CAO BIN
China
ARUNALOKE CHAKRABARTI
India
VINCENT CHENG
Hong Kong
CHENG-HSUN CHIU
Taiwan
NICHOLAS DAY
Thailand
YOHEI DOI
Japan
FREDERICK HAYDEN
United States of America
ALISON HOLMES
United Kingdom
VERNON LEE
Singapore
SENG GEE LIM
Singapore
SEBASTIAN MAURER-STROH
Singapore
MALIK PEIRIS
Hong Kong
MONICA SLAVIN
Australia
JAE HOON SONG
Republic of Korea
GUY THWAITES
Vietnam
ANDREAS VOSS
Netherlands
YEO TSIN WEN
Singapore
TIMOTHY WILLIAM
Malaysia
YEE CHUN CHEN
Taiwan
BARNABY YOUNG
Singapore
JASON ROBERTS, Australia
Professor Jason Roberts is a Clinical Pharmacist at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellow at The University of Queensland. He is Director of the Centre of Research Excellence REDUCE which aims to develop optimised antibiotic dosing regimens to improve patient outcomes and minimise the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
MACKENZIE L. KWAK, Singapore
Mackenzie is parasitologist with a research focus on ectoparasites and vector-borne diseases, particularly ticks and fleas. He studied parasitology in Australia where he focused on the evolution and diagnostics of fleas and ticks. Following this he relocated to Singapore and joined the National University of Singapore and began working on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Singapore, and wider Southeast Asia. Over the past 4 years he has sought to elucidate key baseline data on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Singapore to aid public health efforts. His main focuses have been 1) identifying the species of ticks and tick-borne pathogens present in Singapore, 2) elucidating their local ecology and host associations, 3) developing rapid and inexpensive tools and techniques for tick identification.
GAGANDEEP KANG, India
Professor Kang conducts inter-disciplinary research on infections, nutrition and child health. Her team has evaluated vaccines in pre-clinical and clinical phase 1-3 trials for enteric infections and coordinated multi-site surveillance studies to develop national disease burden estimates.
She is a member of many WHO advisory committees, is the vice-Chair of the Board of Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and chairs the Immunization Technical Advisory Group for the WHO’s South East Asian Region. She is the first Indian and so far only woman to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the UK.
ZIAD MEMISH, Saudi Arabia
Ziad Memish is currently senior consultant in infectious diseases and Director of research & Innovation Center at King Saud Medical City, Ministry of Health. Professor at the College of Medicine in Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Adjunct Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Georgia, USA.
Professor Memish obtained his MD from the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada in 1987 and is Board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Infectious Diseases as well as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Canada, Edinburgh and London) and the American College of Physicians. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in Mass Gathering Medicine and Infection Control & established the WHO collaborating center for mass gathering medicine in the Ministry of Health and WHO Collaborating Center for Infection Control in the Saudi Ministry of National Guard (Health Affairs). He was the first Deputy Minister of health for public health, KSA (2009-2014). He sits on many WHO advisory panels including the WHO IHR Emergency Committee for COVID-19, WHO SAGE Working Group on COVID-19 vaccines, WHO Strategic Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards, the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region Technical advisory group on COVID-19 and chair of the WHO Regional Technical Advisory Committee on vaccinations. On a national level he is the chair of the national scientific technical advisory group for COVID-19 and the Chair of the technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccine under the Royal Court.
He has presented many abstracts and plenary talks internationally and published more than 750 peer reviewed papers and book chapters. He is the editor-in-chief of 2 journals: Journal of Epidemiology & Global Health & Dr. Sulaiman Alhabib Medical Journal both published by Atlantis Press. He is a recipient of the King Abdulaziz Medal from the First Degree, the highest National award in Saudi Arabia for achievements in the field of infectious diseases and infection control. He has been recognized as a “Highly Cited Researchers” for his exceptional research performance by production of multiple highly cited papers (those that rank in the top 1% by citation in the field) by the Web of Science (Clarivate analytics) three years in a row 2018-2020.
