Co-Lead Research Project 1, MISM
Professor in Surgery, Duke University
Georgia D. Tomaras, Ph.D., Project Co-Lead, is a tenured Professor of Surgery, Professor of Immunology, and Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Tomaras serves as Co-Director of the Center for Human Systems at Duke University and Director of the Duke Center for AIDS Research. Her national and international leadership roles include: Executive Management Team leader and mPI for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN); Director of Lab Sciences (HVTN); and Chair of NIH Vaccine Research Center Board of Scientific Counselors. Her prior leadership roles include serving as the Director of Research, Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI); Director of the DHVI Training Program; Associate Director of DHVI Research; Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in AIDS, Duke; Chair of the NIH AIDS Vaccine Research Subcommittee; and Advisory Council member of NIAID. She brings expertise in HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine/immunology, with a focus on elucidating the mechanisms of protective human immunity and identifying immune correlates of protection to further the development of effective vaccines against infectious diseases.
Dr. Tomaras oversees all scientific and administrative aspects of the biophysical characterization of antibody-antigen binding in the MISM Research Project 1, and will meet regularly with MISM co-investigators to plan and implement strategies. Dr. Tomaras will supervise personnel in her laboratory, oversee all aspects of experimental design and data interpretation for the proposed experiments, and prepare manuscripts related to the work.