ANUCHA APISARNTHANARAK
Thailand
CAO BIN
China
ARUNALOKE CHAKRABARTI
India
VINCENT CHENG
Hong Kong
YEE CHUN CHEN
Taiwan
CYNTHIA CHEE
Singapore
CHENG-HSUN CHIU
Taiwan
DOO RYEON CHUNG
Republic of Korea
NICHOLAS DAY
Thailand
YOHEI DOI
Japan
FREDERICK HAYDEN
United States of America
ALISON HOLMES
United Kingdom
MONG HOW OOI
Malaysia
ADEEBA KAMARULZAMAN
Malaysia
GAGANDEEP KANG
India
MACKENZIE L. KWAK
Singapore
ROBERT S. LANGER
United States of America
VERNON LEE
Singapore
LEO YEE SIN
Singapore
SENG GEE LIM
Singapore
JEFFREY LIPMAN
Australia
DIREK LLMMATHUROTSAKUL
Thailand
DEBORAH JE MARRIOTT
Australia
SEBASTIAN MAURER-STROH
Singapore
ZIAD MEMISH
Saudi Arabia
SHERRY MENG-LING MOI
Japan
LISA NG
Singapore
ENG EONG OOI
Singapore
DAVID PATERSON
Australia
MALIK PEIRIS
Hong Kong
LAURENT RENIA
Singapore
JASON ROBERTS
Australia
MONICA SLAVIN
Australia
JAE HOON SONG
Republic of Korea
ARJUN SRINIVASAN
United States of America
KANTA SUBBARAO
Australia
TAN BAN HOCK
Singapore
GUY THWAITES
Vietnam
SHAWN VASOO
Singapore
ANDREAS VOSS
Netherlands
SIRIORN WATCHANARANAN
Thailand
YEO TSIN WEN
Singapore
TIMOTHY WILLIAM
Malaysia
BARNABY YOUNG
Singapore
YI-CHUN (PHILIP) LO, Taiwan
Dr. Yi-Chun (Philip) Lo is currently Deputy Director-General of Taiwan Centers for Disease Control and adjunct infectious disease physician at National Taiwan University Hospital. He received his M.D. from National Taiwan University College of Medicine in 2001 and then volunteered for two years at the Taiwan Medical Mission based in Mzuzu Central Hospital Malawi between 2001 and 2003. He then completed internal medicine residency and clinical infectious disease fellowship at National Taiwan University Hospital. Since changing main career path from clinical medicine to public health in 2008 and completed Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship at the US CDC in 2011, Dr. Lo has been dedicated to controlling the HIV epidemic, leading field investigations, as well as responding to emerging threats including H7N9, ebola, MERS, zika, chikungunya and most recently COVID-19 in Taiwan. For the pandemic response, Dr. Lo is currently the deputy director of the healthcare response team in the COVID-19 Central Epidemic Command Center in Taiwan.
MARGARET HELLARD, Australia
Professor Margaret Hellard AM is a Deputy Director at the Burnet Institute, Head of Hepatitis Services in Department of Infectious Diseases at The Alfred Hospital and an Adjunct Professor at Monash University and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Margaret’s principal research interests are in preventing the transmission and improving the management of blood borne viruses; the ultimate aim being to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public health threat and end the AIDS epidemic. More recently she is also undertaking work to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the community. She has over 500 peer-reviewed publications.
Margaret is a member of numerous advisory committees and working groups on viral hepatitis and HIV within Australia and globally, including Co-Chairing the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on HIV and Viral Hepatitis
WALEED ABDURHMAN ALJABR, Saudi Arabia
Dr. Al-Jabr is a Consultant Clinical Research-Molecular Medical Virologist and the Chairperson of the Biorepository Department at KFMC. He earned his BSc from the College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University in 2002. In 2009 he went to complete his Master’s degree in Medical Microbiology, Biomedical Sciences from the University of Ulster, UK. In 2016 he was awarded his PhD in Virology from the University of Liverpool, UK. His work focuses on respiratory and emerging viruses; SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV, HRSV, using OMICS approaches; metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and Oxford Nanopore sequence. Dr. Al-Jabr has a good experience in Clinical Virology since he served as Lab Specialist at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh for over 9 years, and one year as a Consultant Clinical Lab Scientist at KFMC. Dr. Al-Jabr is working at the cutting edge of scientific and clinical research. And he has established beneficial research networks and relationships with many research groups at the national and international levels.
