Michael Cruz Email & Phone Number

Washington, Dc, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Program Director responsible for driving the COVID-19 mRNA portfolio to enable execution of the objectives and strategy of assigned developmental programs within the Respiratory Vaccines portfolio. Responsible for managing and supporting 6 program managers to end-end vaccine development including licensure across all age indications, next-generation COVID vaccine candidates, and emerging strategies for combination respiratory vaccines. As a member of the program management leadership team, my role includes shaping our portfolio, development strategies, key talent hiring, developing, and management/training of the Moderna's CDO program management team.

New York, New York, Us

COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccine Development Program Manager for Vaccine R&D. I support the vaccine research and development (VRD) program teams in the development of new vaccines from research through product registration to ensure alignment of strategic and operational objectives. This includes developing program plans to support the overall strategy for the development of the vaccine in all indications.Key stakeholder management include partnering with Clinical, Vaccine Research, Early BioProcess Development, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Regulatory, Drug Safety, Commercial Development, Clinical Operations, etc. to manage the program to achieve key milestones within time, cost and quality parameters.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

Working on a one of a kind, novel vaccines for shingles. Managing and supporting launch of Herpes Zosters (Shingrix) in launch countries with a focus on coordination, development, and implementation of medical materials for training initiatives and scientific engagement activities. Supporting the global integrated congress plan and supporting GMA Directors and team with digital/social medical capabilities as a part of the global medical digital plan through customer insight gathered from Scientific Engagements field visits with Medical Scientific Liaison and external experts in Canada (MSL interactive tool pilot country) and in the US. Primarily responsible for the Zoster Clinical Compendium, the creation and implementation of the MSL iPad interactive tool, and the creation of a podcast series for the asset: Shingrix in the Mix.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

GlaxoSmithKline's Future Leaders Program (FLP), is a program designated to cultivate & prepare the next generation of leaders. This two-year program comprises of three rotations within different R&D departments around the globe. I have been fortunate to work in two of the three GSK Global Vaccines Headquarters: Rixesensart, Belgium and Rockville, Maryland. My rotations included early asset Preclinical Viral and Parasites work on Dengue in Rixensart, Belgium; launch phase with the Global Neisseria Commercial & Marketing team on Meningococcal vaccines based out of Rockville, US; and launch phase with the Global Medical Affairs SHINGRIX team also in Rockville, Maryland, US.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

Commercial associate working on a ~$1B dollar vaccine brand’s global commercialization team covering core markets. Responsible for performing epidemiological studies on Meningitis incidence in the UK before and after introduction of MenB vaccine (BEXSERO). Managed the co-creation with Porter Novelli UK agency of a World Meningitis Day focused disease awareness campaign with our high priority markets by working with industry leading external marketing advisors. Managed Brand Plan development and delivery of concepts with 3rd party agencies. My core tasks included enhancing existing multi-channel marketing capabilities including the creation of new branded materials, digital training aids, and assisting in analyzing customer segmentation to develop customer insights. Additionally, I worked to devise metrics to evaluate and measure our training materials’ effectiveness sand sales force performance through the Bexsero Veeva Dashboard. This innovative model pilotted for insights and metrics through the Dashboard framework has been adopted to other commercial vaccine brands.

Brentford, Middlesex, Gb

Projects: Dengue Vaccine Candidate (DPIV) -Developed a flow cytometry based assay to evaluate antibody cross neutralization induced by a current GSK dengue vaccine candidate in non-human primates. -Performed statistical and qualitative analysis for cytokine expression in a non-human primate experiment after primary DENV infection. -Establishment of the collaboration research agreement (CRA) with Felix Rey’s laboratory (Institut Pasteur, Paris) and Gavin Screaton’s laboratory (Imperial College, London): for new Dengue vaccine approach.Publications:  Borges, M. B., Marchevsky, R. S., Cruz. M., Mendes, Y. S., Mendes, L. G., Duarte, A. C.., . Warter, L. (submitted). Detection of antibody-dependent enhancement of dengue infection in vaccinated macaques enabled early discontinuation of an inactivated and purified dengue virus vaccine candidate. Borges, M. B., Marchevsky, R. S., Mendes, Y. S., Mendes, L. G., Duarte, A. C., Cruz, M., . . . Warter, L. (2018). Characterization of recent and minimally passaged Brazilian dengue viruses inducing robust infection in rhesus macaques. Plos One, 13(4). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0196311

Miami, Fl, Us

As part of Dr. David Watkins' lab, I studied the mechanisms of viral evasion in the immune system, and mapped epitopes to devise a T-cell response vaccine using yellow fever constructs and an RRV boost for treatment of SIV and dengue in Rhesus macaques under a BSL2+ laboratory. The importance of developing a T-cell based vaccine is to reduce viral peaks and induce viral control. Vaccine-induced T-cell responses against directed regions of SIV is thought to increase incidence in elite controlling of the virus.

Atlanta, Ga, Us

Emory University student run volunteer service.

Miami, Fl, Us

We employed fluorescent conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) to deliever siRNAs and knockdown a target gene in plant protoplast. We demonstrated that CPNs could deliver siRNAs targeting specific genes in the cellulose biosynthesis pathways. The results lead to fluorescent conjugated polymers, which allowed for cell imaging and potential early cancer detection.

Master’S Degree, Anatomy And Physiology

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Biology

High School