This ePanel will celebrate the inaugural winners of the Michelson Philanthropies & Science Prize for Immunology, an international prize that focuses on transformative research in human immunology, with trans-disease applications to accelerate vaccine and immunotherapeutic discovery. The prize is intended to encourage and support young investigators from a wide range of disciplines and will be awarded annually based on work done in the past three years.

This year’s recipients are:

• Grand prize winner Paul Bastard, MD, PhD, (Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Institut Imagine, INSERM & University of Paris and The Rockefeller University, New York)
  Why do people die from COVID-19?: Autoantibodies neutralizing type I interferons increase with age.
• Finalist Scott B. Biering, PhD, (Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley)
  One antibody to treat them all: Conserved flavivirus protein holds potential as target for versatile vaccines and therapies.
• Finalist Lisa Wagar, PhD, (Institute for Immunology, University of California, Irvine)
  Small centers of defense: Deciphering immune responses to viruses and vaccines using human tonsil organoids.

Following welcome remarks by Dr. Gary Michelson, Michelson Philanthropies founder and co-chair, Bill Moran, Publisher of AAAS/Science, United States Senator Alex Padilla of California, and Seth Scanlon, Editor of AAAS/Science, the recipients will present their award winning research and participate in a Q&A with the audience.

Immediately following the event all audiences are invited to join our Virtual Networking Lounge where they can speak directly with the panelists and with each other in small groups to continue these conversation and make new connections to further their work, and the field.

Applications for the prize opens May 1. For more information, visit https://www.michelsonmedicalresearch.org/projects/michelson-philanthropies-and-science-prize-for-immunology and https://www.science.org/content/page/michelson-philanthropies-and-science-prize-immunology