TEAMS

Leadership

Board of Directors

Scientific Advisory Board

  • Formerly Vice-President of the Weizmann Institute of Science (1988-1997), Professor Arnon is an internationally acclaimed immunologist. Along with Prof. Michael Sela, she conceptualized and developed Copaxone®, a drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is presently marketed worldwide.

    Prior to her appointment as Vice-President, Prof. Arnon served as Head of the Department of Chemical Immunology and as Dean of the Faculty of Biology. From 1985 to 1994, Prof. Arnon was Director of the Institute’s McArthur Center for Molecular Biology of Tropical Diseases. Prof. Arnon has made significant contributions in the fields of vaccine development, cancer research and to the study of parasitic diseases. She has served as President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), and as Secretary-General of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS).

    Prof. Arnon is the recipient of numerous international and Israeli awards including the prestigious Israel Prize. Prof. Arnon was also the Advisor for Science to the President of Israel. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences, where she served as President from 2010-2015. Prof. Arnon is the incumbent of the Paul Ehrlich Chair in Immunochemistry at the Weizmann Institute.

  • Professor Dobbelstein has served as Director of the Institute of Molecular Oncology at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), Germany since 2005 and is also an Associate Member of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (MPI-NAT). He received his training as a physician at the University of Munich (LMU) and performed research as a virologist and cancer biologist at Princeton University (USA), the University of Marburg (Germany) and the University of Southern Denmark.

    Professor Dobbelstein’s research interests focus on principles of infections and cancer, including the application of anti-cancer drugs as antivirals, as well as alpaca-derived NanoAbs (nanosized antibodies also known as nanobodies and VHH antibodies) as therapeutics. His collaboration with Professor Dr. Dirk Görlich at MPI-NAT as highlighted in their 2021 EMBO Journal article titled “Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by highly potent, hyperthermostable, and mutation-tolerant nanobodies” forms the scientific basis of BiondVax’s exclusive license for development and commercialization of an innovative, self-administered, inhaled NanoAb for the treatment of COVID-19. As recently reported, a preclinical trial of the inhaled anti-COVID-19 NanoAbs demonstrated significantly milder illness and faster recovery in comparison to infected hamsters treated with inhaled placebo.

    In addition, Professor Dobbelstein, together with Professor Görlich, is collaborating with BiondVax under a five-year strategic research agreement for the discovery, characterization and cloning of additional NanoAbs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, asthma and macular degeneration.

  • Dr. George Lowell joined the Company in 2008. Dr. Lowell is the former Chief Scientific Officer of BioDefense at GlaxoSmithkline Biologicals and, prior to that, the CSO of ID Biomedical (subsequently acquired by GSK).

    He served as a Doctor (Consultant in Pediatric Infectious Diseases) and researcher at the Walter Reed General Hospital (US Army hospital) for 20 years. He subsequently founded and managed Intellivax, a vaccines R&D company that was acquired by ID Biomedical.

    Dr. Lowell has held a number of academic posts, including Visiting Scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) as well as Visiting Professor, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical Center (Israel).

    Dr. Lowell is a Colonel (retired) in the US Army.

  • Professor Michel Revel has M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. In 1968, he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, where he has been a full Professor since 1973, heading for several periods the Departments of Virology and of Molecular Genetics. He has been an emeritus Professor since 2010.

    Prof. Revel is best known for his work on the mechanism of action of interferon and the cloning of the genes for human interferon beta (IFN-β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6). He developed the first efficient genetic engineering production of a protein (IFN-b) in animal cells (CHO cells). He was Chief Scientist of InterPharm (Serono group), which produced the recombinant IFN-b (Rebif), a leading drug for treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, now 20 years in the market and sold in 90 countries by Merck Kga.

    Since 2010, Prof. Revel has been co-founder and Chief Scientist of Kadimastem, an Israeli company producing human tissues by differentiation of pluripotent stem cells (ESC). The first product of Kadimastem, AstroRx, has just been approved for clinical trial in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Kadimastem also develops ESC-derived islet-like cells for the treatment of diabetes.

    Prof. Revel has received the Israel Prize for Medicine in 1999 and the Emet Prize in 2004. He was elected at the Israel National Academy of Science and Humanities in 2005. He served as chairman of the National Biotechnology Committee of Israel (1999-2002).