Alina Baum is a Senior Staff Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals where she is leading the COVID-19 spike antibody program currently in clinical trials. She received her PhD in molecular virology from the lab of Adolfo Garcia-Sastre at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and performed postdoctoral studies with Charlie Rice at Rockefeller University. Her academic career focused on studying interactions between RNA viruses and the innate immune system. In her current position at Regeneron, she is leading a virology research group developing novel therapies for viral infections including influenza and hepatitis B, and emerging pathogens such as Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, as well as the development of oncolytic viruses and vaccines for cancer immunotherapy.