SHARON LEWIN, Australia
Sharon Lewin is the inaugural director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist. Her research focuses on understanding why HIV persists on treatment and developing clinical trials aimed at ultimately finding a cure for HIV infection. She has had a long standing interest in the natural history and pathogenesis of HIV-hepatitis B co-infection. She is a Clarivate hi-citation scientist and in 2019 was named an officer of the Order of Australia.
RAMANAN LAXMINARAYAN, United States of America
Laxminarayan is founder and director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi, and a senior research scholar at Princeton University. He is an affiliate professor at the University of Washington and a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and at the University of Kwazulu Natal in South Africa. Laxminarayan chairs the board of GARDP, a global product development partnership created by the World Health Organization, that aims to develop and deliver new treatments for bacterial infections. He is founder and board chair at HealthCubed, which works to improve access to healthcare and diagnostics worldwide.
Since 1995, Laxminarayan has worked to improve the understanding of antibiotic resistance as a problem of managing a shared global resource. His work encompasses extensive peer-reviewed research, public outreach, and direct engagement across Asia and Africa through the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership. Through his prolific research, active public outreach (including a TED talk that has been viewed over a million times) and sustained policy engagement, he has played a central role in bringing the issue of drug resistance to the attention of leaders and policymakers worldwide and to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2016.
During the Obama Administration, Laxminarayan served on the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology’s antimicrobial resistance working group and was appointed a voting member of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance. He was recently appointed to a second term by the current administration. He is a series editor of the Disease Control Priorities for Developing Countries, 3rd edition.
In 2003-04, he served on the National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine Committee on the Economics of Antimalarial Drugs and subsequently helped create the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, a $450 million novel financing mechanism for antimalarials that reduced the cost of antimalarials worldwide. In 2012, Laxminarayan created the Immunization Technical Support Unit that supports the immunization program of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India and which is credited with helping introduce four new vaccines and extending vaccination coverage to 3 million infants. As Vice President, Research and Policy at the Public Health Foundation of India between 2011 and 2015, he led the growth of a research division to over 700 technical and research staff.
Laxminarayan currently leads the largest Covid-19 epidemiology study in the world based on extensive contact tracing in India. The flagship paper from this study was published in Science in 2020.
Laxminarayan is an elected fellow of the American Academy for Advancement of Science. He was named a distinguished alumnus by the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in 2019, and by the University of Washington Department of Economics in 2020. He is a winner of the Ella Pringle medal by the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh (Pringle was the first ever woman elected to the RCPE) and the BP Koirala medal in honor of Nepal’s first democratically elected Prime Minister. Laxminarayan’s work has been widely covered in major media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, BBC, Financial Times, CNN, the Economist, LA Times, NBC, NPR, Reuters, Science, Wall Street Journal, and the National Journal. His research includes over 250 books, book chapters, and peer reviewed papers in leading journals including the Lancet, Science and Nature.
PO REN HSUEH, Taiwan
Doctor Hsueh is Professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Internal Medicine at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine (NTUCM). After graduation from NTUCM, he completed several years of clinical internship and residency, specializing in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. Throughout his career, Professor Hsueh has held president positions in several local and international societies, including International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC), Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection (APSCMI), Global Chinese Association of Clinical Microbiology and Infection (GCACMID), Infection Control Society of Taiwan (ICST), Taiwan Society of Microbiology (TSM). He has served as a member of Scientific Program Committee of several international Congresses, including International Congress of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ICC), ASM Microbe, European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and other regional congresses on infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.
