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Head, Systems Vaccinology

PhD, M.D., SFUW

Professor Tobias Kollmann is a paediatric infectious diseases physician with a deep passion for making an impact at the convergence of clinical care and fundamental research. He directs the Systems Biology team at Telethon Kids, where multi-disciplinary research aims to direct the early life trajectory towards a healthy, resilient life. Professor Kollmann completed both his MD and PhD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA. He then conducted his Residency and Fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, before joining the Paediatric Infectious Disease Division at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada in 2005. Professor Kollmann was Head, Paediatric Division of Infectious Diseases at UBC before relocating to Australia.

For nearly three decades his work has focused on the molecular mechanisms responsible for age-dependent susceptibility to infectious and other diseases and has identified key drivers of immune development in early life. To accomplish this, his team have developed high-throughput, single-cell analysis platforms that allow the extraction of the most information out of the small samples obtainable from young babies. These platforms have now become the technological backbone of several larger cohort studies around the world.

Professor Kollmann is the Chief Executive Officer of the Born Strong Initiative , a collaboration with the Human Vaccines Project (HVP). The Born Strong Initiative is an ambitious program with the goal of globally by 2032 cutting in half the number of preventable stillbirths, preterm births, neonatal infection, and developmental challenges by enhancing the power of maternal and newborn resilience. The Born Strong Initiative will test a range of interventions to see if we can alter the trajectory of pregnancy away from an adverse outcome towards a healthy, full-term pregnancy, enhancing resilience for the newborn for life.

Professor Kollmann also is the Director of both The Precision Health Accelerator that provides complete end-to-end solutions enabling parallel multi-omic analysis, and of The Virtual Academy that brings together the world’s leading life science and data science experts.

As a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Group on Non-specific Immunological Effects of Vaccination committee, Professor Kollmann is international leader in vaccinology. He is a member on multiple NIH Review panels associated with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) including Human Immunology Project Consortium, Centres of Excellence in Translational Research and Cooperative Centres on Human Immunology.

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The Virtual Academy helps scientists build a strong foundation for data-driven research.  Bringing together the world's leading life science and data science experts, The Virtual Academy delivers content to help you solve real-world problems.

Prof. Kollmann is the director of The Accelerator, a cutting-edge research platform designed to accelerate access to systems biology approaches for researchers, facilitating and maximizing the progress, translation and impact of your research.