Speakers

Rob Aarnoutse

Danilo Buonsenso

Pediatrician at Gemelli University Hospital in Rome and member of the research committee of the Global Health Research Institute of Catholic University of Rome, Italy. He has a PhD in Public Health and Molecular Sciences, and a post-graduate diploma and Msc in pediatric infectious diseases at Oxford University.

He is actively involved in several national and international studies and societies in the field of pediatric infectious diseases

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Pere-Joan Cardona

Chief of the Microbiology Department at the "Germans Trias i Pujol" Hospital, which is part of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS). He also holds the position of Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. With over 25 years of experience, he is a clinical microbiologist dedicated to unravelling the mechanisms underlying latent tuberculosis infection and the transition to active TB.

To advance his research efforts, Pere-Joan Cardona founded the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit at the Institute Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP). His work has been instrumental in developing innovative "in vivo" and "in silico" experimental models, making substantial contributions to the field. Notably, his research resulted in the creation of the RUTI therapeutic vaccine and the exploration of host-directed therapies for tackling TB. Additionally, Pere-Joan Cardona has delved into the immunomodulatory properties of environmental mycobacteria, with the goal of harmonizing immune responses to combat various diseases.

Joan A. Caylà

MD, PhD. From 1994 to 2017 head of the Epidemiology Service of the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB). Coordinator of the Barcelona TB Research Unit (uiTB) since 1995. Principal investigator in various national and international projects.
Author of more than 300 publications on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. President of the Barcelona TB Research Foundation (fuiTB) since 2016.

José Domínguez

Paul Elkington

Darío Garcia de Viedma

Biologist, PhD, Univ Alcalá de Henares. Thesis on plasmid replication protein-protein interactions.
Since then, staff of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department, Gregorio Marañón University Hospital, Institute for Health Research Gregorio Marañón, Madrid. Spain
Coordinator of the Genomic Microbiology Laboratory in this department
main activity: Molecular and genomic Epidemiology of M tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, SARS-CoV-2. Now starting activity on MDR nosocomial transmission of other bacteria and metagenomic diagnostics.

Sylvia Lacourse

Carlos Martin

Jacquie Oliwa

Adam Penn-Nicholson

Christophe Perrin

Harry Petrushkin

Mr Petrushkin has a degree in medicine from the University of Cambridge, an MBBS in Medicine from King's College London and a PhD in Immunogenetics from Queen Mary University of London.

He has worked alongside leading professionals at the Francis Proctor Eye Institute in San Francisco(CA), the Casey Eye Institute in Portland (OR) and the Massachusetts Eye Research and Surgery Institute, Boston, (MA) before starting as a consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in 2017.

Mr Petrushkin has a specialist interest in ocular tuberculosis and has contributed to both regional and national guidance on investigation and management of the disease. He also has an interest in animal models of ocular tuberculosis and his work on bovine ocular tuberculosis in based in the University of Edinburgh with Prof Jane Hope, a bovine tuberculosis immunologist.

Nicole Ritz

Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases, head of Pediatrics at Lucerne's Children’s Hospital and directing the Mycobacterial and Migrant Health Research Lab at Basel's University Children's Hospital. Nicole obtained here MD from the University of Berne, trained in Switzerland, South Africa and Australia. Nicole's PhD at the University of Melbourne dived into the history and world of BCG vaccine strains, proving their significance. Back in Switzerland, she continued her dual role as a clinician-scientist, establishing the Mycobacterial and Migrant Health Research Lab researching child-friendly tuberculosis diagnostics. She has authored over 150 publications focusing on childhood TB, migrant health, and infectious disease biomarkers. Nicole's latest mission is the Center of Child Health Analytics (CCHA) at Lucerne's Children’s Hospital, dedicated to transforming routine data into applied knowledge to improve paediatric health and well-being. Beyond her professional pursuits, she finds joy and inspiration in art, exploring museums and nature.

Begoña Santiago

Paediatrician and specialist in Infectious Diseases, working at the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid. In 2016 she obtained a PhD in pediatric TB Epidemiology. She coordinates the Spanish Pediatric TB Study Network (pTBred) and the Biobank of this network. Since 2017 she has been a member Steering Committee of the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trialsgroup (ptbnet), as its database officer. She is involved in studies to improve the diagnosis of paediatric TB, together with researchers from other disciplines, such as immunology, molecular biology, metagenomics and metabolomics.

H. Simon Schaaf

Prof . H. Simon Schaaf is Emeritus Professor and principal researcher in the Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch University. He remains an active clinician, with the emphasis of his clinical work and research on childhood tuberculosis with special focus on TB diagnosis, drug-resistant TB and antituberculosis drug pharmacokinetics in children.

James Seldon

Professor of Global Child Health at Imperial College London, an Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University, and a Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His research focusses on children with TB, including TB diagnostics, TB therapeutics, advanced imaging for child TB, drug-resistant TB, TB meningitis, adolescent TB, TB burden modelling and the evaluation of TB biomarkers. James studied medicine at Cambridge University and Imperial College London and has trained in paediatric infectious diseases at centres of excellence in the United Kingdom, with extensive clinical experience in low resource settings. He is chronically sleep-deprived as he has three young children

Delane Shingadia

Marc Tebruegge

Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases & Immunology based at the Austrian National Reference Centre for Paediatric Tuberculosis (Klinik Ottakring, Vienna), an honorary Associate Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London and a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. His main research interests are TB diagnostics and non-tuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections. He is currently the elected Research Officer of the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet), and has led several multi-centre studies for this network. He is serving on the Editorial Boards of several journals, including PLoS ONE, Frontiers in Pediatrics, and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, mainly on TB and NTM infections.

Cristina Vilaplana

Physician, specialist in microbiology and parasitology, working as the Head of the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit of the Microbiology Dept. in the Germans Trias i Pujol Foundation and Hospital (IGTP-HUGTIP).

With 10 years-experience in design and evaluation of new therapeutic strategies against infectious diseases, both in experimental animal models and in clinical studies and trials, she currently leads the SMA-TB H2020-funded project (www.smatb.eu), and coordinates the TB Management Plan for the Northern Barcelona Metropolitan and Maresme Area of the Catalan Health Institute (ICS).