AGILE Scientific Advisory Board Members

Annalisa Jenkins

Annalisa Jenkins (AGILE SAB Chair), M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P. is a biopharma thought leader with over 25 years of industry experience. Dr Jenkins has extensive recent experience in building and financing biotech companies pursuing cures for the most challenging rare diseases to address important medical issues globally. She has consistently built and led teams advancing programs from scientific research through clinical development, regulatory approval, and into healthcare systems globally.

In addition, she is an advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly for women in science. Dr Jenkins served as president and CEO of Dimension Therapeutics, a leading gene therapy company that she took public on the NASDAQ and subsequently sold to Ultragenyx. Prior leadership roles have included the head of global research and development and executive vice president global development and medical at Merck Serono, and several senior positions at Bristol Myers-Squibb over 15 years – including serving as senior vice president and head of global medical affairs. Earlier in her career, Dr Jenkins was a medical officer in the British Royal Navy during the Gulf Conflict, achieving the rank of surgeon lieutenant commander. Dr Jenkins is a board member of several growing companies, including Oncimmune, AVROBIO, COMPASS Pathways, AOBiome, AgeX, PlaqueTec, ADOR Diagnostics, MedCity, DMNoMore, Conduit Connect, NoxSudor, Secret Saviours, Cocoon Biotech Inc. (Non-Executive Chair) and Kuur Therapeutics (Non-Executive Chair). She also is a committee member of the Science Board to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which advises FDA leadership on complex scientific and technical issues, board member at Faster Cures a centre of The Milken Institute and Chair of The Court The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr Steve Emmett

Dr Steve Emmett is the Acting Chief Medical Officer at Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down and is a Consultant Pharmaceutical Physician specialising in medical countermeasure drug development and toxicology. Steve is the medical advisor to the advance development programme delivering future therapeutic interventions for chemical and biological threats to the UK.

He qualified in medicine from the University of Warwick, has a D.Phil in Pharmacology from the University of Oxford and has held a number of academic positions and industry posts. Currently he supports and leads teams in medical aspects of research and development across the Dstl portfolio from the laboratory, through clinical development to licensure and the post market environment. In addition to a wealth of experience delivering phase I and II clinical trials Steve is an independent advisor to the UK Advisory Group on Military and Emergency Response Medicine and is deputy chair of the Dstl Scientific Advisory committee. Steve continues to practice clinically in Emergency Medicine where he is Senior Clinical Fellow in Emergency Medicine at Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bath and is honorary Senior Fellow in Medicine at the University of Bristol.

Gary Kobinger

Gary Kobinger obtained his Ph.D. magna cum laude from the University of Montreal was recruited by the Public Health Agency of Canada where he became Chief of the Special Pathogens Biosafety Level 4 program. He is now a professor at the Université Laval and is Director of the Centre de Recherche en Infectiologie. He also holds appointments at the University of Manitoba and the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary helped develop the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine and the monoclonal antibody cocktail ZMapp used to treat Ebola virus infection. For this work he has been granted several awards including the 2015 scientist of the year award from Radio Canada (CBC), the Order of Manitoba and the Meritorious Service Cross (civil division) of the Governor General of Canada in 2016, and the Manning principal award in 2017. Gary has co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, and has given numerous invited seminars in Universities, national and international funding agencies, departments of national defenses, the White House, and the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning research on high consequence pathogens and the development of new public health policies and recommendations. His work presently focuses on developing and testing new vaccine platforms and immune treatments against pathogens of high consequences to global public health. Serving the international community, Gary sits on several committees such as the IHR roster of experts in Viral Haemorrhagic Fever, the WHO’s High Priority Pathogen advisory board, the STAG-IH advisory board to the Deputy Director-General and ad-hoc advisor to the SAGE committee.

Dr Sanjay Bhagani

Dr Sanjay Bhagani is a Consultant Physician and an honorary Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at the Royal Free London and UCL. He is the current vice-President (president-elect) at the European AIDS Clinical Society. He has a wealth of experience in running and delivering phase 2/3 clinical trials both as a site PI and CI in HIV, viral hepatitis and more recently, COVID-19. He is an experienced DSMB member for a number of international clinical trials, and has previously served on the antivirals and anti-infectives expert advisory group at the MHRA and EMA.

Dr Sheuli Porkess

Dr Sheuli Porkess is the Director of Actaros Consultancy Limited and Chair of the Policy and Communications group at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Sheuli is an experienced pharmaceutical physician who began her career in clinical medicine in the NHS. Sheuli is the former Director of Research, Medical and Innovation at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and has held a number of medical leadership roles in companies at a national, regional and international level. Sheuli is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and a Global Fellow in Medicines Development with IFAPP.

Larry Zeitlin

Larry Zeitlin, Ph.D., President Mapp Biopharmaceutical and LeafBio, Inc.

Larry received a B.A. in Biophysics and his doctorate in Reproductive Biology from The Johns Hopkins University. After serving as a Research Scientist at ReProtect, LLC (Baltimore, MD), and a Senior Scientist at Epicyte Pharmaceutical (San Diego, CA), together with Dr. Kevin Whaley, he co-founded Mapp Biopharmaceutical and LeafBio, Inc. (San Diego, CA). He has been an adjunct faculty member of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University since 2004. Larry’s career focus has been on the development of monoclonal antibody based products to address unmet public health needs in infectious disease.

Michael Jacobs

Michael Jacobs works as the intermediary between AGILE SAB and the Senior Management Team. Mike is Clinical Director of Infection at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He trained at Oxford and London universities before completing a PhD in Virology.

He is interested in all aspects of clinical infectious diseases with a special interest in serious viral infections and medical countermeasures. He is director of the UK High Level Isolation Unit and is a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens. He worked at the centre of the UK response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak, and serves on several national and international COVID-19 advisory committees. He was NHS England Programme Director for High Consequence Infectious Diseases. He was knighted in 2016 for services to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.