Inovio Pharmaceuticals’ advisory board chairman David B. Weiner, PhD, has been elected a fellow in the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Weiner, sometimes called the "father of synthetic DNA vaccines," was honored for his pioneering and enabling discoveries in the area of synthetic DNA vaccines and promoting the nascent field of research during its early stages. He was recognized at the Fellows Forum held February 18 in Vancouver, Canada.

A professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Weiner helped to found the field of synthetic DNA vaccines in the early 1990s. His laboratory and collaborators were responsible for the first synthetic DNA vaccine Investigational New Drug application (IND). This IND for HIV immune therapy became the first IND approved as a synthetic DNA therapeutic vaccine. His studies were the first to establish that synthetic DNA vaccines appear well tolerated and are immunogenic in humans.

The AAAS Fellowship is based on scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Members have been elected to the organization by their peers since 1874.