IAS 2025 pre-conference: Success stories and future directions in African HIV vaccine research

Julien Nyombayire is a research-clinician and current Executive Director at CFHR, established in Rwanda in 1986 and formerly known as Projet San Francisco. With more than 14 years’ experience in clinical research, Julien has served as an investigator in several observational cohort studies, as well as multicentre clinical trials of preventive vaccines and therapeutics in infectious diseases. He was recently principal investigator for the first-ever Phase 1 clinical trial of an mRNA HIV vaccine candidate conducted in Africa and co-investigator of the first large Phase 3 Ebola vaccine trial among pregnant women in Rwanda. He also has extensive experience in the management of large infectious diseases prevention programmes. Julien holds a degree in general medicine and surgery from the National University of Rwanda and a Master’s of Science in clinical trials from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He has been an IAS Member since 2021.

Marianne Mureithi is the current Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology and a senior research fellow and senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on studying multiple social-behavioural, environmental and biological factors associated with the increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections and advocating for better access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for all women and girls in central, eastern, southern and western Africa. She is passionate about raising and mentoring the next generation of outstanding African scientists who will help solve some of the continent’s greatest health and development challenges.

Vincent Muturi-Kioi is the HIV Vaccines Product Development Team Lead at IAVI. In this role, he leads a team to advance the most promising immunogens against HIV, from discovery to experimental medicine trials, with the goal of developing a vaccine regimen that is safe and efficacious. Previously, he served as a senior medical director in the Clinical Development team at IAVI. He was responsible for the design of clinical development plans, clinical trial protocols and safety monitoring plans for clinical trials evaluating biomedical prevention interventions against HIV and other diseases of public health importance.