Advisory Board and Editors Microbiology
Elliot J Lefkowitz
Professor of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB); Director of Informatics for the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science; Data Secretary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and Editor-In-Chief of the ICTV Online (10th) Report on Virus Taxonomy. My research focuses on contributing to the understanding of microbial (especially viral) genomics and evolution by developing and utilizing computational tools and bioinformatics techniques to mine sequence and other data for significant patterns characteristic of function and/or evolution.
Jack C. Leo
I study bacterial pathogenesis, focusing on autotransporters of Gram-negative bacteria. These proteins are self-contained secretion systems and surface molecules that mediate a number of virulence functions. I aim to understand three aspects of autotransporter-mediated pathogenesis: 1) the mechanisms of virulence functions, 2) the biogenesis of autotransporters and 3) regulation of gene expression. All three are potential sites for intervention to prevent host colonisation and infection.
David Levine
David Levine, PT, PhD, DPT, Diplomate ABPTS, CCRP, Cert. DN
Dr. Levine is a Professor and the Walter M. Cline Chair of Excellence in Physical Therapy at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is an adjunct professor at the University Of Tennessee College Of Veterinary Medicine and North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. In addition, he is board certified as a specialist in orthopedics by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties and is also certified in dry needling. Dr. Levine has been working and conducting research in many areas with an emphasis in veterinary physical rehabilitation and is co-director of the University of Tennessee certificate program in canine rehabilitation. He is a co-editor of multiple books including “Canine Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy”, “Essential Facts of Physiotherapy in Dogs and Cats”, and Gait Analysis: An Introduction. He continues to practice in canine rehabilitation and human physical therapy in addition to his University position. He has presented at over 100 conferences, and has lectured in more than a dozen countries. Dr. Levine has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals with over 75 publications. His latest research focuses on bacterial contamination in medical equipment, animal assisted therapy, and laser to improve muscle endurance.
Xiaomin Li
Professor of Environmental Science at SCNU Environmental Research Institute (SERI) in South China Normal University (SCNU).
She was the awardee of Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA, 2015) from Australian Research Council, Guangdong Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars (2017), and Guangdong Special Support Plan for High-Level Young Talents of Science and Technology Innovation (2017).
Her research areas include biogeochemistry, environmental microbiology, and soil pollution control. She has been committed to the transformation mechanisms of organochlorines and arsenic in soils driven by microorganisms, and their coupling processes with transformation of carbon, iron, and nitrogen.
Xing Li
Dr. Xing Li is an Assistant Professor and Associate Consultant in the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Department of Health Science Research at Mayo Clinic - voted the best hospital by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Li completed his PhD in Bioinformatics from The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Dr. Li also holds a Masters Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Bachelors Degree in Microbiology. Dr. Li’s research interests focus on machine learning, bioinformatics, and statistical data mining in large scale data in biomedical research, such as next generation sequencing data (whole genome sequencing, RNA-seq, microarray data), in the file. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed papers in reputable journals and book chapters in the fields of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, cancer research, cardiovascular disease, embryonic stem cell (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) research, and human genomics, genetics and development, and Microbiology. Dr. Li’s publications have been highlighted as Journal Cover Stories, Journal Featured Articles, Highlights Section Papers, Must Read by Faculty 1000, and ESC & iPSC News, etc. Dr. Li has been developing data analysis tools, such as RCircle and PCA3d, etc. Dr. Li is also a member of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), American Statistics Association (ASA) and American Heart Association (AHA).
Dongliang Liu
Dr. Dongliang Liu is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine. His research interests include: Cancer therapy, especially for pancreatic cancer immunotherapy; Chimeric virus-like particles (VLP) vaccine, especially for cancer vaccines; Novel antibiotics development including antimicrobial peptides; Epitomics and multi-epitope peptide vaccine development for pathogenic viruses.
Nicholas J Loman
Nick works as an Independent Research Fellow in the Institute for Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham, sponsored by an MRC Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics. His research explores the use of cutting-edge genomics and metagenomics approaches to the diagnosis, treatment and surveillance of infectious disease. Nick has so far used high-throughput sequencing to investigate outbreaks of important pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Acinetobacter baumannii and Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli. His current work focuses on the application of novel sequencing technologies such as the Oxford Nanopore for genome diagnosis and epidemiology of important pathogens, including most recently real-time surveillance of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. A more general aim is to develop bioinformatics tools to aid the interpretation of genome and metagenome-scale data in routine clinical practice in collaboration.
