Michael O. Favorov, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sсi. (Medicine)Favorov

President, DiaPrep System Inc., Atlanta, GA, United States; Chief Scientific Officer, Turklab, Turkey

SCOPUS AuthorID

 

Research interests

Proven track record of developing public health programs in infection diseases including SARS‐1, COVID‐19, Viral Hepatitis (VH) A, B, C, D, and E, HIV, TB, surveillance, diagnostics, improvement of laboratory management systems, outbreak investigations, vaccine trials, designing and implementing international policy for PH program strengthening.

Work Experience

05/2018 – present time — President, DiaPrep System Inc., Atlanta, GA, United States

  • Provides a wide range of advisory services for strategic planning, development, and improvement of national health policy and programming models, based on evidence‐based approaches that contribute to the modernization, rationalization, and effectiveness of interventions to improve public health.
  • Supports the public health care efforts of government, private, and non‐profit institutions in pursuing the goals of well‐being and of protecting public health. Assists with improving the education levels of medical service providers.
  • Promotes the use of modern, reliable, and affordable diagnostic tools for the control and prevention of socially significant infectious diseases and helps strengthen laboratory systems to ensure highquality standards of testing.

10/2019 – present time — Chief Scientific Officer, Turklab, Turkey

  • Technical support with establishing scientific direction and strategies; makes recommendations on new research opportunities and technologies. Including COVID‐19 diagnostic capability development and implementation for PH settings.
  • Provides technical support on research and development of new products; serves as principal investigator for research projects.
  • Guides scientific publications, writing grant proposals and ensuring that projects are designed to meet public health needs.


06/2014 – 05/2018 — Associate Chief for Central & Eastern Europe, International Laboratory Branch, Division of Global Health HIV/AIDS, USA Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

  • Helped modify national health policies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to expand HIV testing capacities and improve HIV treatment and care programs in the region.
  • Coordinated regional HIV laboratory capacity building activities, including those on HIV molecular testing. Ensured strategic and field support for comprehensive laboratory quality management system (QMS) implementation in Central Asia.
  • Worked in close collaboration with the Global Fund (GF) and regional WHO programs on:
    • HIV laboratory capacity building strategies.
    • Consolidation of regional action plans and implementation procedures
    • Evaluation of HIV program practices and development of approaches for providing measurable results in compliance with PEPFAR, GF, and WHO requirements.

03/2008 – 06/2011 — Deputy Director‐General, International Vaccine Institute
Seoul, South Korea

  • Provided scientific leadership, support and oversight to the Translational Research Division in the Institute while leading several global public health programs designed to increase the evidencebased practice for public health among various countries in Asia and Africa.
  • Designed and implemented several independently funded studies focusing on epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases, laboratory diagnostic, vaccines, and vaccination programs in several countries, including Pakistan, Uzbekistan, India, Vietnam, Philippines, Madagascar, South Africa and Kenya and others. Managed an annual budget of more than 30 million USD
  • Conceptualized, designed, and assembled a research team to conduct a comprehensive multicountry TB program evaluation to identify deaths averted by DOTS implementation; the research team also evaluated TB diagnostic, prevention, effectiveness of BCG vaccines through controlled multiple cohort studies in Kazakhstan.
  • Introduced nationwide evidence‐based vaccination policy, including BCG vaccination.
  • In multiple countries, led multiple field studies to characterize disease burden, conduct pre‐licensure clinical evaluations, and implement several demonstration projects designed to assess feasibility and impact of new vaccines.
  • Assess status of laboratory practices (facilities, personnel, equipment, and testing methods), and the quality of the results is assured (e.g. proficiency testing, internal and external audits, personnel competency evaluation, etc.) as part of vaccine related studies in developing countries.
  • In multiple countries, conducted several policy analyses to evaluate prospective vaccine channels for introducing new vaccines and created an equitable model for indigenous and sustainable financing.
  • Designed multiple training programs for epidemiologists, public health managers, and lab specialists, to increase the practice of public health by using a “case study approach” for the control of highly prevalent threats to the health of the public, including typhoid, tuberculosis, and cholera.

