They were selected by the FDA to serve on its emergency commission to authorize the first COVID-19 vaccines: Hayley Gans ’83 and Ofer Levy ’84.
For our Alumni Conversations event, we are delighted to invite fellow Bronx Science alumni to hear from these prominent immunologists who have played such an integral role in the global recovery from the pandemic.
Gans ’83 and Levy ’84 will share how the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee works and how they have each evaluated COVID-19 vaccine candidates including the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Alumni Conversations: Hayley Gans ’83 and Ofer Levy ’84
Date: Monday, May 3, 2021
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. EST
Venue: Virtual
About Our Speakers
Dr. Hayley Gans ’83 is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stanford Health Care and clinical professor at Stanford University. After attaining her MD at SUNY Syracuse, Dr. Gans ’83 completed her internship, residency and fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. Since becoming a member of the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute at Stanford Medicine, Dr. Gans ’83 has published extensive research on infant immunity and some of the distinct challenges of tailoring vaccines and effective immunizations for young children.
Dr. Ofer Levy ’84 was born to and raised by the artist Benjamin Levy and music composer Hannah Levy in New York City, where he graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. After graduating from Yale College (B.S., Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry), Dr. Levy ’84 entered the Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program at New York University School of Medicine. There he earned his PhD under the mentorship of Drs. Peter Elsbach and Jerrold Weiss, characterizing white blood cell (neutrophil)-derived antimicrobial proteins and peptides. Inspired by his wife Sharon’s example, he chose Pediatrics and completed both residency and fellowship (Infectious Diseases) at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is currently Professor at Harvard Medical School as well as principal investigator, staff physician and the Director of the Precision Vaccines Program in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital. The Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) is a platform to foster international collaboration between academia, government and industry for development of vaccine formulations optimized to protect vulnerable populations. The PVP is focused on modeling vaccine-induced human immune responses in vitro using a variety of platforms including three-dimensional microphysiologic systems as well as global molecular (“OMIC”) approaches to accelerate and de-risk development of vaccines optimized for populations with distinct immune responses, including those at the extremes of age who suffer the most infections. He currently leads several NIH/NIAID-supported studies: (a) an Adjuvant Discovery Program contract, leveraging robotic and immunologic approaches to discover, characterize, and formulate novel small molecule adjuvants that may enhance vaccine responses of the young and the elderly; (b) an international Human Immunology Project Consortium effort employing systems biology to define biomarkers of neonatal vaccine immunogenicity; and (c) a number of coronavirus/COVID-related studies including a national effort to discover biomarkers of COVID disease severity as well as a project to discover and develop novel coronavirus vaccines. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts along with his wife Dr. Sharon Levy and their three children.