Indira T Kudva is a Research Microbiologist and Lead Scientist at the National Animal Disease Center, USDA, Ames, Iowa. She has received her BSc in Zoology and MSc in Medical Microbiology degrees from India, PhD in Microbiology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Idaho and trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Idaho, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has over 25 years of experience in the field of microbiology, molecular biology and infectious diseases. She has 29 peer-reviewed publications, 3 invited reviews, 27 meeting abstracts, 18 invited talks, 8 funded grants and novel inventions (4 patent applications). She is also an adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University; the Executive Editor for the “Virulence Mechanisms of Bacterial Pathogens” book, 5th Edition, ASM press and is on the Editorial Boards of the Applied and Environmental Microbiology (ASM press) and the SRL Proteomics and Bioinformatics (SciRes Literature) journals.

STEC interactions and factors

Amrita Dosanjh is a Pediatric Pulmonologist in San Diego and a member of several editorial boards. She completed her training at Harvard, CHOP and UCSD School of Medicine. Her studies have included investigations of respiratory viruses using cellular and molecular techniques.

Respiratory diseases

Fernanda De Freitas Anibal had her PhD from University of São Paulo, Brazil in Basic and Applied Immunology. She is a Principal Investigator at Laboratory of Parasitology (Federal University of São Carlos) seeks new tools for the treatment, prevention and diagnostics for infectious diseases. Currently, they are working with two plants and six enzymes and their effects against schistosomiasis mansoni and toxocariasis, about the treatment of the infectious diseases, their group studies effects of plants (extracts) and their isolated fractions in order to evaluate the anti-parasitic and anti-inflammatory effects and for infectious disease prevention, moreover have been working on the evaluation of the proteins of the parasite that has been potential to induce immune responses that decrease the parasite burden.

Immune responses

Maria Paula Ramalho Bajanca-Lavado has completed her PhD in Biomedical Science, specialty Microbiology and is responsible for the Haemophilus influenzae Reference Laboratory, Department of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health in Lisbon, Portugal. She has published several scientific publications in peer-review journals, along with other scientific productions, including invited lectures, oral communications and posters presented in international conferences. Her research is focused at H. influenzae infections, in different clinical and epidemiological aspects.

H. influenzae infections

Vera Manageiro has a PhD in Biology, specialty Microbiology and a B. Sc. degree in Applied Chemistry – Biotechnology (5 years). Nowadays, she is a Postdoctoral researcher at the National Reference Laboratory of Antimicrobial Resistances and Healthcare-Associated Infections (NRL-AR/HAI), Department of Infectious Diseases, at the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal. She has also developed teaching activities in two universities as assistant professor in the classes of General Microbiology, Molecular Microbiology, Food Microbiology and Bioinformatics. To date, Vera Manageiro published several scientific publications in peer-review journals, along with other scientific productions, including invited lectures, oral communications and posters presented in international conferences or congresses.

Antibiotic resistance

Stef Stienstra is a strategic and creative Consultant in Biomedical Science with a parallel career as a Commander of the Reserve of the Royal Dutch Navy. For the Dutch Armed Forces he has responsibility for the counter measures in CBNRe threats and (medical) consequence management both in a military and a civilian (terrorism) setting. In his civil career he works internationally as a Consultant or as Scientific Supervisory Board Member for several medical and biotech companies, merely involved in biodefense. He is also a Visiting Professor for Punjab University in Pakistan and Rhein-Waal University in Germany. He has completed his studies in Medicine and in Biochemistry at the University of Groningen in Netherlands and has extensive practical experience in cell biology, immuno-hematology, biodefense and transfusion medicine.

Ebola

Elias Tannous is an infection control professional with more than 20 years experience in the healthcare setting. He holds degree in Nursing from the French Ministry of Health and from Saint Joseph University in Lebanon, degrees in Business Administrations and Human Resource/Personnel Management from UK and Certified Board in Infection Control, USA since 2008. He has coordinated, co-directed and facilitated loads of IC educational activities and has been heavily involved in major infection control activities, projects and programs for the past 10 years, including commissioning of new facilities, developing surveillance programs and evaluating IC programs.

Infection control

Naim Deniz Ayaz is an Associate Professor of the Department of Food Hygiene and Technology at Kirikkale University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. He has received his PhD in Food Hygiene and Technology from the Ankara University in 2008. He is the Vice Dean and Executive Board Member of Kirikkale University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; an Expert of the Biosafety Clearing-House Mechanism of Turkey; a Research and Advisory Board Member of the National Red Meat Council and an Editorial Board Member of several scientific journals. His main research interests are food microbiology, characterization of food-borne pathogens, bacteriophages, biocontrol of pathogens and bacterial antibiotic resistance.

Food microbiology

Aziz Alami Chentoufi is a Consultant and Head of Immunology/Serology/HLA section at Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, King Fahad Medical City (KFMC). He is also an Assistant Professor of Immunology at Faculty of Medicine, King Saud Ibn AbdulAziz University. He is the Chairperson of Research Committee of PCLMA-KFMC. He is the Diplomate of the American Board of Medical laboratory Immunology D(ABMLI ), Fellow of the Association of Clinical Sciences (FACSc), accredited by the European Society of Translational Medicine (PCTM) and Fellow of the Academy of translational Medicine (FacadTM). He received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences (Tolerance induction to xenogenic and allogenic antigens using monoclonal antibody anti-igM and anti-IgD) from the University Catholic of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium in 1999. He has done postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University, Montreal, Canada from 1999 to 2004 where he worked on immunogenetic of type 1 Diabetes and gene therapy for graft versus host disease then he was appointed as specialist at the University of California Irvine-Medical Center, Irvine, California, USA in 2006 where he was a key investigator in the development of mucosal vaccine against herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2. He is an independent Immunologist with a national and international reputation in vaccine development against both infectious and autoimmune diseases. He is well-integrated into the scientific community within the United States as well as Europe and Saudi Arabia and he is actively involved in a number of professional societies including American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetic (ASHI), Association of Clinical Scientist, Canadian Society of Immunology and The Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS). He is PI and Co-PI in a number of research grant proposals and associate editor in many scientific journals and has more than 50 publications in high impact factor journals.

Cellular and molecular immunology

Junie Lia Monica is an MD, Ph D, Professor, Head Microbiology Department, "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj Napoca, Romania. She is a Coordinator of resident doctor’s in the Laboratory Medicine specialty and Leadership PhD doctor’s thesis in Medicine field. She is a Board Member of European professional Societies ESCMID (ESGCP Study Groups), Society of Chemotherapy, Scientia Parasitologica Pro Vita and is a Reviewer of international reviews, Member of International organizations, Director/Coordinator in research projects. She has more than 63 papers published in full in international journals and is an editorial board member of national reviews. She is an Organizer/President, Keynote, Invited Speaker and Chair of International and National Congresses.

Microbiology