SIRIORN WATCHANARANAN, Thailand
Dr. Watcharananan is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease. She is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America, an associate professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, in Bangkok, Thailand. After obtaining a medical degree from Thailand, she underwent internal medicine residency training at the University of Illinois/Advocate Christ Medical Center, in Illinois, USA. She subsequently completed an Infectious Disease Fellowship, and a Clinical Microbiology fellowship training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA in 2004 and 2005, respectively. She also served as a chief fellow of the Department of Infectious Disease at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation during the training. After returning to Thailand, she has been involved in research and clinical practice related to the field of transplant related infection. She started the national academic program, training and symposium of Transplant Infectious Disease in the country. Her interest includes emerging viral infection, fungal infection, tropical infection and infection among Burmese kidney transplant recipients. Dr. Watcharananan is a member of the Transplantation Society, as well as an invited speaker and an abstract reviewer of the International Congress of the Transplantation Society. She has also served as reviewer for several of the international journals related to the transplant infectious disease field.
SHERRY MENG-LING MOI, Japan
Dr. Moi is a virologist that has been working on prevention measures against tropical and emerging virus diseases. She has been working on research fields from viral pathogenesis and transmission, diagnostics and vaccine development, surveillance of viral emergence, and population immunity to tracking viral spread, epidemiology, and field research. Her projects have led to the successful development of in vitro and in vivo models for flavirus and COVID-19 vaccine evaluation studies. The novel models have also led to a better understanding of the immune responses induced after dengue and zika virus infection. She is currently the Deputy Head of WHOCC for Reference and Research of Tropical and Emerging Virus Diseases (JPN-67) and is working closely with WHO GLAD-HP and GOARN, local and international community to reduce the international spread of high treat pathogens disease and to improve rapid diagnostics to these outbreaks, including Zika and SARS-CoV-2.
MONG HOW OOI, Malaysia
Dr Ooi is a senior consultant paediatrician at Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching, and holds a research fellow position at Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He read medicine at University of Malaya and obtained his postgraduate professional qualification from Royal College of Physician in Edinburgh, UK. He underwent Wellcome Trust (UK) training fellowship in tropical medicine at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and University of Liverpool, and had a doctorate degree in University of Liverpool, UK. Dr Ooi is a founding member of Asia-Pacific Network for Enterovirus Surveillance (APNES) that aims at strengthening the region’s clinical and laboratory systems in detection and prevention of enterovirus infection in the Asia-Pacific region.
LISA NG, Singapore
Lisa F.P. Ng, PhD is Executive Director of the A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (ID Labs). She also holds a concurrent appointment as Executive Director of the Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) where she overseas research talent and strategic initiatives. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in the United Kingdom in 1995. Following this, she then obtained her PhD in Molecular Virology in coronaviruses in 2002. She joined the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), A*STAR as a postdoctoral fellow where she provided major contributions in the containment, prevention and treatment of epidemic viral infections including SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and avian influenza H5N1 (bird flu). Since starting her own research lab at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), the research interest of her group focuses on the immune responses of arthrogenic arboviruses that are epidemic or highly endemic in the tropical region. These include chikungunya virus, dengue virus, Zika virus and other related alpha- and flavi-viruses. Her team has published in top tier scientific journals and made several key important findings in controlling chikungunya virus, Zika virus and more recently, SARS-CoV-2 infections. For her previous work and contributions to SARS, she was voted “Most Inspiring Woman” at the Great Women of Our Time Awards for Science and Technology in 2005, and was conferred the Junior Chamber International (JCI) “Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World” Singapore 2013 Scientific and/or Technological Development Award. In recognition of her meritorious research and development efforts on Asia’s infectious diseases, she was conferred the highly prestigious ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) “International Young Scientist and Technologist Award” in 2008. In recognition of her mentoring work for graduate students and scientists, she received the A*STAR “Most Inspiring Mentor Award” in March 2013. Lisa serves in various expert research grants and fellowships committees in Wellcome Trust and the European Commission. Lisa also serve as the Academic Editor for several international scientific journals. She has organized and chaired numerous local and international meetings on scientific research, such as the Gordon Research Conferences and EMBO workshops.
LEO YEE SIN, Singapore
Prof Leo Yee Sin is the Executive Director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore.
As an adult Infectious Disease specialist, Prof Leo has led her team through multiple outbreaks in Singapore. These include Nipah in 1999, SARS in 2003, the pandemic influenza in 2009, Zika in 2016 and multiple surges of Dengue. She successfully managed Singapore’s first imported case of the Monkeypox in May 2019. Her current priority is now in the fight against Covid-19.