11/2000 – 03/2008 — CDC Central Asia Regional Director, USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

  • Provided supervision and scientific leadership to the USAG‐supported five country program of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Central Asia, with offices in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Supervised and led a team of 46 scientists and program staff in five countries and managed an annual budget of more than 8 million USD.
  • Oversaw development and evaluation activities involving collaboration with counterparts related to establishing epidemiology‐laboratory related training programs Central Asia.
  • Managed and coordinated funding from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Soros Foundation for epidemiology‐laboratory training courses from Russian at CDC Atlanta for 54 physicians from the former Soviet Union.
  • Assisted in directing and coordinating CDC’s activities in Central Asia to develop and implement appropriate policies for infectious disease control. This included guiding the CDC Regional Office (a public health advisor and four locally‐hired staff) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with support from USAID.
  • Coordinated establishing a regional HIV, hepatitis reference laboratories in the region, national tuberculosis laboratories in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Provided the technical assistance the region to initiate immunization of birth cohorts with hepatitis B vaccine.
  • Coordinated an epidemiologic and laboratory investigation into characterization of cases of anthrax infection observed over 20 years in Kazakhstan.
  • Assisted in creation and support of the worldwide organization of Training Programs in Epidemiology for Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET).
  • Designed, implemented, and evaluated multiple pioneering epidemiology and laboratory studies in the region, mobilized a coordinated multiple country strategy to build indigenous capacity to respond to these threats. Control strategies concerned TB, HIV, polio, malaria, and other infectious diseases in countries of Central Asia and several neighboring countries, including the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
  • Mobilized multiple, multi‐country outbreak investigations of TB (including multidrug‐resistant‐TB (MDR‐TB), HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and several special pathogens including anthrax, botulism, plague, hemorrhagic fevers, and other infectious diseases in five countries of the Central Asia Region, and helped build national disease specific surveillance and response capacity.
  • Designed, evaluated, and supported the adoption of integrated routine surveillance for HIV/hepatitis C (HCV)/syphilis surveillance programs among high‐risk groups, design and improve laboratory system capacity, building and strengthening laboratory related activities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
  • Led a multi‐country process to establish the first national public health reference laboratories for hepatitis in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, and instituted the regions first laboratory quality control program.
  • Founded the first Central Asia Regional Infectious Disease Working Group, a multi‐country knowledge base, which tackled issues of public health policy, educational programs, regulatory actions, and supported evidence‐based decision making with a special focus on infectious diseases including anthrax, plague, and hemorrhagic fever throughout the region.
  • Established a network of scientists, government officials, and public health professionals in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan to prevent and control TB, HIV, malaria, and emerging infections.
  • Initiated a malaria eradication campaign in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, with Tajikistan being the first country to eradicate malaria.
  • Designed and led a process that established the first Field Epidemiology/Laboratory Training Programs (FELTP) in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. These FELTPs investigated more than 80 disease outbreaks, and more than 20 studies were conducted by FELTP officers, including a vaccine study which resulted in the adoption of a more effective Hepatitis A prevention strategy in the region and approx. 3,000 lives saved annually in Central Asia as a result of initiating and establishing policy for hepatitis B (HBV) universal immunization across the five countries.
  • Provided frequent written reports and recommendations to the U.S. Ambassadors and CDC leadership and to the Ministries of Health and delivered frequent high level presentations on HIV/AIDS epidemiology in Central Asia to key stakeholders, including Ministries of Health, CDC program staff, US Embassies, and international organizations.

07/1998 – 11/2000 — Senior Service Fellow, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of International Health, CDC, Atlanta, GA, United States

  • Planned, designed, implemented and evaluated multiple epidemiologic studies, surveys and investigations of viral hepatitis.
  • Pioneered the regions first integrated disease‐specific infectious disease surveillance systems in highly endemic areas of Asia and Central Asia.
  • Managed and coordinated funding from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Soros Foundation for epidemiology courses in Russian at CDC for 54 physicians from the former Soviet Union. Assisted in directing and coordinating CDC’s activities in Central Asia to develop and implement appropriate policies for infectious disease control. This included guiding the CDC Regional Office (a public health advisor and four locally‐hired staff) in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with support from USAID.
  • Established and strengthened multiple national public health reference laboratories and improved quality control programs in developing and transitional economic countries, in Eastern Europe and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
  • Coordinated an epidemiologic and laboratory investigation into characterization of cases of anthrax infection observed over 20 years in Kazakhstan.
  • Design, coordinated and provide methodological support of population‐based study on Hepatitis C prevalence among risk groups in Russia.
  • Assisted in coordinating an evaluation of a WHO‐funded trial of Directly‐Observed Short‐Course Therapy (DOTS) for tuberculosis in Kyrgyzstan. Based on results of this evaluation and subsequent training efforts, neighboring Kazakhstan changed its national policy in 1998 for surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, and control of tuberculosis, reflecting WHO recommendations. Provided the technical assistance for Kazakhstan to develop a national DOTS program for tuberculosis. As of July 2005, it was estimated that this change of policy had resulted in 18,000 lives saved in a 7‐year period.

