Keynote Lectures

Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (Baltimore, USA). He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University and completed his internship/residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital. The author of over 780 papers, numerous books and chapters, his major research interests are in fungal pathogenesis and the mechanisms of antibody action.
Prof. Casadevall is editor-in-chief of mBio, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and serves on several numerous editorial boards. He has served on several NIH committees including the NIAID Strategic Plan, the Blue Ribbon Panel on Biodefense Research, the NAS panel that reviewed the FBI investigation on anthrax attacks, the NAS Federal Regulations and Reporting committee and the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. He was a Commissioner in the National Commission on Forensic Science and previously served as President of the Medical Mycology Society of the Americas. He is currently the Chair the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology. Prof. Casadevall has received numerous honors including election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, American Academy of Physicians, American Academy of Microbiology, Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

The title of Prof. Casadevall’s Keynote lecture at the 30th ECCMID will be “On virulence”.

After studying chemistry in Lille (France), Prof. Pascale Cossart obtained her master degree at Georgetown University (Washington, D.C., USA). Back in France, she obtained her Ph.D. in Paris at the Institut Pasteur where she is now heading the “Bacteria-Cell Interactions” unit. After studying DNA-protein interactions, in 1986 she started to study the molecular and cellular basis of infections by intracellular bacteria using as a model the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Her research has led to new concepts in infection and cell biology, and she is considered a pioneer in the field of cellular microbiology.
Prof. Cossart’s scientific contributions have been recognized by several international awards, including the L’Oreal/Unesco Prize for Women in Science (1998), the Richard Lounsbery Prize, (1998), the Robert Koch Prize (2007), the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2008), the Balzan Prize (2013) and the Heinrich Wieland Prize (2018). She is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, of the German Leopoldina, of the Royal Society, of the National Academy of Medicine, and since January 2016 Secrétaire Perpétuel de l’Académie des Sciences.

Prof. Cossart’s Keynote lecture at the 30th ECCMID will focus on Listeria monocytogenes and the title of her talk will be “Infection by intracellular bacteria: The Listeria paradigm”.

John P.A. Ioannidis is the C.F. Rehnborg Chair in Disease Prevention, Professor of Medicine, of Health Research and Policy, of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also co-Director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center and Director of the PhD program in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford. He received his M.D. (top rank of his class) and DSc in biopathology from the National University of Athens in 1990. He then attended Harvard University for his medical residency in internal medicine, and Tufts University for a fellowship in infectious diseases. After holding positions at NIH, Johns Hopkins and Tufts, he became chair of the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the University of Ioannina Medical School until 2010, and adjunct professor at Harvard, Tufts, and Imperial College. Prof. Ioannidis has made extraordinary contributions to evidence-based medicine, epidemiology, data science and clinical research. Furthermore, he is considered a pioneer in the field of meta-research. For his scientific contributions, he received numerous awards such as the European Award for Excellence in Clinical Science (2007), the Medal for Distinguished Service, the Chanchlani Global Health Award (2017), the Epiphany Science Courage Award (2018) and the Einstein fellow (2018). Professor Ioannidis’ PLoS Medicine paper on “Why most published research findings are false” has been the most-accessed article in the history of Public Library of Science (>2.8 million hits). His is also the author of 7 literary books in Greek, three of which were shortlisted for best book of the year Anagnostis awards. He was selected as Brave Thinker scientist for 2010 according to Atlantic and considered “may be one of the most influential scientists alive”. His current citation rate (>3,600 new citations per month per Google Scholar) places Prof. Ioannidis among the 10 most-cited scientists in the world.

The title of Prof. Ioannidis’ Keynote lecture at the 30th ECCMID will be "Reproducible research with small and big data in the era of precision medicine".

