Pneumonia

Professor Stephen I. Pelton is Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in Massachusetts. He is also former Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and current Coordinator of Pediatric AIDS Program. Professor Pelton is an active clinician, investigator, a member of the Boston Medical University Campus Institutional Review Board, and mentor for trainees in Pediatric Infectious Diseases.  He is principal investigator for the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials program (IMPAACT) at BMC that seeks to evaluate new strategies for prevention and treatment of HIV in children and adolescents. His laboratory is focused on vaccine-preventable diseases, especially those due to Streptococcus pneumoniae and new vaccines for prevention of respiratory tract infection due to nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae. Professor Pelton’s work has led to his recognition as a leading clinical scientist in studies of the impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on invasive and respiratory tract disease in children.  He has been named as one of Boston’s top Pediatric Infectious Diseases physicians by Boston Magazine for the past 5 years (2012–2017).

Professor Ger Rijkers, co-Editor-in-Chief, has studied the interaction between Streptococcus pneumoniae and the human immune system for most of his professional career. Being a biologist and medical immunologist by training, and working in hospital laboratories, his focus of research has been the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the immune response during infection and following vaccination. Special attention is given to the major risk groups: the young, the old, and the immunocompromised. He has published widely in the peer-reviewed literature, has presented at a great number of international scientific and medical conferences and has supervised many PhD students in their research. Professor Rijkers joined the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the St Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, The Netherlands in 2006. As of 2012 he has been head of the Science Department of University College Roosevelt, Middelburg, The Netherlands.