Wilmot James, PhD

Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Brown University

When Misinformation has Mortal Consequences - the Life and Times of HIV in Southern Africa

Wilmot James joined Brown University in March 2023 as Professor and Senior Advisor for Pandemics and Global Health Security at the School of Public Health. Prior to his appointment, he was a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Dr. James conducts research on pandemic prevention and response, biosecurity and non-proliferation. He serves on a variety of advisory boards and committees including the Wellcome Trust's Climate-Health Impact Awards, the Fund For Science and Technology and plays a leading role in the efforts of the G7-led Global Partnership's and Africa CDC's Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biothreats in Africa. Wilmot was a Member of Parliament (South Africa) between 2009-2017. He was a Trustee of the Ford Foundation of New York between 1996 and 2008. He is the author and/or editor of 17 books that include the policy-oriented Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (2020, Brenthurst Foundation), Nature's Gifts: Why we are the way we are (Johannesburg, 2010) and a co-edited collection of the Nelson Mandela's presidential speeches Nelson Mandela in His Own Words (Little Brown & Co. 2003 and 2017). The nicest job he ever had - he says - is as Chairman of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.

Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD

Founding Director, CEID; Founding Director, BEACON; Associate Professor, Infectious Diseases, Boston University School of Medicine; Adjunct Associate Professor, Global Health Security, Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies

Charting A Path to the Future of Public Health and Global Health Security

Dr. Nahid Bhadelia is the founding director of Boston University's Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON), an open-source outbreak surveillance program. She is a board-certified infectious diseases physician and an Associate Professor at the BU School of Medicine. She served as the Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response for the White House COVID-19 Response Team in 2022-2023. Dr. Bhadelia's research focuses on operational global health security and pandemic preparedness, including medical countermeasure evaluation and clinical care for emerging infections, diagnostics evaluation and positioning, infection control policy development, and healthcare worker training.

Adam R. Aluisio, MD, MSc, DTM&H
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Brown University
Pilot Data to Inform Same-Day HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Initiation During Emergency Care Encounters in Nairobi, Kenya

Dr. Adam R. Aluisio is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Division of Global Emergency Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. His research focuses on improving the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and traumatic injuries in low- and middle-income countries. His work aims to bridge the gap between emergency medical delivery and sustainable health infrastructure in resource-limited environments globally. He has led collaborative HIV research in East Africa for over a decade, using implementation science to enhance HIV service delivery during emergency care to better reach priority populations for epidemic control. Currently he is leading a randomized clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health, investigating the effectiveness of the Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach (SAIA) to optimize the delivery of these HIV services in Kenyan emergency departments.

Florian Douam, PhD
Assistant Professor of Virology, Immunology and Microbiology; Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Core Investigator at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, Boston University
Humanized Mouse Models to Study Virus-Induced Impairment of Vaccine Responses

Florian Douam, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and a core investigator at the Boston University National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. Dr. Douam conducted his PhD dissertation in France on Hepatitis C Virus entry, prior to moving to Princeton University for a postdoctoral position in viral immunology, where he developed novel humanized mouse models to investigate human immune responses to mosquito-borne viruses. In 2019, he moved to Boston University to set up his laboratory as an independent investigator. At the NEIDL, Dr. Douam leads a multidisciplinary, integrative research program on the determinants of immune outcomes in human RNA virus infections. Specifically, his laboratory is interested in unraveling cell- and tissue-specific mechanisms that regulate the immune system's ability to effectively resolve an infection, leading to long-lasting immunity, or to drive acute and post-acute immunopathologies. To support such investigations, his lab uses a variety of human RNA viruses, including arthropod-borne orthoflaviviruses and human coronaviruses, across multiple infection contexts, from cell culture to animal models. His lab particularly strives to adopt a human-centric, integrative approach to viral immunology by synergizing advanced human cell-based systems and organoids with innovative mouse models engrafted with human tissues and/or human genes (i.e., humanized mice). Dr. Douam’s research has received multiple awards, including a NIH/NIAID K22 award, a Peter Paul Career Development Award, a Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award, a CFAR Award, a Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering Award, and an Outstanding Research Collaborator Award.

Xueling Wu, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Boston Medical Center, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Anti-HIV ADCC and ADCP functions mediated by monoclonal antibodies

Dr. Xueling Wu graduated from Tongji Medical College in China with a bachelor's degree in medicine and obtained her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, studying systemic and mucosal antibody responses to HIV. She did a postdoc with Julie Overbaugh at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where she examined the role of neutralizing antibodies in mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2006, Xueling joined John Mascola’s lab at NIAID Vaccine Research Center, where she isolated the broadly neutralizing antibody VRC01. In 2013, she started her own lab at Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. In 2020, Xueling was promoted to Associate Professor at Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Columbia University Medical Center, where she started working on HIV IgA antibodies. Xueling joined Boston University School of Medicine in December 2024 to continue her secretory IgA work for mucosal targeted prevention of HIV. In the meantime, she worked closely with her colleague and CFAR mentor Dr. Manish Sagar on HIV antibody Fc-effector functions. Over these years, Xueling has fostered a wide range of collaborations, served on NIH study sections and scientific journals, and contributed to more than 50 scientific publications.

Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA, MA
Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Health Services, Policy, and Practice (Research), Brown University
“It's Not for the Syringe. It's Never for the Syringe.” Discretionary Enforcement of Felony Syringe Possession by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officers

Brandon del Pozo is an assistant professor of medicine, and public health at Brown University, and a research scientist at Brown University Health. Prior to research, he was the chief of police of Burlington, Vermont, for four years, and served with the New York City Police Department from 1997 to 2015, where he commanded patrol precincts in the Bronx and Manhattan. Del Pozo is an elected member of the national Council on Criminal Justice, a Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Academic at the National Institute of Justice, and was a 2022-2023 LEAP Investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has received recognition for his leadership from the Police Executive Research Forum.