Elizabeth Murchison is Professor of Comparative Oncology and Genetics at the University of Cambridge, Department of Veterinary Medicine. Her laboratory, the Transmissible Cancer Group, studies the genetics, evolution and host interactions of clonally transmissible cancers in dogs and Tasmanian devils.
Prof. Murchison grew up in Tasmania, where she was inspired by the unique wildlife and rugged wilderness. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Melbourne and performed doctoral research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where she sequenced the genome of the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible cancer, she joined the University of Cambridge in 2013.
Prof. Murchison has been the recipient of several awards, notably the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2014) and the Cancer Research UK Future Leaders in Cancer Research Award (2014). She is a keen science communicator and in and in 2011 she delivered a TED talk entitled “Fighting a Contagious Cancer” which has been translated into 29 languages and viewed by a global audience more than 500,000 times.

The title of Prof. Murchison’s Keynote lecturer at the 30th ECCMID will be “Transmissible or infectious tumours: breaking the cancer paradigm”.

Laura J.V. Piddock is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on how antibiotic resistance arises, defining and characterising clinically relevant mechanisms of resistance in pathogenic bacteria and applying this to drug discovery. She joined the Global Antibiotic research & development Partnership (GARDP) as Director of Scientific Affairs in January 2018 on a secondment basis for 80% FTE. Prof. Piddock continues to lead her research team at Birmingham investigating multi-drug efflux and transmissible drug resistance. Despite initial intentions to follow a career in forensic science, Prof. Piddock became fascinated with the world of microbiology especially antibiotic resistance where she has been at the forefront of antimicrobial research since obtaining her Ph.D. in 1985. Prof. Piddock has advised organisations such as the World Health Organization, and scientific data from her team has been used by national governmental agencies when deciding whether to withdraw the licences of some antibiotics from veterinary medicine. She collaborates widely with other researchers in Birmingham, elsewhere in the UK and overseas in Ireland, France, Switzerland, Cameroon and Nigeria, and China. She has published over 200 articles in international peer reviewed journals, and given over 200 presentations at international conferences. In 2001, Prof. Piddock was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2017, she was appointed as a founding Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Until 30 September 2017, Prof. Piddock was the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Chair in Public Engagement. Furthermore, until December 2018 she was the Chair of the EU Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance Scientific Advisory Committee.

The title of Prof. Piddock’s Keynote lecturer at the 30th ECCMID will be “MDR efflux: from basic science to efflux inhibitors”.

Prof. Rotem Sorek is the incumbent of the Rowland and Sylvia Schaefer Career Development Chair in the Department of Molecular Genetics. Prof. Rotem Sorek conducted his undergraduate and graduate studies at Tel Aviv University, earning a BSc summa cum laude in life sciences in 2000, an MSc summa cum laude in molecular evolution in 2002, and a Ph.D. with distinction in human genetics in 2006. Between the years 2006-2008 he conducted post-doctoral studies at the Berkeley National Laboratories in Berkeley (CA, USA) and on 2008 he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science. Prof. Sorek’s investigates CRISPR-Cas, the adaptive “immune” system that bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses, as well as additional, new anti-viral defense systems discovered at the Sorek lab. His studies recently discovered that viruses can use small molecules to communicate among themselves and coordinate the dynamics of infection. Prof. Sorek is a co-inventor of 40 patents and patent applications and has received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2006 RNA Society/Scaringe Young Scientist Award, the 2008 Sir Charles Clore Prize, the 2012 Rubinowitz-Grossman Prize for outstanding young scientists and the 2014 FEBS Anniversary Prize. Prof. Sorek is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the European Academy of Microbiology and EMBO.

The title of Prof. Sorek’s Keynote lecturer at the 30th ECCMID will be “The immune system of bacteria: CRISPR and beyond”.