Professor Hsueh is currently the president of Taiwan Society of Microbiology (TSM), Taiwan Society of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (TSCPaLM), Secretary-general of Asian Society of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (ASCPaLM), and Executive Committee Member of the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan (IDST). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infection (JMII, impact factor 3.493 in 2019), Section Editor of International Journal Antimicrobial Agents (IJAA), funding editor of Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance (JGAR), and sits on the editorial board of several prestigious journals, and acted as a reviewer for more than 50 journals. His major research interests include epidemiology and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (bacteria, mycobacteria, and fungi), molecular epidemiology of emerging pathogens, molecular diagnosis of infectious agents, and infection control. Professor Hsueh has authored more than 950 original researches and review articles.
JOHN ROSSEN, Netherlands
Prof. dr. John W. A. Rossen has a 30-year history in Molecular Virology and Microbiology and published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles (H-index 43). He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics & Physics (1989, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, Utrecht University) and a Master of Science in Biology (1991, Faculty of Biology, Utrecht University). In 1996, he obtained a PhD in (Molecular) Virology and Cell Biology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University. His PhD research focused on “Coronavirus – Host Interactions.” Since 2004, next to his (fundamental) research, he is actively involved in Molecular Diagnostics and Prevention of Infectious Diseases. As a Professor for Personalized Microbiology, he successfully implemented the use of Next-Generation Sequencing for routine Clinical Microbiology and Infection Prevention. Nowadays, he and his research group focus on applying metagenomics and metatranscriptomics into Clinical Microbiology and Public Health. He is the immediate past president of the ESCMID Study Group for Genomic and Molecular Diagnostics (ESGMD). From the year 2020, he joined IDbyDNA to further power science and medicine to improve health by decoding the unknown, including setting the standard for identifying and understanding microorganisms and their role in human disease. Within his new role, he focuses on Product Strategy (Europe) and Research & Development and Product Development (Global). From March 2020, he is affiliated as an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Pathology of the University of Utah School of Medicine.
JACKIE Y. YING, Singapore
Jackie Y. Ying received her Ph.D. from Princeton University. She was Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT (1992-2005), and Founding Executive Director of Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (2003-2018). She currently leads the NanoBio Lab as A*STAR Senior Fellow. For her research on nanostructured materials and bioengineering, Prof. Ying has been recognized with American Chemical Society Award in Solid-State Chemistry, Technology Review’s Inaugural TR100 Young Innovator Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Allan P. Colburn Award, German National Academy of Sciences Membership, International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Jubilee Medal, Materials Research Society Fellowship, Royal Society of Chemistry Fellowship, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellowship, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship, Islamic World Academy of Sciences Ibrahim Memorial Award, Singapore National Academy of Science Fellowship, U.S. National Academy of Inventors Fellowship, Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher, Turkish Academy of Sciences Science and Engineering Sciences Prize, Journal of Drug Targeting’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and U.S. National Academy of Engineering Membership.
Prof. Ying was elected a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She was named one of the “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era” by AIChE in its Centennial Celebration. She was an Inaugural Inductee for the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame. She was the inaugural winner of the US$500,000 Mustafa Prize “Top Scientific Achievement Award” for her research in bio-nanotechnology. She was the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Nano Today (impact factor: 16.907).
Prof. Ying has authored 382 articles with > 30,300 citations (h index: 82). She has 190 primary patents granted/pending, 41 of which have been successfully licensed. She is founder of 8 start-up companies. One of them, SmartCells, Inc., has developed a nanomedicine that can auto-regulate insulin release based on blood glucose levels. Merck acquired SmartCells, Inc. in 2010, with milestone-based aggregate payments in excess of US$500 million.
H. CLIFFORD LANE, United States of America
Clifford Lane, M.D., is Clinical Director and Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Special Projects for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In this capacity he oversees an array of clinical and research activities.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Lane received his undergraduate education and medical training at the University of Michigan. Following a residency in internal medicine, he joined the NIH for fellowship training in infectious diseases and immunology and has been there since. He initially served as a member of the U.S. Public Health Service, attaining the rank of Rear Admiral.
