity, she leads training of new scientists in containment procedures, performing key experiments and designing applicable protocols for working with animal models.
Dr. Verma obtained her MS degree from Case Western Reserve University in 2010 and her PhD from Rutgers University - New Jersey Medical School in 2017.
Shailendra Kumar Verma
Dr. Shailendra Kumar Verma is currently a postdoctoral fellow at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, California, USA. He pursued his Ph.D. from Central Drug Research Institute, India in the field of vaccine immunology. Dr. Verma joined DRDE, and had been a scientist since 2005 to 2021. His major research area focused onto the vaccine and therapeutic development against infectious diseases. He has published more than 25 publications in peer reviewed journals of highly repute. Dr. Verma has more than 15 years of research experience in infection and immunology. His present research at La Jolla institute for Immunology is focused onto the vaccine/therapeutic development against SARS-CoV-2 and ZIKA virus.
Alejandro V Villarino
Assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Specialist in cytokine biology and STAT signaling.
Shibiao Wan
Dr. Shibiao Wan is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, and the Co-Director for the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (BISB) PhD Program at University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). He is also an Assistant Professor (courtesy) in the Department of Biostatistics at UNMC.
With more than 15 years of experience in machine learning, bioinformatics, and computational biology, Dr. Wan has published >50 articles in top-tiered journals such as Genome Research, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Circulation Research, Briefings in Bioinformatics, and Bioinformatics. Dr. Wan is the Editor-in-Chief for Current Proteomics, and an Associate Editor/Academic Editor/Editorial Board Member for a series of prestigious journals such as Briefings in Functional Genomics, Heliyon, BMC Bioinformatics, International Journal of Microbiology, PeerJ Computer Science, BioMed Research International, and Computational and Mathematical Methods, and a guest associate editor for multiple high-impact journals.
He is a Scientific Program Committee (SPC) member for American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium and a Technical Program Committee (TPC) member for >20 machine learning related international conferences including IEEE ICTAI. Dr. Wan is also a reviewer for >70 prestigious journals including Nature Biotechnology, Nature Methods, Nature Communications, Nature Computational Science, Science Advances, Nucleic Acids Research, Advanced Science, Cancer Research, Genome Biology, and Genome Medicine. Dr. Wan has received a number of accolades including the Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Award in 2025 by Springer Nature, the New Investigator Award in 2024 by UNMC, the FIRST Award in 2023 by Nebraska EPSCoR, the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in 2022 by HK PolyU as well as the Global Peer Review Awards (top 1%) in “Cross-Field” and “Biology and Biochemistry” in 2019 by Clarivate. Dr. Wan is a member of AACR, AMIA, ISCB and ACM and an IEEE Senior Member.
Hao Wu
Hao Wu is a patent scientist in an oncology-focused biotechnology company, Exelixis, Inc. She obtained her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Rowan University (previously known as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) – Stratford Campus). With hands-on knowledge in various aspects of biology, including molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, immunology, neuroscience, oncology, Hao has worked on inventions spanning a broad range of technologies, for example, biologics, antibodies, biomarkers, diagnostics, cell therapy, gene therapy, and sequencing.
Jiyang Yu
Dr. Jiyang Yu's research is focused on systems biology, systems immunology, single-cell systems biology, immuno-oncology, translational oncology and functional genomics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Zhejiang University, China. In 2008-2012, he was trained in Dr. Andrea Califano’s laboratory at Columbia University and earned his PhD degree in Biomedical Informatics.