Infectious Diseases

Professor Paul Van Buynder is a Public Health physician on the Gold Coast and holds an appointment as a Professor in the School of Public Health at Griffith University in Queensland. He is the Immediate pat president of the Australian Immunization Coalition. He has held previous senior public health positions in a number of Australian states, at the Centre for Infections in the United Kingdom and in two Canadian provinces. He has held personal appointments on the Influenza sub-committees of National Advisory committees in three continents.

Vaccine Effectiveness Studies

Peter Timms is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. He is a nationally and internationally renowned microbiologist with specific expertise in the area of Chlamydia. His laboratory is acknowledged as the leading Australian laboratory and one of the leading groups internationally working on all aspects of chlamydial infections. His research group of 12 staff and students is developing vaccines and new diagnostics for chlamydial diseases in humans and animals as well as an improved understanding of chlamydial genomics, cell biology and pathogenicity. The group is widely acknowledged for its major contributions to chlamydial infections in koalas and other wildlife, including the development of a vaccine for koalas. He has published over 250 papers, reviews and book chapters in peer-reviewed international scientific journals.

Chlamydial Infections, Cell Biology, Pathogenicity

Dr. Rubén Bueno-Marí finished his Ph.D. in 2010 in the University of Valencia (Spain) and obtained the Special Doctorate Award in the field of Natural Sciences two years later. He is an active member of several scientific associations at national and international level, highlighting his role as current President Elect of the European Mosquito Control Association (EMCA). He is an expert advisor of the Iberoamerican Society of Scientific Information (SIIC) and has published more than 60 scientific publications in journals related with the fields of medical and veterinary entomology, applied zoology, parasitology and public health. He currently cooperates with several universities and other academic institution in superior teaching issues related with his field of expertise (medical entomology, vector control and vector-borne diseases) and is the head of the Department of Research and Development (R+D) of a leading company in environmental health called Laboratories Lokímica.

Vector-Borne Diseases, Arbovirus, Zoonoses, Medical Entomology

Graduated from Medicine School, Sassari University, Italy (1980) and Specialized in Infectious Diseases (1983), Allergology and Clinical Immunology (1986), “La Sapienza University”, Rome, Italy. Researcher at the Department of Infectious Diseases, “La Sapienza University”, Rome (1981-1992) and Associated Professor of Infectious Diseases at University of Ferrara, Italy (1992-2004). Education at Department de Pathologie Exotique et Maladies Tropicales, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France (1988-1996), Groupe Immunité des Muqueuses et Agents Pathogenes, Université Jacques Lisfrang, Saint-Etienne, France (1998-2000), Department de Biotechnologies (1989-1995), Laboratoire des Mycoplasmas and des Chlamydiae, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France (1996-2005); Department of Biological Sciences (Pneumocystis jiroveci Unit, University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, 2001. Since 2005 is Full Professor and Chairman of Infectious Diseases, Chief of the Unit of Infectious Diseases and Dermatology at Department of Medical Sciences of the University of Ferrara and Director of the School of Specialization in Infectious and Tropical Diseases. He teaches at the PhD of Molecular Medicine and Pharmacology of the University of Ferrara.

HCV Infections,Tuberculosis

Pei-Yong Shi, PhD, is I.H. Kempner Professor of Human Genetics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston Texas, USA. He is also adjunct Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and Honorary Professor at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in virology in 1996 from Georgia State University. After postdoctoral training at Yale University, he joined Bristol-Myers Squibb as a Principal Scientist to develop HIV and HCV therapeutics from 1998 to 2000. He then moved to the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, to study West Nile virus. From 2008 to 2015, he served as Dengue Unit Head and Executive Director to lead drug discovery at Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases. His group developed the first infectious clone of the epidemic strain of West Nile virus, discovered two RNA cap methylation activities of flavivirus NS5 protein, identified essential RNA elements for flavivirus replication, established various platforms for flavivirus vaccine and drug discovery, and pioneered therapeutics development for dengue virus. He has published over 190 peer-reviewed articles and served as Editor (ACS Infectious Diseases, Journal of General Virology, and Nature Vaccine) and Editorial Board member (Journal of Virology, Virology, and Antiviral Research). He is internationally recognized for his scholar and administrative accomplishments at leading research institution, public health sector, and pharmaceutical industry.

Flaviviral Infection, Human Diseases, Drug Disovery and Vaccines for Viral Infections