Prof Leo has published more than 300 scientific papers. Her experience and expertise in outbreak management is frequently called upon as advisor and conference speaker at national, regional and international level. Apart from her clinical and administrative duties; she is also heavily involved in research and teaching. Topics of her research interest include dengue, influenza, emerging infections, HIV and Covid-19.
She has won many awards among which are three National Day Awards, one is the most prestigious Public Service Star in recognition for her outstanding battle against SARS in 2003 and two others for The Public Administration Medal in Silver and Bronze, for the year 2020 and 2012 respectively. Other awards include the Excellence Star Award 2005, Red Ribbon Award 2014 and the National Healthcare Group (NHG) Distinguished Senior Clinician Award 2016.
Prof Leo is also named in BBC’s 100 women list in 2020.
LAURENT RENIA, Singapore
Laurent Renia obtained his PhD in 1991 from University Pierre et Marie Curie (now Sorbonne University) in Paris, France and did his post-doctoral New York University (1991-1992). He then returned to Paris in 1993 where he obtained a permanent position as junior research scientist at the French National Institute of Health (INSERM) in the INSERM Unit 313 at the Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. He moved to the INSERM Unit 445 at the Institut Cochin in Paris where he started his own group in 1997. Between 2001-2006, he became research director at INSERM, co-director and director of the Department of Immunology at the Institut Cochin. He joined SIgN in 2007. He was Executive Director from 2013 to 2020. He was also the founding Executive Director of the A*STAR ID Labs (A*STAR) from 2020 to 2021. He is now Professor of infectious Diseases and director of the respiratory and Infectious Diseases Program in Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and in the School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. He is also a senior fellow and principal investigator of the A*STAR ID Labs. He holds adjunct position to the French National Institute of Health (INSERM).
His scientific interests cover the immunology of infectious disease (malaria and arboviruses) and newly emerging viruses (SARS-CoV-2) to the development of new immunological, assays and animal models that can be used to study communicable and non-communicable diseases (such as cancer). He has published more than 350 articles and book chapters. He is an Academic Editor for Infection and Immunity, PLoS ONE, Infection and Immunity, Microbial Pathogenesis, Microbial cell and Frontiers in Immunology.
KANTA SUBBARAO, Australia
Dr. Kanta Subbarao is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza and Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. She is a virologist and a physician with specialty training in paediatrics and paediatric infectious diseases. Previously, she was Chief of the Emerging Respiratory Viruses Section of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Dr. Subbarao’s research is focused on newly emerging and re-emerging viral diseases of global importance including pandemic and seasonal influenza, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19.
JEFFREY LIPMAN, Australia
Professor Jeffrey Lipman AM, received his medical degree (MBBCh) from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and has specialist qualifications in anaesthesia (DA, FFA) and intensive care (FFA Crit Care, FCICM). For over 20 years he was Director of the Intensive Care Services, Royal Brisbane and Womens’ Hospital and has recently stepped aside to concentrate more on research. He was Professor and Head of Academy of Critical Care, The University of Queensland for over 20 years having recently stepped down. He is the Executive Director of the Burns, Trauma, Critical Care Research Centre at this University. He has Professorial attachments at QUT, University of New South Wales, Chinese University of Hong Kong and his Alma Mater, University of Witwatersrand. Professor Lipman is a career Intensivist, having worked full-time in Intensive Care Units since 1979. His research interests include all aspects of infection management in intensive care. He has a special interest in the pharmacokinetics of antibiotics, an area in which he completed his MD through the Chinese University of Hong Kong where he still holds an Adjunct Professorial position. He has published over 30 book chapters and over 600 peer-reviewed articles including in high impact journals like NEJM, JAMA and Lancet Infectious Diseases. He has an H Index>70 He has supervised dozens of PhD and M Phil students. He has collaborations with almost 200 ICUs across the world and has supervised over 20 Higher Degree students. He currently holds dozens of peer-reviewed grants including 3 from NHMRC. Over the recent past the accumulated worth of these grants is over $10 million. He has been an invited speaker to over 100 Congresses Nationally and Internationally, being a Keynote speaker in many countries around the world. He has been the recipient of a number of National and International awards for his service to Intensive Care Medicine and was awarded 2017 Researcher of the Year by Metro North HHS. In 2020 he was conferred Honorary Membership of European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (only 2nd Australian). In 2020 he received the “Member of the Order of Australia” He sits on a number of local (Hospital and University), regional and International Committees and with his new job as Research Ambassador for Royal Brisbane and Womens’ Hospital is an integral part of collaboration across the various organisations’ on the Herston Complex.