06/1991 – 07/1998 — Science Fellow, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Division of Hepatitis Control, Atlanta, GA, United States

  • Designed laboratory diagnostic tests for hepatitis E virus (HEV) and completed seroprevalence studies of infection in the United States, Israel, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, South Africa, Moldova, Russia, India, Kenya, and Italy. This test is the gold standard for detecting HEV in blood.
  • Introduced pioneer confirmatory test for HEV by using western blot principles for anti‐HEV confirmation with antigen differ then immune‐assay based HEV recombinant antigen Researched hepatitis D (HDV) virus in its naturally occurring environment, HDV recombinant antigens, and diagnostic capacity for HDV.


06/1989 – 06/1991 — Director Clinical & Diagnostic Department of Viral Hepatitis, D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow, USSR; Center Director, Soviet Union National Center for Viral Hepatitis, WHO Collaborating Center of Excellence, Moscow, USSR

  • Evaluated disease‐specific surveillance systems, studies of epidemiological trends, and sero‐surveys in various parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
  • Oversaw hepatitis A and B vaccine trials and vaccine evaluation programs in endemic areas.
  • Developed a novel diagnostic test for hepatitis C virus (HCV), including anti‐HCV IgM.

06/1985 – 06/1989 — Senior Researcher, D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow, USSR

  • Planned, prioritized, and managed research on various aspects of viral hepatitis infections.
  • Determined etiology of fulminant and chronic forms of hepatitis and developed a diagnostic test for hepatitis infections.
  • Conceptualized and developed principles for diagnostic and case management of viral hepatitis including fulminant HEV infection among pregnant women.
  • Established principles for using interferon in the treatment of acute and chronic forms of HCV and HDV infections.
  • Oversaw the launch of a national viral hepatitis reference laboratory in countries of former Soviet Union.
  • Spearheaded comparative epidemiological analyses of viral hepatitis outbreaks in China and Central Asian Republics in tandem with the National Institute of Virology in Beijing.
  • Supervised clinical trials of interferon and antiviral.

06/1980 – 06/1985 — Associate Researcher, D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow, USSR

  • Directed epidemiologic investigations of fecal‐orally transmitted viral hepatitis non‐A and non‐B.
  • Designed and developed immune‐diagnostic tests for hepatitis viruses using enzyme immune assay and Western Blot analysis.
  • Orchestrated prevention measures in various highly endemic regions.

06/1977 – 06/1980 — Research Assistant, D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Moscow, USSR

  • Epidemiologic investigations of fecal‐orally transmitted viral hepatitis non‐A and non‐B.
  • Implementation of prevention measures in various regions of high endemicity.
  • Designed and developed immune‐diagnostic tests for hepatitis viruses using enzyme immune assay and Western Blot analysis.

06/1976 – 06/1977 — Physician, First Moscow Infectious Diseases Hospital, Moscow, USSR

  • Provided patient care in the infective diseases intensive care department

Education:
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Offices
Major: Ph.D. Infectious Disease
Relevant Coursework, Licenses and Certifications:
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Offices
Evaluation of International Educational Credentials
Transcript of Academic records ‐ Ph.D.
Moscow Medical School Moscow, Russia
Master's Degree 06/1975
Major: General Medicine Minor: Infectious Diseases
Residency (Infectious Disease) Moscow, USSR, 1976–1977, Master's Degree
Doctor of Medical Science (Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases) Moscow, USSR, 1988 USSR,
Doctorate

Awards:

  • The United States Ambassador’s Distinguished Service Award for positive impact on the growth and development of public health in the Central Asian Region in Public Health, 2006, 2008
  • The United States Agency for International Development Meritorious Honor Award for outstanding performance in the prevention and response to infectious diseases in the countries of Central Asia, 2006.
  • The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention Honor Award for Global Health Achievement, 2006
  • Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan Republics — Medals of Honor for Excellence in Public Health, 2008
  • M.S. Balayan’s Medal for the Contribution to the Study of Hepatitis E., 2015

Affiliations:

  • TEPHINET — Board Member 1998‐2013
  • WHO experts group, TB control and prevention, monitoring and evaluation ‐ Working Group Member 1998‐2005
  • American Society of Microbiology — Member
  • WHO experts, Typhoid Fever diagnostic, control and prevention — Member 2008‐2012

Patents:

  • U.S. Patent # 5,445,932, issued August 29, 1995. Method for Detection of a New Marker Associated with Hepatitis Delta Virus Infection.
  • U.S. Patent # 5,563,032, issued October 8, 1996. Mosaic Polypeptide and Methods for Detecting the Hepatitis E Virus.
  • U.S. Patent # 6,022,685, issued February 8, 2000. Methods and Composition for Detecting Anti‐Hepatitis Virus Activity.

Co‐authored more than 100 publications. Citation 2207; h‐index 28



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