Celsion Announces Formation of Vaccine Advisory Board

Celsion announced the formation of a Vaccine Advisory Board and the appointment of its first two members:

• Britt A. Glaunsinger, Ph.D., Professor, Virology & Molecular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, and

• Dr. Xinzhen Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Independent Professional Consultant for the Gerson Lehman Group and former Director of Viral Vaccines / Program Lead of the HCMV Vaccine Program at Pfizer Inc.

“We are delighted to launch our Vaccine Advisory Board with these impressive scientists as charter members,” said Michael H. Tardugno, Celsion’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We view Drs. Glaunsinger’s and Yang’s agreement to advise us on the development of our TheraPlas technology-based PLACCINE DNA vaccine platform for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and other dangerous viruses as a vote of confidence in our technology. We look forward to adding more talented individuals to this advisory board, as well as to making key internal hires as we advance this promising platform.”

With more than 20 years of academic experience in microbiology and virology, Dr. Glaunsinger has held research positions and professorships at the University of California, San Francisco, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of California, Berkeley (with tenure), where she holds the UC Berkeley Class of 1963 Endowed Chair. In recent years, she served as Vice Chair, Gordon Conference on Viruses and Cells; Member of the 2020 COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Scientific Advisory Board, Innovative Genomics Institute; Member of the advisory board of the 2020 COVID-19 Catalyst Fund; Chair of the 2020 Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases; and, Chair of the 2021 Gordon Conference on Viruses and Cells. Dr. Glaunsinger has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles on viruses.

Dr. Glaunsinger earned a B.S. in molecular and cell biology from the University of Arizona, a Ph.D. in molecular virology from the Baylor College of Medicine and was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a lifetime member of the American Society for Virology, and is a member of the American Society for Microbiology and the RNA Society.

Dr. Yang has global experience leading cross-functional teams to develop products from scientific discovery to preclinical to clinical evidence development. He has advanced expertise in virology, vaccinology and immunology with extensive research and teaching experience in leading institutions in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry. He currently serves as a consultant for the Gerson Lehman Group. Previously, Dr. Yang joined Pfizer in 2014 and held positions of increasing responsibility, serving as Director, Viral Vaccines and Program Lead of The HCMV (human cytomegalovirus) Vaccine program. At Pfizer he served as a member of the Vaccine Technical Review Committee and as a member of Vaccine Clinical Review Committee. Previously he served on the faculty of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, where he led pioneering epidemiological studies on HIV/AIDS in China. Dr. Yang has published many peer-reviewed articles.

Dr. Yang earned an M.S. in epidemiology and holds the M.D. degree equivalent from Fudan University (formerly the Shanghai Medical University) and a Ph.D. in Molecular Virology from Baylor College of Medicine. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School, where he also was an Instructor of Pathology and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Virology.