Dr Ashley Birkett leads PATH’s Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and is global head of the malaria disease area within PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access (CVIA). He joined PATH in 2008 as MVI’s director of research and development. PATH’s CVIA brings together expertise across every stage of vaccine research, development, and introduction to make lifesaving vaccines globally available to women, children, and communities, particularly in low resource settings. CVIA’s portfolio currently includes more than two dozen vaccine projects to protect against 17 diseases. Dr Birkett oversees the development and implementation of the malaria program’s strategy, including programmatic, administrative, and financial management aspects, to develop new models and explore new pathways that will accelerate the development of malaria vaccines. He plays an integral leadership role in guiding the work of more than 40 professionals involved in projects in MVI’s portfolio, including supporting the World Health Organization leading up to the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme.

Dr Birkett has more than 20 years of vaccine development experience, initially with biotechnology companies, where he successfully advanced novel influenza and malaria vaccine candidates from research through first-in-human clinical studies. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree (Honors) in Applied Biological Sciences from the University of the West of England.