Dr. Lane’s primary research interests are in the areas of HIV/AIDS and emerging infectious diseases. His HIV research activities range from fundamental basic science to large-scale, international clinical trials. In the area of emerging infectious diseases, he has been involved in studies of unexplained fever, influenza, Ebola and of late, COVID-19. Dr. Lane has partnered with host country governments to establish clinical research programs in Mali, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, Liberia, Guinea, and most recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Dr. Lane co-chairs the U.S. HHS Guidelines Panel for the Use of Antiviral Drugs in Adults and Adolescents with HIV Infection and the NIH Treatment Guidelines Panel for COVID-19. He serves on the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group – International Health of the WHO and the Research Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a member of multiple other professional societies, including the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.
CATHERINE ONG, Singapore
Dr Catherine Ong is Assistant Professor with the Department of Medicine at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS), Consultant with the Division of Infectious Diseases in the National University Hospital, Visiting Consultant at the Singapore Tuberculosis Control Unit and Principal Investigator in the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology (iHealthtech) in NUS. She is Vice-President of the Society of Infectious Disease (Singapore), Honorary Secretary of the Chapter of Infectious Disease Physicians and Treasurer of the College of Clinician-Scientist in the Academy of Medicine Singapore. Catherine Ong graduated in medicine from NUS and during Infectious Diseases specialist training she completed a PhD at Imperial College London funded by the competitive National Research Foundation – Ministry of Health Scholarship, Singapore National Medical Research Council.
Her laboratory focuses on Tuberculosis host-pathogen interactions, biomarker discovery including rapid tests and TB host-directed therapies, publishing in the Lancet Infectious Disease, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, European Respiratory Journal and PLOS Pathogens. She serves the Ministry of Health Singapore in committees, is an Associate Editor for International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and BMC Infectious Disease and in the grant committee of the ExxonMobil NUS Research Fellowship. She was recipient of a Presidential Award prize at the American Society for Leukocyte Biology 2011, the Keystone Symposia Global Health Travel Award by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2012, the International Investigator Award by the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2013, the Singapore NMRC Transition Award 2015, the NMRC Clinician Scientist Award 2018 and Institut Merieux-SIDS Young Investigator Award 2018.
ROBIN PATEL, United States of America
Dr. Robin Patel is the Elizabeth P. and Robert E. Allen Professor of Individualized Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology, Director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, and Co-Director of the Clinical Bacteriology Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic. She is board certified in Infectious Diseases, as well as Medical and Public Health Microbiology. Dr. Patel is a Past-President of the American Society for Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Dr. Patel’s research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on bacterial resistance, development and utilization of diagnostic tests, and biofilms. She has published almost 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts.
In addition to her positions at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Patel has been a member of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Council, and is the Director of the NIH Laboratory Center for the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), an advisor to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, a member of the American Board of Pathology Medical Microbiology and Clinical Pathology for ABPath CertLinkTM Test Development and Advisory Committees, and an associate editor of Clinical Infectious Diseases. She is also a past chair of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Microbiology and Immunology Test Material Development Committee and a current member of a U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Item Review Group.
GREGORY C. GRAY, United States of America
Gregory C. Gray MD, MPH, is an infectious disease epidemiologist and Professor at Duke University’s School of Medicine. He also serves as a Professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore and at Duke Kunshan University in China.
He leads the Duke One Health Network which involves more than 30 professionals studying more than 30 pathogens under 30 research and training projects running in multiple countries.
He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters.
WING HONG SETO, Hong Kong
Relevant Qualifications & Training:
MBBS, University of Singapore.
Fellow of HK Academy of Medicine and HK College of Pathologist (Founding Fellow)
MRCP (Member of Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom)
MRCPI (Member of Royal College of Physicians, Ireland)
FRCPath (Fellow of Royal College of Pathologist, United Kingdom)
Certificate in Infection Control (CDC, USA)
Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ, USA)
F1000 Prime Faculty Member since 2014
Present Position:
Co-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
Clinical Professor (Hon.), School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
Brief Dossier:
Professor WH Seto has been a Clinical Microbiologist for many years and was the first Chief of Service (COS) of the Department of Microbiology of Queen Mary Hospital, from 1993 to 2010. He was also the first Chief Infection Control Officer (CICO) of the Hospital Authority.
