Stephen S. Whitehead PhD

Stephen Whitehead is currently a Senior Scientist in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID), NIAID, NIH in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Whitehead received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Oregon State University. Following postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University, NY, he joined LID as a postdoctoral fellow with a primary interest in the development of vaccines against the respiratory syncytial virus. Several of the vaccine candidates he developed continue to be tested and have been licensed to a pharmaceutical partner. As a Senior Associate Scientist in the same laboratory, his current research is focused on the development and evaluation of live attenuated vaccine candidates for dengue and other vector-borne viruses, such as West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, and Japanese encephalitis virus.

The molecular virological approach involves producing candidate vaccine viruses from full-length cDNA, which allows the introduction of mutations affecting the level of viral attenuation. He is an active participant in the laboratory and pre-clinical testing of candidate vaccines and coordinates the production of clinical lots, including safety testing and quality control. He has extensive experience in the replication of the dengue virus in non-human primates. He actively participates in the design and review of the clinical evaluation of vaccine candidates in humans.

He has directly supervised numerous postdoctoral fellows, post-bac IRTA trainees, and laboratory technicians. Over the course of the project, he has developed numerous live attenuated vaccine candidates, many of which are currently undergoing clinical evaluation in humans. He is an inventor on over 10 patents and the dengue virus vaccine technology has been licensed around the world to companies interested in controlling dengue disease. He has a proven record in vaccine development and continues to research the immunological response to dengue virus infection and vaccination.