Seth Berkley

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Seth Berkley

Seth Franklin Berkley, M.D. (born in 1956 in New York, NY) is a medical epidemiologist by training and is currently President, CEO and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). He received his Bachelor of Science and medical degrees from Brown University, and trained in internal medicine at Harvard University. The author of more than 85 publications, Berkley has written extensively on infectious disease and frequently serves as a media commentator on health technology development, AIDS and global health issues.[1]

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[edit] Early Career

From 1984 to 1986, Berkley worked as a medical epidemiologist for the Center for Infectious Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA. While working for the CDC, Berkley was involved in, among other things, managing the national Toxic Shock Syndrome surveillance system. He also conducted an investigation of an outbreak of Brazilian Purpuric Fever, a disease that was killing children in Brazil, and helped to discover the etiologic agent. In 1986, on assignment from the CDC, Berkley served as an epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, working on routine surveillance and outbreak investigations.

A year later, while working for the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Berkley was assigned as an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health in Uganda. In this role, he worked to establish and manage the Ugandan surveillance system for AIDS, validate the AIDS clinical case definition for Africa and assist with the conduct and analysis of the national HIV sero-survey. Berkley played a role in helping to develop Uganda’s National AIDS Control programs, and served as an attending internal medicine physician at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.

Subsequently, Berkley worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, initially as Program Scientist and finally as Associate Director of the Health Sciences Division. During his eight years with the Rockefeller Foundation, Berkley managed programs in epidemiology, public health, medical and nursing education, vaccination, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive health in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Some of his initiatives included developing a public health training program, Public Health School without Walls, which began in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Uganda, and then spread to Vietnam, as well as an international program to support non-governmental organizations working on AIDS, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

[edit] The IAVI Years

In 1994, the Rockefeller Foundation, where Berkley was serving as Associate Director of Health Sciences, convened a series of international consensus meetings on the need for a new effort to address existing barriers to the development of an AIDS vaccine and jump-start AIDS vaccine research. These meetings, culminating in a conference in Bellagio, Italy, became the impetus for the establishment of IAVI in 1996 as an international NGO tasked with aggressively pursuing previously neglected approaches to AIDS vaccine development.[2] Berkley was appointed interim President and later became CEO.

Under Berkley’s leadership, the organization has evolved into a worldwide public-private product development partnership with a staff of more than 200 employees working in 25 countries that has moved technologies from the laboratory into six vaccine candidates, with testing in human trials in 11 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.[3] At IAVI, Berkley oversees the development of vaccine candidates and advocacy and education initiatives. IAVI works to create incentives for more industrial investment in AIDS vaccine development and to ensure global access to future AIDS vaccines. Berkley has played an integral role in the creation of a virtual vaccine product development effort with vaccine development partnerships involving industry, academia and developing country scientists.

In addition, Berkley has managed the creation of a global advocacy program that assures AIDS vaccine research receives prominent attention in the media and in the scientific and political worlds, including in such forums as the Group of Eight, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, European Union, Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations.


[edit] Professional Affiliations


[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

  • Jamison DT, Bobadilla JL, Hecht R, Hill K, Musgrove P, Saxenian H, Tan JP, Berkley S, Murray C. Investing in Health: The 1993 World Development Report, Oxford University Press 1993.
  • Armstrong D, Cohen J, Berkley S, Carbon CJ, Clumeck N, Durack DT, Finch RG, Kiehn TE, Louria DB, McAdam K, Norrby SR, Opal SM, Polsky BW, Quie PG, Ronald AR, Solberg CO, Verhoef J, eds. Infectious Diseases. Mosby, London, 1999.
  • Cohen J, Powderly WG, Berkley S, Calandra T, Clumeck N, Finch RG, Hammer SM, Holland SM, Kiehn TE, Maki DG, McAdam K, Norrby SR, Opal SM, Ronald AR, Solberg CO, Verhoef J, eds. Infectious Diseases, Second Edition. Mosby, London, 2004.

[edit] Scientific Articles

  • Berkley SF, Hightower AH, Broome CV, Reingold AL. The relationship of tampon characteristics to menstrual toxic shock syndrome. JAMA 1987; 258:917-920.
  • The Brazilian Purpuric Fever Study Group (report written by Fleming DW and Berkley SF). Brazilian Purpuric Fever: Epidemic purpura fulminans associated with antecedent purulent conjunctivitis. Lancet 1987; 8562:757-761.
  • The Brazilian Purpuric Fever Study Group (report written by Berkley SF and Harrison L). Haemophilus aegyptius bacteremia in Brazilian Purpuric Fever. Lancet 1987;8562:761-763.
  • Berkley SF, Widy-Wirski R, Okware SI, Downing R, Linnan MJ, White KE, Sempala S. Risk factors associated with HIV infection in Uganda. J Infec Dis 1989; 160:22-30.
  • Berkley SF, Naamara W, Okware SI, Downing R, Konde-lule J, Wawer M, Musagaara M, Musgrave S. AIDS and HIV Infection in women in Uganda--are women more infected than males. AIDS 1990; 4:1237-1242.
  • Heeler C, Berkley SF. Initial lessons from emerging public-private partnerships in drug and vaccine development. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2001, 79:728-734.
  • Klausner RD, Fauci AS, Corey L, Nabel GJ, Gayle H, Berkley S, et.al. The Need for a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. Science, Jun 27 2003: 2036-2039.
  • Berkley SF. Thorny issues in the ethics of AIDS vaccine trials. The Lancet, 2003; 362: 992.
  • Berkley SF. Ending an Epidemic: The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative pioneers a public-private partnership. Innovations, 2006; 1:52-66.
  • Berkley SF, Koff WC. Scientific and policy challenges to development of an AIDS vaccine. The Lancet, 2007; 370: 94-101.


[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Columbia University Faculty Profile, retrieved on May 2, 2008
  2. ^ Kuipers, Hester and Kate Taylor. Entering a New Decade. IAVI, 2006.
  3. ^ International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Imaging a World without AIDS. IAVI, 2006

[edit] External Links

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