Professor WH Seto played a key role in initiating Infection Control in Hong Kong and started the local training course for Infection Control Practitioners in 1985. He is involved extensively in Infection Control education throughout China and the region and is the Founding President of the Asia Pacific Society of Infection Control. Besides being Honorary Professor for the University of Hong Kong, he has been appointed Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and he was a visiting professor for the University of New South Wales.
He was conferred honorary professorships by several universities in China including Honorary Professorship by the Postgraduate Military Medical College of the PLA General Hospital (301). The People’s Liberation Army of China has in addition appointed him honorary consultant for Infection control in 1999.
He is the past Chairman of the Scientific Committee on Infection Control of the Centre for Health Protection of HKSAR Government. On publications, he has authored nearly 200 research papers, including the book “Infection Control for the Asian Healthcare Worker”. Many international societies has invited him to speak on Infections and Infection Control.
The WHO has also regularly assigned him as advisor for various projects in Antibiotics Resistance and Infection Control; and he is a core group member for the WHO Hand Hygiene guideline. He was also a member of the Emergency Committee of the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the WHO for the 2009 Flu Pandemic, a member of the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network (GIPC). In the recent COVID 19 pandemic, he is also an expert in the WHO GDG (Guidance Development Group) and WHO R&D (Research and Development) Group.
He has been awarded the “Bronze Bauhinia Star” in 2004 and “Silver Bauhinia Star” in 2011 from the Hong Kong Government for his work in Infection Control and Quality Healthcare in Hong Kong. From Taiwan, he was also awarded the prestigious “Yen Award”.
He is also active in the related field of Quality Healthcare Management and is presently the President of the Asia Pacific Society of Healthcare Quality. He is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and was the CPHQ Examination Committee in 2000-2001. Since 2014, he is also a F1000 Prime Faculty Member.
MOI LIN LING, Singapore
A/Prof Ling Moi Lin, MBBS, FRCPA, CPHQ, MBA
A/Prof Ling Moi Lin received her medical education at the National University of Singapore. She obtained her postgraduate training in Microbiology at the Victoria University of Manchester, is a member of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, and is a certified professional in healthcare quality (CPHQ).
She is currently the Director of Infection Prevention & Epidemiology at the Singapore General Hospital where she plays a key role in the development and running of the program in the hospital. She is also the Director of Infection Prevention, Singhealth.
She is the President of the Infection Control Association (Singapore) and President of the Asia Pacific Society of Infection Control (APSIC). She was a Director on the Healthcare Quality Certification Board (HQCB) and its Asia Pacific representative from 2006-2007. She helped to set up the Healthcare Quality Society of Society in 2007 and is its founding President. She is a fellow of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and also a member of the Editorial Council of the International Journal of Infection Control and the Infection Disease and Health Journal.
She is an active member of the WHO Global Infection Prevention and Control Network, WHO Infection Prevention and Control Research and Development Expert Group for COVID-19 and WHO COVID-19 IPC Guidance Development Group of experts. She is also an active member of the National Infection Prevention Committee at Ministry of Health, Singapore.
Her interests are in infection prevention and control, antimicrobial resistance, molecular epidemiology as well as quality improvement. She is an experienced trainer in infection prevention and control, quality improvement, LEAN and patient safety.
LINFA WANG, Singapore
Linfa Wang, PhD, FTSE
Professor
Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases
Duke-NUS Medical School
Other Affiliations:
Professor, Duke Global Health Institute
Honorary Professor, University of Melbourne
Honorary Professor, Chinese Academy of Science
Prof Wang is a Professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. He is one of the world’s leading experts in zoonotic diseases, bat immunology and pathogen discovery.
