The Advisory Committee for Variola virus Research was convened in 1999 to implement WHA Resolution (WHA52.10). The Advisory Committee is composed of members from all WHO regions and advised by scientific academic experts from areas such as public health, fundamental applied research and regulatory agencies to oversee:
- all research using live variola virus
- biosafety and biosecurity inspections of the 2 repository sites
- sequencing the viral genome from variola virus isolates
- distribution of live variola virus DNA to other researchers under specific rules.
Chair
Principal Scientist, Defense Science & Technology Laboratory, United Kingdom
Learn more
Members
Assistant Manager and Safety Officer, Aga Khan University Karachi, Pakistan
Associate Professor, Head of Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Viruses, Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysics Institute, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Adjunct Professor of Clinical Medicine Emory University; Retired Director, Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
Science fellow and senior fellow (courtesy) at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, USA
Director, Depto de Biología celular y molecular, Centro Nacional de Biotecnologia (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Research biologist at the Emergency Management Branch of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada
Associate Professor of Biomedicine at the Tasmanian School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Australia
Former Director, National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center and President, Battelle National Biodefense Institute, USA
Senior Scientist at the Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
Head of Division, Highly Pathogenic Viruses, Centre for Biological Safety, German Reference Laboratory for Poxviruses, Robert Koch Institute, Germany
Former Head, Department of Infectious Diseases, Israel Institute for Biological Research Ness Ziona, Israel
Chief and Professor of Biotech Center for Viral Disease Emergency, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
Dr Antonio Alcami, Research Professor, Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa, Madrid, Spain
Dr Hideki Ebihara, Director, Department of Virology; National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan
Dr Rosina Ehmann, Veterinary Specialist in Microbiology, Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany
Prof John Hayball, Professorial Research Academic Clinical and Health Sciences Unit,University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
WHO Collaborating Centre representatives
Dr Alexander Agafonov, Director General, Federal Budgetary Research Institution State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia
Dr Christy Hutson, Chief, Poxvirus and Rabies Branch, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
Contact
WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva
Switzerland
Email: smallpoxsecretariat@who.int