Nguyen Esmeralda López-Lozano
Dr. Nguyen Esmeralda López-Lozano is a microbial ecologist who earned her doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). She has extensive research experience in microbial diversity and ecosystem processes, mainly focusing on biogeochemical cycles in desert soils.
Since 2014, Dr. López-Lozano has been a CONACyT professor in the Environmental Sciences Division at the Potosi Institute of Scientific and Technological Research. Her research focuses on plant microbiomes in arid environments and the role of microorganisms as bioindicators of ecosystem health. She investigates how both biotic and abiotic factors shape microbial communities and utilizes microbial parameters to assess environmental stress. In recent years, her work has also explored how microbiome insights can be applied to restoration and conservation efforts in arid regions.
Mohamed Lounis
Dr Mohamed Lounis is a Lecturer at the Department of Agroveterinary Sciences, University of Ziane Achour Djelfa, Algeria. He completed his PhD in veterinary epidemiology from the University of Blida in 2018.
His research broadly concentrates on human and animal epidemiology. More precisely, he began his research on animal colibacillosis including calf and avian colibacillosis with Escherichia coli genotyping and phenotyping and antibiotic resistance. Later, he conducted multiple studies related to the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Algeria and in Arabic countries. These works were mainly based on modeling the propagation of the disease and the attitudes toward COVID-19 and its vaccines.
Dr. Lounis is also working on a One health approach through different surveys about multiple animal and public health threats including drug use and antibiotic resistance, infectious diseases including HPV infections, AIDS, monkeypox, viral hepatitis (A-E) and other zoonotic diseases including bacterial (tuberculosis, brucellosis...), parasitic (echinococcosis, leishmaniasis…) and viral (rabies, arboviroses…) diseases. He is also working on the epidemiology of non transmissible diseases including cancer, diabetes, hypertension..
Erica Lumini
Dr. Erica Lumini is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council of Italy. Her general area of research focuses on Environmental Microbiology, and more specifically:
• Interaction between soil microbes (nitrogen-fixing actinomycetes; EM ectomycorrhizal fungi; arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, AMF) and plants of agricultural and forestry interest.
• Molecular characterization of symbiotic endobacteria and microorganisms associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.
• Molecular ecology, biodiversity and soil microbial networks (prokaryotes, eukaryotes) in natural and agroforestry ecosystems (soils subjected to land-use gradient).
Mahmoud Mabrok
Dr. Mahmooud Mabrok is an Assistant Professor of Fish Diseases and Management at the Suez Canal University, Egypt. He is also a senior postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Microbiology, Fish and Infectious Diseases at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
Dr. Mabrok's work broadly concentrates on the development of novel diagnostic tools (PCR-Q PCR, RPA-LFD isothermal amplification for rapid and precise detection of most threatening pathogens, particularly in aquatic species. He also researches multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains that may affect animal hosts, with the aim of addressing this newly emerging phenomenon and the related public health concerns. In addition to this, Dr. Mabrok carries out research with the aim of finding an alternative remedy for diseases control and/or treatment of infectious diseases using eco-friendly active ingredients, including herbal extracts, prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics. Recently, he focused on host pathogen interaction, specifically with the intention of investigating host innate and/or adaptive immunity to cope with bacterial infection.
Dr. Mabrok has many international publications in the field of Fish Diseases, Microbiology and Immunology, and currently works as an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE, USA, BMC Research Note Springer Nature, Journal Of Marine Science Hindawi Group. He has also been appointed as a Guest Editorial Board Member in Frontiers in Bioscience, International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Research. He is a scientific reviewer at BMC Research Note, PLOS ONE, Aquaculture, Journal of Fish Diseases, Fish Shellfish Immunology, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, and AMP Express journals.
Thulani P Makhalanyane
Thulani Makhalanyane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology and undertakes research at the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics. His research has focused almost entirely on understanding the ecology of microbial communities in extreme environments.