External Advisory Board
André Faustino
Dr. André Faustino is the CEO of Gene PreDiT, a biotech and service provider company dedicated to the discovery of genetic markers and to the identification of bio-active compounds. Before this experience, André Faustino was a graduate student at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, US.
Antonio Parada
Dr. Antonio Parada is the CEO of Fairjourney Biologics. He was the head of Technology Transfer Office at the Institute for Molecular and Cell biology (IBMC) in Porto, Portugal. He worked as a pre-clinical pharmacologist in a pharmaceutical company Bial where he studied Epilepsy, Parkinson and cardiovascular diseases. He was also the vice-president of European Association of Tech Transfer (ASTP) and a board member of Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM). His business activities include managing Ablynx Porto site on phage display and the clinical trial Unit of Cancer Hospital in Porto.
Arnaud Fontanet
Dr. Arnaud Fontanet is head of the Emerging Diseases Epidemiology unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France and the director of the Pasteur-Cnam School of Public Health, Paris. He is coordinating several scientific projects operating in Africa and Asia. He actively lobbies for access to treatment against viral hepatitis in low-income countries. Previously, as a medical doctor, he studied rheumatology and did his Doctoral degree in Public Health at Harvard University. He worked for WHO from 1993 to 1994.
Erzsébet Nagy
Prof. Erzsébet Nagy has been working in medical/clinical microbiology area at the University of Szeged, Hungary for the past 45 years. She is also head of the National Reference Laboratory for Anaerobes in Hungary. Her scientific interest focuses on clinical microbiology, ecology and molecular epidemiology of C. difficile and a great variety of infections caused by anaerobic bacteria including Bacteroides; as well as the genetic background and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in the two above pathogens. She is also working on diagnostic problems of systemic fungal infections and investigation of anti-fungal drugs. Prof. Nagy leads the ESCMID Study Group for Anaerobic Infections. She is a member of several scientific networks and societies and serves as editor and reviewer for different scientific journals.
Fernando Baquero
Prof. Fernando Baquero is a research professor in microbial evolution at the department of microbiology of the Ramon y Cajal University Hospital, and scientific director of the Ramón y Cajal health research institute in Madrid, Spain. He is also senior scientist in evolutionary biology at the Center for Astrobiology of the Spanish Research Council. He has received several international honors and awards, and is a member of the American academy of microbiology, the European academy for microbiology, the European academy for clinical microbiology and infectious diseases, and the Ibero-American academy for evolutionary biology. His research interests focus particularly on the multi-level processes influencing selection of resistant microbes, and the possibilities of applying control interventions and therapies.
Harald Seifert
Prof. Dr. Harald Seifert is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene (IMMIH) at the University of Cologne, Germany. His group studies the molecular epidemiology and resistance mechanisms of A. baumannii and S. aureus. It also conducts cohort studies as well as interventional trials on patients with S. aureus bloodstream infections (BSI). He serves as Head of the Diagnostic Laboratory and as Associate Head of IMMIH and of the Infectious Diseases Consultation Service and as board member of the Infection Control Board at the University of Cologne. He is also board member of the European Survey of Carbapenem-producing Bacteria (EuSCAPE).
Hubertus Haas
Dr. Hubertus Haas is an Assoc. Prof. in Molecular Microbiology at Innsbruck Medical University, Austria. His research interest is fungal genetics, physiology and virulence and he is currently coordinating several projects. He is the vice-director of Division of Molecular Biology/Biocenter at Innsbruck Medical University. He is a Steering committee member of “Comprehensive Center for Infection, Immunology and Transplantation (CIIT)”, a scientific advisory board member of Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Hans-Knöll-Institut/HKI) at Jena, Germany and a member of the AGRPC (Aspergillus Genomes Research Policy Committee).
Itamar Shalit
Prof. Itamar Shalit is currently the CEO of the Galilee Biomedical Research Administration, a government-sponsored initiative to promote and support biomedical research in the hospitals of Northern Israel. During the years 2001 - 2012 he was the Director of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Unit at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel. He is one of the founders and board member of NasVax Ltd., a company that develops improved immunotherapeutic products. His scientific activities include immune modulation of quinolones, infections in immune-compromised hosts as well as new targets and new drug combinations to treat invasive fungal infections. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunization and of the Committee for Eradication of Polio and Eradication of Measles and Rubella of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
Lieven Stuyver
Dr. Lieven Stuyver is a Senior Scientific Director and Fellow at Janssen Diagnostics, Beerse, Belgium. His scientific activities include research and development activities for companion diagnostics of viral pathogens (HIV, HCV, human influenza virus, human polyomaviruses), as well as the discovery of diagnostics biomarker for efficacy and safety. He also oversees the point-of-care research activities around technology platforms at Janssen Diagnostics. He serves as reviewer for several scientific journals. Previously, he was Vice-President drug discovery at Pharmasset in Atlanta, Georgia, US.
Luca Guardabassi
Prof. Luca Guardabassi is Professor in Antimicrobial Resistance and Antibiosis at the University of Copenhagen. His main research interests encompass evolution, host specificity, population structure and epidemiology of multidrug-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant staphylococci and Escherichia coli producing extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL). In recent years he has developed a strong interest in novel strategies to improve the therapeutic efficacy of existing antibiotics and reduce their selective effects in the gut microbiota. He serves as responsible for the veterinary diagnostic laboratory at the University of Copenhagen, as advisor for the CLSI's Subcommittee on Veterinary Susceptibility Testing (VAST), and as expert for international (ISCAID) and national antimicrobial guidelines working groups.
Simona Ruta
Dr. Simona Ruta, MD, PhD is Professor of Virology, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Scientific Director of the HIV/AIDS International Laboratory Center of Excellence- Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, at the Stefan S. Nicolau Institute of Virology Bucharest, Romania. Her main research fields are the molecular epidemiology of the pediatric HIV infection and of the parenterally transmitted viral hepatitis, as well as the evolution of emerging viral diseases. She is the Romanian representative for the EU COST programme Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health (ISCH), a Member in the Advisory Council of the International Union of Microbiological Societies, Virology Division and in the European Society Groups of Viral Hepatitis and Molecular Diagnosis.
Waleria Hryniewicz
Prof. Waleria Hryniewicz has been the National Consultant of Clinical Microbiology since 2008. Previously she was the director of Sera and Vaccine Central Research Laboratory (1996-2001) and after its incorporation into a structure of National Medicines Institute she was its managing director (2002) and a head of Epidemiology and Clinical Microbiology department (until 2010). She is chairing the National Programme on Antibiotic Protection. She is Polish representative to JPIAMR and its steering committee member.
