Advisory Boards

International Scientific Advisory Group (ISAG)

The ISAG was established to advise the General Assembly and the Steering Committee as decision-making support. This group provided additional independent expertise and knowledge on scientific and technical matters that could inform the PROMISE approach and strategies.

Members of the PROMISE ISAG  

Larry J. Anderson

Professor and Marcus Chair of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine

Larry J. Anderson, MD joined the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Emory University School of Medicine as Professor and Marcus Chair of Infectious Diseases in 2010 after 33 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His laboratory is focused on studies of the pathogenesis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to guide vaccine development and the asthmatic immune response to RSV and rhinovirus to identify novel approaches to treating asthma exacerbations.

Heather Zar

Professor & Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and Director of the School of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa.

After specialising in pediatrics Prof Zar did 3 years of sub-specialist training in pediatric pulmonology at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre, New York, USA. She then returned to South Africa, following an academic career (including a PhD) while working at UCT. Her work, encompassing research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy, has focused on child lung health.

Mark A. Miller

Guest Researcher at The National Institutes of Health

DR Miller is an experienced Director Research Center with a demonstrated history of working in the integration of biomedical research, economics, clinical and population health outcomes in public health at the federal and international levels. He is expert in the field of Public Health, Epidemiology, Virology and Vaccine Discovery/ Development with a focus on rapidly transmissible viral agents such as influenza, RSV, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

Eric A. F. Simões

Clinical Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado and Colorado School of Public Health)

Dr. Simoes is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) for the management of common pediatric conditions in developing countries (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) and studies the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and prevention of the short- and long-term effects of RSV infection in children. He has played a significant role in the WHO’s initiative to reduce childhood and infant mortality throughout the world with the development of a strategy called “Integrated Management of Childhood Illness.” He has worked on this initiative since 1989, including testing and implementing its guidelines in many countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Eeva Broberg

Associate Professor and principal expert in respiratory viruses at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

Associate professor Eeva Broberg works as a principal expert in respiratory viruses at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. Currently, co-coordinates European Reference Laboratory Network for Human Influenza (ERLI-Net) and European COVID-19 reference laboratory network (ECOVID-LabNet). She is involved also in influenza, COVID-19 and RSV surveillance activities. In 2020-2021, she was the laboratory topic team lead in ECDC’s COVID-19 response team. She has been involved in establishment of European RSV case definitions and the implementation of RSV surveillance within the WHO RSV surveillance pilot projects and at European level. Earlier, she has focussed on external quality assessment for ECDC disease programme laboratory networks, coordinating the genetic epidemiology work at ECDC and other microbiology activities at the Centre. Docent Broberg has a MSc in biochemistry and a PhD in virology and immunology from the University of Turku, Finland, where she was also involved in virologic diagnostics. She has completed two post-doctoral fellowships, one at Harvard Medical School and one at University of Turku.

Ethics Advisory Board (EAB)

An Independent Advisory Ethics Board was also established to monitor ethical matters and how they are handled. The Board was consulted about various issues regarding PROMISE studies, including children, clinical studies and biobank, data protection as well as qualitative research.

Patient Advisory Board (PAB)

The Patient advisory board was supporting the Independent Ethics Advisory Board in the monitoring and handling of any ethical issues in PROMISE and safeguarding the protection of study participants, and patients’ data protection. Click here to know more about the RSV Patient Network.