His early research was at the Monash Centre for Molecular Biology and Medicine. In 1990, he joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) where he played a leading role in identifying bats as the natural host of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. His research then extended from bat-borne viruses to better understand virus-bat interaction and how bats co-exist with a large number of viruses without developing clinical diseases. His recent research contributions include developing antibody based serological tests to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak, and the early and successful culture of the virus from an infected patents sample. His team is currently focusing on research into the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and developing assays which can better assess vaccine efficacy in the context of a potential immunity passport strategy and the challenges faced by the emergence of different virus variants.
Prof Wang is a member of multiple World Health Organization committees on COVID-19. His work has been recognised internationally through various international awards, numerous invited speeches at major international conferences and more than 400 scientific papers including many top scientific publications in Science, Nature, Nature Reviews in Microbiology, Lancet and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), along with five patents and many invited book chapters. He holds a number of honorary positions and memberships and has received numerous awards such as the 2014 Eureka Prize for Research in Infectious Diseases. Prof Wang was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2010 and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2021 in recognition of his expertise in new and emerging diseases. He is also active internationally by serving on various editorial boards for publication in the areas of virology, microbiology and infectious diseases. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Virology Journal.
Prof Wang holds a PhD degree from the University of California, Davis USA and a Bachelor’s degree from the East China Normal University, Shanghai China.
SANJAY CHOTIRMALL, Singapore
Sanjay Haresh Chotirmall is an internationally recognised clinician-scientist and Provost’s Chair in Molecular Medicine at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore. He leads the Translational Respiratory Research Group at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine whose work focuses on infection, inflammation, and immunity, in the context of chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases affecting Asian populations.
KIAT RUXRUNGTHAM, Thailand
Professor of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University
Director, Covid-19 vaccine Development Program, Chula VRC
Ex-Vice President on Research and Innovation,
Chulalongkorn University;
Scientific chair, Chula Vaccine Research Center (Chula VRC),
Chulalongkorn University;
Tel: +66-86-335-3655, Fax: +(662) 254 7574
Email: kiat.r@chula.ac.th
Kiat Ruxrungtham, MD,
is a Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine , Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University; and Scientific Chair of the Chula Vaccine Research Center (ChulaVRC); and Director of the Covid19 Vaccine Development Program, ChulaVRC.
He is providing teaching and patient care at the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University; and is mentoring junior researchers on HIV medicine, vaccine, immunology, and allergy researches and also on clinical trials.
He has published more than 350 peer review papers on HIV, immunology, allergy, and vaccine. He is currently leading the Chula-Covid19 vaccine development program.
He is a faculty member of the faculty 1000 of Medicine, an editorial board member of the Scientific Report, Asia Pacific J of Allergy and Immunology (Editor-in-Chief) , and ImmunoTargets and Therapy.
TAN YEN EE, Singapore
Dr Tan Yen Ee is a medical microbiologist in the Department of Microbiology, Singapore General Hospital. She did her undergraduate medical training at the National University of Singapore and completed her specialist microbiology training at the Singapore General Hospital. A fellowship to further her training in medical mycology at the Clinical Mycology Reference Laboratory, Centre for Infectious Diseases & Microbiology Laboratory Services (CIDMLS), Westmead Hospital, New South Wales Australia was awarded to her in 2016 under the Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) Fellowship Programme.
Her research interests are in the development of relevant clinical diagnostics and medical mycology.
HUI WANG, China
Hui Wang, Professor and Director of Department of Clinical Laboratory in Peking University People’s Hospital. Dr. Wang is the recipient of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars Award in China. She has a long-standing interest in elucidating the molecular epidemiology and mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance of clinical significant pathogens, especially on A. baumannii, K. pneumoniae and S. aureus. Sponsored by more than 20 national grants, Dr. Wang has published more than 300 papers. She is the member of Breakpoint Working Group of Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). She is also the Head of the Subcommittee of Clinical Microbiology, Society of Microbiology and Immunology of Chinese Medical Association, the President of Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare.
