Senior Lecturer in Communicable Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Sydney; Public Health Lead and Node Leader for Mass Gathering Medicine, Marie Bashir Institute, University of Sydney; Honorary Life Fellow, St Andrew's College within the University of Sydney; Senior Member and College Research Associate, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge
Biographical details:
I studied medicine in Cambridge and during my junior doctor years was very interested in both neurology and infectious diseases. Clinically I specialised in medical microbiology, keeping a particular interest in neurological infections. For the past 3 years I have been in Saudi Arabia developing a pathogen genomics laboratory where I have gained first-hand experience of second generation sequencing and bioinformatics.
Research interests:
Infectious diseases and medical microbiology are undergoing the most significant shift since PCR was introduced. By the end of this decade, sequencing will have become the main option when investigating any outbreak or infection. I study the interface between genomics as a pure science and its translation into clinical and public health benefits.
At present I am examining the worldwide genomics of tuberculosis, the use of sequencing to characterise MRSA strains and the genomic variations in BCG vaccine strains used around the globe.
Assistant Professor of Microbiome and Nutrition, at the Dept of Food Sciences and Experimental Nutrition, at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Applied Immunology, at the University of Brasilia. His experience is focused on the molecular ecology of microbial systems, especially host-associated microbial ecosystems. For the last 10 years, he has centered his research questions on the human gut microbiome, using both human studies as well as animal models. Key aspects of this research include the influence of the gut microbiome on health and disease, the modulation of the gut microbiome through diet and the immune system, especially through the use of unavailable carbohydrates.
Situated at the interface of microbial ecology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics, my research group is dedicated to the study of the structure and function of mixed microbial communities. Our work includes the study of the human microbiome and microbiome-environment interactions, as well as the development and improvement of bioinformatics approaches for microbiome analysis. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine and serve as the Director of Microbial Ecology for the Texas Children's Microbiome Center at Texas Children's Hospital.
Adina Howe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department at Iowa State University. Her research group, GERMS (Genomics and Environmental Research in Microbial Systems), focuses on integrating traditional microbiology approaches with metagenomics and computational biology as investigative tools to understand environmental microbial populations.
Dr. Sabir Hussain is serving as a Professor at the Government College University Faisalabad. He is an environmental scientist with a PhD (Specialization in Environmental Microbiology) from University of Burgundy, Dijon, France.
His research is primarily focused on devising the strategies for biological wastewater treatment. He has conducted several studies on the isolation and characterization of novel microbial strains involved in biodegradation and biotransformation of different organic compounds including pesticides and synthetic dyes existing in soil and water resources.
Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the University of East Anglia which is on the Norwich Research Park, Norwich UK.
Dr. Marcello Iriti is an Associate Professor of Plant Biology and Pathology within the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Milan.
He has been studying nutraceuticals, functional foods, phytotherapeutics and essential oils relevant for human and animal health, focusing on their preclinical (in vitro/in vivo) and in human pharmacological activities. He has also been investigating the health-promoting effects of traditional Mediterranean diet as well as the ethnopharmacology of herbal remedies of traditional healing systems.
Dr. Iriti is a Member of the World Academy of Sciences, Asian Council of Science Editors and Society of African Journal Editors. Founding Member of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine. Member of the Working Group ‘Pharmacognosy, Phytotherapy and Nutraceuticals’ of the Italian Pharmacological Society.
Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at The Pennsylvania State University. Ph.D. in Crop Protection (2001) from the University of Córdoba, Spain. M. Eng. in Agricultural Sciences and Engineering (1997)
Research interests: population genetics, phylogenetics, population biology of plant-associated microorganisms,ecology of soilborne fungi (Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum), emergence and evolution of plant pathogenicity and virulence.
Dr. Leny Jose is a Scientist and Assistant professor at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, India. Prior to this he was an Assistant Research Professor in Dermatology at Indiana University School of Medicine, USA. He obtained his PhD in 2014 from the University of Kerala and did postdoctoral research at Indiana University, USA. His research interests are focused on the pathogenesis of the human papillomavirus and also in bacterial pathogenesis.
Christine Josenhans is Professor for Microbiology and Medical Microbiology at Max von Pettenkofer Institute of Ludwig Maximilians University Munich and an infectious disease specialist. Until 2017, she was Associate Professor at Hannover Medical School, Germany, also in the field of infection research and molecular and cellular microbiology. Her research foci are on infectious disease agents in general, with specialization in microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, and host-pathogen interactions. She performed her Post-doctoral studies on Yersinia host-pathogen interactions, more specifically on their type III secretion system pore proteins. Current research foci are in persistent bacterial and viral infections, host-pathogen crosstalk and immune interference, as well as in the causal link between infections and cancer.
She is on the board of several undergraduate and graduate teaching programs.
Education:
2000 – PhD. (Microbiology). Center for Microbiology and Biotechnology//Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
1994 – BS/ MS (Biology, Microbiology). Dnepropetrovsk State University, Department of Microbiology, Ukraine
1994 – Pre-doctoral training in “Molecular Biology, Gene Engineering and Biotechnology” M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia.
Positions Held:
2018 - Associate Professor, Biology Department, VII, San Diego State University
2015 - 2018 Assistant Professor, Biology Department, VII, San Diego State University
2015 - Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington
2013 - 2015 Visiting Scholar, SIO, University of California San Diego
2012 - 2015 Research Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington
2006 - 2012 Research Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington
2001 - 2006 Research Associate, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington
1997 - 2002 Junior Research Scientist, G.K. Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry & Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of 1995 - 1997 Sciences Engineer-investigator, G.K. Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry & Physiology of Microorganisms, Russian Academy of Sciences
Ravi Kant is an Associate Professor (Docent) of Medical Microbiology, working at Department of Virology & Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki with background in IT, NGS, genomics, bioinformatics and veterinary microbiology.