Pneumococcal vaccination for adults: expanding disease protection

Professor Bette Liu is a medical epidemiologist and leads the population health group at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS). She is also a professor at UNSW Sydney and the University of Sydney. Her work focuses on the use of large-scale linked data systems to provide evidence to support the introduction and evaluation of national vaccination programs. From 2019–2023 she was a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and led working groups on influenza and zoster vaccines. She is currently a member of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition and the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines. 

Amanda van Eldik was the lead senior research officer for the NCIRS support team to the ATAGI pneumococcal sub-group. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Medical Science from the Australian National University and a Master of Public Health. 

Wei Shen Lim is a consultant respiratory physician at Nottingham University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust and honorary professor at the University of Nottingham. He is the current chair of the United Kingdom’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and was formerly the deputy chair of JCVI and chair of the COVID-19 JCVI subcommittee.  

Miwako Kobayashi is a medical epidemiologist and team lead for the Pneumococcus Epidemiology Team at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, she holds a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tsukuba and both a Master of Public Health and Doctor of Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Miwako has led CDC's work with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Pneumococcal Work Group and conducted pneumococcal disease research across the United States, Africa and beyond. She is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Physicians. 

Alan Leeb is a GP and primary care researcher with a special interest in paediatrics and immunisation. His research interests include vaccine safety. He sits on various related organisations and boards and is a member of ATAGI. 

Nicholas Wood is a staff specialist general paediatrician and professor in Clinical Vaccinology at the University of Sydney. Nick leads the New South Wales Immunisation Specialist Service and coordinates the Immunisation Adverse Events Clinic at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. He is a senior investigator on the Primary Health Network Immunisation Support Program. Nick is interested in maternal and neonatal immunisation, as well as research into vaccine safety, including genetics and long-term outcomes of adverse events following immunisation. 

Benjamin Teh is an infectious diseases physician and clinical researcher at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the National Centre for Infections in Cancer. His research interests encompass translational immune profiling, clinical studies of infection risks with new cancer therapies, and vaccination in cancer patients. Professor Teh is a current member of ATAGI.