Anuradha Chowdhary received her medical degree (M.B.B.S) in 1992 and M.D. (Microbiology) degree in 1996 from the Lady Hardinge Medical College - University of Delhi (India) and her Ph.D. in 2012 from Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands). Prof. Chowdhary joined the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute in 2001, she became Associate Professor in 2005 and Professor of Medical Mycology in 2008. Prof. Chowdhary’s research interests include molecular ecology and population genetics of pathogenic fungi, antifungal drug resistance mechanisms, especially Aspergillus and Candida spp, and the epidemiology of systemic mycoses. Her laboratory was the first one to report emergence of new clonal strains of Candida auris in India and presently she is actively working on antifungal resistance, pathogenicity and typing of Candida auris. She is an elected fellow of numerous professional societies, including the American Academy of Microbiology, the European Confederation of Medical Mycology, the Royal College of Pathologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. She recently received the India Research Excellence-Citations Award in Medical & Health Sciences by Web of Science Group/Clarivate Analytics. Prof. Chowdhary has held editorial positions at several scientific journals including mBio, Fungal pathogenesis, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, FEMS Pathogens and Disease, PLOS Pathogens, PLOS One and Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Furthermore, she is one of the board directors of the Asia Pacific Society of Medical Mycology and she has worked as Consultant for WHO during 2018-2019 in the Fungal Antimicrobial Resistance Programme. Prof. Chowdhary published over 150 papers in peer reviewed journals.

The title of Prof. Chowdhary’s Keynote lecturer at the 30th ECCMID will be “Antifungal resistance in the spotlight: Candida auris as an emerging threat”.

Brigitte Autran, MD, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Immunology at Sorbonne-Université Faculty of Medicine and conducts her researches at Cimi-Paris (Center for researches in Immunology and Infectious Diseases), Paris, France. She and her team have developed key researches on the immunology of HIV, viruses and vaccines. She is internationally recognized for her contributions in the immunology of HIV with the first demonstrations of: i) Immune defenses against HIV, with the first description of Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes specific for HIV and numerous contributions characterizing T Lymphocytes directed against HIV, thus providing a rationale for vaccines against HIV; ii) Reconstitution of the immune system with anti-retroviral therapies, opening a new era in the immunology of AIDS; iii) Therapeutic vaccines and immune-based interventions in HIV-infection with a more recent focus on the immune control of HIV reservoirs and on the development of immune-based strategies towards an HIV cure. Prof. Autran also developed researches on the immunology of vaccines against other viruses, particularly in immune suppressed individuals, and has acted as an expert for Vaccines at the French Ministry of Health and at WHO, and co-founded CoReVac, the French AVIESAN/I3M consortium on vaccine researches.

The title of Prof. Autran’s Keynote lecture at the 30th ECCMID will be “Immune control of HIV infection”.

Prof. Herman Goossens is a full professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Antwerp in Belgium since 1992, director of the laboratory of Clinical Microbiology at the University Hospital Antwerp since 1992 and director of Laboratory Medicine of the University Hospital Antwerp since 1997. His professional goal is to bridge the gap between basic and clinical research, with a major focus on antibiotic resistance, to enhance the standard of healthcare, public health and professional standards, for the good of the public in large. Prof. Goossens’s current research is focused in five areas. First, the detection and genetic mechanisms involved in the emergence and evolution of antibiotic resistance and virulence in bacteria and its epidemiological and ecological bases and implications. Second, studying antimicrobial use in hospitals, the community and long-term care facilities, developing indicators of use and quality of prescribing, initially in Europe, later globally, focusing on Low and Middle Income Countries. Third, linking scientific and clinical research throughout Europe in lower respiratory tract infections, in primary health care and hospital medical practice. Fourth, better prepare Europe for emerging infectious diseases and pandemics. Fifth, building a network of more than 800 diagnostic labs in more than 40 countries in Europe to support clinical trials that investigate the utility of new antimicrobial strategies and diagnostics. Prof. Goossens authored more than 600 Web of Science cited papers, and his papers have been cited close to 25,000 times. In 2008 Prof. Goossens obtained the prestigious status of Methusalem top-scientist from the Flemish government.

The title of Prof. Goossens’s Keynote lecture at the 30th ECCMID will be “Transcending European clinical research in infectious diseases through collaboration to break down traditional silos”.