ENG EONG OOI, Singapore
Prof Ooi is a Professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. He trained in medicine at the University of Nottingham and then completed his PhD studies at the Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore. He holds a concurrent appointment in the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute, as well as joint Professorships at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, both at the National University of Singapore.
His research interfaces fundamental virology with immunology and experimental medicine studies in order to understand dengue and other flaviviral pathogenesis to shape vaccine and therapeutic development. He co-directs the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (ViREMiCS), which aims to develop molecular endpoints for use in viral disease therapeutic and vaccine trials. He received the Clinician-Scientist (Senior Investigator) Award by the National Medical Research Council of Singapore, in 2010, 2014 and 2019.
TAN BAN HOCK, Singapore
Dr Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore and obtained his MRCP (Edinburgh) in 1995. He went on to train in infectious diseases in Singapore and at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He has been Head of Infectious Diseases and of Internal Medicine at SGH. He is currently Infectious Diseases Lead with SingHealth Transplant. He is currently President-elect of the Transplant Infections Disease Section of The Transplantation Society, and sits on the editorial board of Transplant Infectious Disease. He served for 9 years as co-chair of the Asia Fungal Working Group.
Dr Tan has a keen interest in the study of infections in immunocompromised hosts, and is particularly interested in infections in transplant recipients and febrile neutropenic patients.
DOO RYEON CHUNG, Republic of Korea
Prof. Doo Ryeon Chung is the chief of Division of Infectious Diseases and the director of Center for Infection Prevention and Control, Samsung Medical Center. He is also the Secretary General of the Asia Pacific Foundation for Infectious Diseases (APFID) and the Asian Network for Surveillance of Resistant Pathogens (ANSORP).
Prof. Chung obtained his MD in 1991 and PhD later at the College of Medicine, Seoul National University. He completed clinical fellowship training in infectious diseases at Asan Medical Center, Seoul from 1997 to 1998, and research fellowship training at Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School in Boston from 1999 to 2002. Following an academic appointment to the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital from 2002 to 2006, he has been affiliated with Samsung Medical Center and Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine since 2007. He had been the director of the Infection Prevention and Control Team at the Samsung Medical Center (SMC) from Sep. 2007 to Mar. 2015. He has served as the chief of the division of Infectious Diseases at SMC since Apr. 2015. He also has been the director of the Center for Infection Prevention and Control at SMC since Jan. 2016 and the chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee at the SMC since Mar. 2017.
Prof. Chung has been the Project Lead of the ANSORP since 2007 and the Secretary General of the APFID since Dec. 2015. He has also been working as an active member of a wide range of Korean and international academic societies. His main research topics include antimicrobial resistance of major human pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Enterococcus; pneumonia; epidemiology and pathogenesis of invasive K. pneumoniae strains; prevention of healthcare-associated infections. He has authored more than 200 original papers in peer-reviewed international journals.
DIREK LIMMATHUROTSAKUL, Thailand
Direk Limmathurotsakul is the Head of Microbiology at Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Mahidol University (http://www.tropmedres.ac). He led a series of clinical and epidemiological studies on melioidosis (a tropical infectious disease caused by Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei) and antimicrobial resistance in low and middle-income countries. Direk chairs International Melioidosis Network (www.melioidosis.info and https://groups.google.com/g/melioidosis) Direk is a board member of Surveillance and Epidemiology of Drug-resistant Infections Consortium (SEDRIC). Direk advocates the concept of ‘antibiotic footprint’ as a tool to communicate to the public the magnitude of antibiotic use (www.antibioticfootprine.net). To support communication with lay people and solve a problem of jargon surrounding AMR in local languages, Direk also initiated the AMR Dictionary (www.amrdictionary.net).
DEBORAH JE MARRIOTT, Australia
Professor Deborah Marriott is Senior Specialist in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Conjoint Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales and Adjunct Professor, University of Technology, Sydney. St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney is a unique institution as it has the largest HIV medicine unit in Australia, lung, heart and renal transplant units and adult bone marrow transplantation. Professor Marriott is recognised as an expert in fungal infections in immuno-compromised hosts and therapeutic drug monitoring of antimicrobial agents. She has nearly 200 publications in refereed journals. Professor Marriott is a founding member and past president of the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine, past President, Transplant Infectious Diseases (a section of The Transplant Society), International Councillor, International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring & Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT) and chair of the Anti-Infectives group of this Society. She has recently been elected Director of Education for IATDMCT.