ANTONIO BERTOLETTI, Singapore
Antonio Bertoletti, MD is an expert in the field of viral hepatitis, with a specific interest in the immunopathogenesis of HBV infection. He began working in viral hepatitis as a medical student at the University of Parma (Italy). During his MD specialization (1991) in Infectious Diseases he spent two years at The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla) characterizing for the first time the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) specific cytotoxic T cell response in man. He returned to the University of Parma, where he worked in the Department of Infectious Diseases as a Clinical Scientist continuing his study of human HBV specific T cells. Dr. Bertoletti then joined (1995) the MRC Unit in the Gambia, as Senior Immunologist, to study HIV-2 specific T cell Immunity before accepting a position of Senior Lecturer at “The UCL Institute of Hepatology” at University College of London (UK) (1997).
In 2006 he moved to Singapore where he was the Director of Infection and Immunity Program at the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (A*STAR) until 2013 before moving, as Full Professor, at the Emerging Viral Disease Program at Duke-NUS Medical School. He also maintains an Adjunct Position at the Singapore Immunology Network, (A*STAR). He won for two consecutive terms the Singapore Translational Research Awards (2013 and 2018).
In 2015 he founded Lion TCR Pte (http://liontcr.com), a biotech company developing immune-based treatments for virus-related cancers (HBV-HCC and EBV related malignancies) and chronic viral infections. This immune therapy utilizes T cell receptors engineered T cells targeting viral antigens express in cancer cells. The company has been the first to initiate and run clinical trials (Phase I and II) for the treatment of HBV-related HCC relapses in liver transplant patients and in primary HCC in Singapore and China. At present he is Chairman of the Board and major shareholder.
His current research is focus on the development of new immunological based therapies (TCRredirected T cells) for the treatment of HBV chronic infection and Hepatocellular carcinoma and on the characterization of antiviral Immunity in chronic HBV patients. In the last 6 months, after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, his laboratory has been actively involved in the characterization of SARS-COV2 specific T cell immune response (Le Bert et al, Nature 2020, 584: 457-62) in COVID-19 and SARS convalescent and healthy individuals.
NIRANJAN NAGARAJAN, Singapore
Dr. Nagarajan is Associate Director and Senior Group Leader in the Genome Institute of Singapore, and Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on developing cutting edge genome analytic tools and using them to study the role of microbial communities in human health. His team conducts research at the interface of genetics, computer science and microbiology, in particular using a systems biology approach to understand host-microbiomepathogen interactions in various disease conditions. Dr. Nagarajan received a B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2000, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University in 2006 (Advisor: Prof. Uri Keich). He did his postdoctoral work in the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland working on problems in genome assembly and metagenomics (Advisor: Prof. Mihai Pop).
KALISVAR MARIMUTHU, Singapore
Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu is currently a senior consultant at National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Singapore. He is the director of infection prevention and control office of Woodlands Health Campus (WHC) and he leads the HAI surveillance unit at NCID. As part of the HMDP program, Dr Marimuthu trained at the Infection Prevention and control office of University of Geneva. Currently, he serves as a member of the National Infection Prevention and Control Committee (NIPC) of Singapore. He is also a member of the of WHO Health Emergency Program (WHE) Ad-Hoc advisory panel of IPC for COVID-19 (WHE-IPC-AP).
During COVID-19 outbreak, Dr Kalisvar and his team from NCID worked mainly on the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 and the impact of the epidemic on antimicrobial resistance and hospital-acquired infections.
DAVID HEYMANN, United Kingdom
David Heymann is a medical epidemiologist and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at LSHTM. From 1989 to 2009 he held various leadership positions in infectious diseases at WHO, and in 2003 headed the WHO global response to SARS in his role as executive director of communicable diseases. In 1976, after spending two years working in India on smallpox eradication, Heymann was a member of the CDC (Atlanta) team to investigate the first Ebola outbreak in DRC and stayed on in sub-Saharan Africa for 13 years in various field research positions on Ebola, monkeypox, Lassa Fever, malaria and other tropical diseases. Heymann has published over 250 peer reviewed articles and book chapters, is editor of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, and is an elected member of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. In 2009 he was named an Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to global health.