The 17th Annual Philip S. Chen Jr., Ph.D., Distinguished Lecture on Innovation and Technology Transfer will be held on Friday, September 25, 2024 at 10 a.m. ET in the Masur Auditorium in Building 10.

The Chen lecture was established in 2006 by the NIH Deputy Director for Intramural Research and the NIH Office of Technology Transfer when Dr. Chen retired after 41 years at NIH. The lectureship honors Dr. Chen’s remarkable, diverse, and creative contributions to the NIH, especially to its Intramural Research Program and to the field of technology transfer.

Stephen S. Whitehead, Ph.D., Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Viral Diseases in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will present "The NIH Dengue Vaccine: A Long Journey from Bench to Bedside".  

This lecture also will be viewable online at: https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=54832

Dr. Whitehead's lecture will be part of the annual NIH Research Festival, September 23–25.

Dr. Whitehead's research focuses on the development and clinical evaluation of vaccines for arboviruses.  Dengue virus, having multiple distinct serotypes, has historically been a major challenge for vaccine development.  In an arduous bench-to-beside approach, Dr. Whitehead's team has created novel vaccine candidates and moved them through clinical evaluation, including the creation of controlled human infection models to provide early indications of protective efficacy.  This has enabled a live attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine to successfully move through Phase III clinical evaluation and transfer to numerous pharmaceutical partners across the world interested in controlling dengue.

Established in 2006, the Philip S. Chen Jr., Ph.D., Distinguished Lecture on Innovation and Technology Transfer honors Dr. Chen's 41-year NIH career and his remarkable, diverse, and creative contributions to the NIH, especially to its Intramural Research Program and to the field of technology transfer.  For more information about this lecture series and past speakers, refer to the Phil Chen lecture repository. 

Sign language interpreting services are available upon request.  Individuals who need interpreting services or other reasonable accommodations to participate in this event should contact Diana Gomez, OIR Events Coordinator, at WALSoffice@od.nih.gov, 301-594-6747.  Requests should be made three days in advance of the event when possible.

If you are interested in technologies that Dr. Stephen Whitehead has available for licensing or collaboration, please view them here: Stephen Whitehead inventions.