George Siber


George Siber is a Canadian-American medical researcher and vaccinologist.
He is known for developing vaccines, therapeutic antibodies, and diagnostic agents for infectious diseases.
Siber is a former Harvard professor, current adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and former professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Biography

Siber emigrated from Bavaria, Germany, with his parents at age nine in 1953 to Montreal.
After high school, he attended Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec from 1962 to 1966, where he graduated with honors and obtained a Bachelor of Science. Siber then attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he became a Doctor of Medicine in 1970.
After graduation in 1970, Siber held several internships, residencies, and fellowships. Between 1970 and 1972, Siber worked in Chicago as an intern and junior medical resident at Rush University Medical Center. In 1972, Siber moved to Boston and worked as a senior medical resident and clinical fellow in medicine at Beth Israel Hospital until 1973. Between 1974 and 1975, Siber completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital.
Siber was also a fellow for the Medical Research Council of Canada.
Siber served as the vice president, chief scientific officer, and senior vice president, and executive vice president for Wyeth from 1996 to 2006.
After retiring from Wyeth, Siber served on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Boards of multiple vaccine companies. Siber joined ClearPath Vaccine Company in 2012 and became its chief scientific officer in 2013.
In 2014 he co-founded Affinivax and served on the board of directors.
Siber was appointed to the board of trustees of the International Vaccine Institute in Korea in 2014 and chaired the board's science committee.
Siber served as the assistant director and head of bacterial vaccines for the Massachusetts Public Health Biological Laboratories in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, between 1982 and 1983. In 1983, he was promoted to the position of director, where he served until 1996.
Siber has held positions at Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Siber holds patents on RespiGam, the first Human respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin, and Prevnar, the first Pneumococcal Pneumonia Conjugate.
Respigam was the first antibody licensed for preventing severe RSV infections in high-risk infants and was the precursor product to Synagis, the first human monoclonal antibody for infectious diseases. Prevnar 7 and 13 are for the prevention of pneumococcal infections, the most common and severe bacterial infection of children and elderly adults worldwide causing mortality exceeding 1 million per year. Prevnar is also the most successful commercial vaccine of all time with sales exceeding four billion dollars per year.
Siber developed Meningitec, the first Meningoccus C conjugate vaccine, Rotashield, the first Rotavirus diarrhea vaccine, and FluMist, the first Live attenuated influenza vaccine.

Awards

Journals

  • Long, D, M. Skoberne, T. M. Gierahn, S. Larson, J. A. Price, V. C, A. E. Baccari, K P. Cohane, D. Garvie, G. R. Siber, and J. B. Flechtner,. Identification of novel virus-specific antigens by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from asymptomatic HSV-2 seropositive and seronegative donors. Manuscript submitted, Virology 2014.