DAVID PATERSON, Australia
Professor David Paterson is Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane. He also serves as an Infectious Diseases Physician at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Prof Paterson is the author of more than 490 peer-reviewed publications in the medical literature and is Australia’s most cited Infectious Diseases Physician. Expertscape ranks him as Australia’s top researcher in antibiotic resistance and in the top 10 researchers in this field worldwide.
Professor Paterson’s major interest is in clinical trials of antimicrobial agents. He was lead investigator on the MERINO trial which randomised more than 300 patients with bloodstream infections due to ceftriaxone resistant organisms to meropenem or piperacillin/tazobactam. This research, supported by ASA, was published in JAMA in 2018 and has had more than 150,000 page views. Prof Paterson is currently lead investigator, trial steering committee member or DSMB Chair on seven other major international randomised clinical trials.
CYNTHIA CHEE, Singapore
Dr Chee is an adult respiratory physician. She worked in TB control for more than 20 years and was involved in the setting up and implementation of the Ministry of Health Singapore TB Elimination Programme (STEP) from 1996 to 2019. She served as Director, Singapore TB Control Unit from January 2018 to August 2019, and the STEP from January 2018 to November 2019.
ANUCHA APISARNTHANARAK, Thailand
Dr. Anucha Apisarnthanarak is current the Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases Division at Thammasat University Hospital. He also serves as an Adjunct Visiting Professor at Division of Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine, USA. Dr. Apisarnthanarak’s research focus included infection prevention in resource-limited setting, infection control to prevent multi-drug resistant microorganisms as well as outbreak investigations. He published more than 250 peer-review articles and more than 20 peer-review book chapters. He has been a key committee member of many national and international societies including Thai National Nosocomial Infection Group, Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and Asia Pacific Society of Infection Control. Dr. Apisarnthanarak also serves as editorial board for key infectious diseases and infection control journals including Clinical Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and American Journal of Infection Control.
SHAWN VASOO, Singapore
Dr Shawn Vasoo is Clinical Director and Senior Consultant at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Singapore. He graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2001, and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine and his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and following that, a Clincal Microbiology Fellowship and Orthopaedic ID fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is active in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and as Clinical Director oversees clinical and outbreak preparedness activities at NCID, one of the leads in the establishment of the convalescent plasma programme for COVID-19 in Singapore, and also chairs the COVID-19 therapeutic workgroup in Singapore. He also has a research interest in rapid diagnostics and antimicrobial resistance, and leads the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at NCID.
ARJUN SRINIVASAN, United States of America
Dr. Srinivasan is the Associate Director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is board certified in Infectious Diseases. Before coming to CDC he was as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he was the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Management Program and the associate hospital epidemiologist. His primary responsibilities include oversight and coordination of efforts to eliminate healthcare associated infections and reduce antibiotic resistance. His research and investigative areas of concentration include outbreak investigations, infection control, multi-drug resistant gram negative pathogens and antimicrobial use. From 2006-2010, he led the CDC’s healthcare outbreak investigations team. He currently leads efforts to coordinate activities to prevent healthcare associated infections and to improve the use of antibiotics in hospitals through antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Srinivasan has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals on his research in healthcare epidemiology, infection control and antimicrobial use and resistance.
ADEEBA KAMARULZAMAN, Malaysia
Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman is a Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Universiti Malaya and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University. She was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UM from 2011 to 2019. She is presently Chair of the UM Medical Centre COVID-19 Task Force and a member of the Selangor COVID-19 Task Force.
Professor Adeeba has played a leading role in the response to the HIV epidemic in Malaysia and globally and is currently the Chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and President of the International AIDS Society, is a member of the WHO Science Council, UNAIDS Advisory Group and WHO Academy’s Quality Committee. Her achievements have been recognised through several national and international awards including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from her alma mater, Monash University, for her contributions to medicine and as a health advocate.
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 HEYMANISAN, United Kingdom
David Heymanisan 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. Heymanisan 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.