David Weiner is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Chair of the Gene Therapy and Vaccines Graduate Program, at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked extensively in the areas of molecular immunology, viral pathogenesis, focusing on the development of gene-based vaccines, immune therapies and molecular interventions for human diseases. His laboratory has published over 330 peer reviewed publications and reviews focused on these topics. His laboratory is one of the founding groups in the field of DNA vaccines. Importantly and atypically, his laboratory was the first group to move DNA vaccines to human clinical studies and establish their initial safety and immunogenicity thus opening up this area for clinical development. His group was the first to show that a DNA based approach could impact an HIV model challenge in nonhuman primates. Based on these accomplishments Dr. Weiner contributed to the initial Points to Consider guidance document for the FDA on moving gene based approaches through the clinic. His lab has been instrumental in the recent resurgence of interest in the DNA vaccine field due to the increased immune potency of combination DNA vaccine approaches. Dr. Weiner is an avid supporter of scientific education and graduate and post graduate student training. He has organized dozens of meetings, workshops, student training workshops and conferences and has presented several hundred lectures at national and international meetings.