Lonnie King (Keynote, Day 1)

Confronting Infectious Diseases in an Interconnected World

Dr. King is an internationally-renowned scientist and member of the Institute of Medicine; a former Director of the CDC National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne and Enteric Diseases and currently the Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Executive Dean of Health Sciences at The Ohio State University (OSU). Formerly, Dr. King was appointed administrator for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. King also served as the U.S. chief veterinary officer for five years and worked extensively in global trade agreements within NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, and the World Animal Health Association (OIE). For more information on Dr. King- http://www.onehealthcommission.org/news/summit-bios/Lonnie-King.pdf

Linda Saif

Noroviruses and Food Safety: Epidemiology, Surrogates and Animal Model

Dr. Saif is a Distinguished University Professor at the Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Food Animal Health Research Program, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), The Ohio State University, Wooster. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and also Honorary Diplomate at the American College of Veterinary Microbiology (ACVM)   Dr. Saif is known internationally for her work on enteric viruses, which cause very high mortality and morbidity in both food-producing animals and humans.

Jonna A. K. Mazet

Predicting the Unpredictable: Identifying Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Human-Domestic Animal-Wildlife Interface

Professor Mazet serves as the Director of the One Health Institute and Wildlife Health Center in the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She is the PI and Global Director for an international early warning system for zoonotic diseases, PREDICT, that is supported by the United States Agency for International Development’s Emerging Pandemic Threats Program. PREDICT is establishing a global surveillance system for potentially pandemic diseases emerging from wildlife using geospatial modeling, epidemiology, genomics, molecular virology, and targeted field surveillance at hot zoonotic disease transmission interfaces. She leads a network of NGOs and governmental agencies to build capacity to develop surveillance systems and complete the necessary research in an attempt to diminish the potential for and severity of pandemics. 

Tsegaye Habtemariam

Capacity Building to Promote Global Trade Through Science Based Risk Analysis and Modelling

Dr. Tsegaye Habtemariam is the Dean (2006 – Present) of College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health (CVMNAH), Tuskegee University (TU), Alabama, USA. He holds the rank of tenured Professor of Epidemiology & Biomedical Informatics in the Department of Pathobiology. Previously, he served as Director, Center for Computational Epidemiology, Bioinformatics & Risk Analysis (CCEBRA); Director, Biomedical Information Management Systems (BIMS) and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies (1999 – 2005). 

Jean Dupouy-Camet 

Meatborne Parasitic Diseases in a World of Tremendous Increase in Meat Consumption

Jean Dupouy-Camet is professor of Medical Parasitology in Paris Descartes University. He is head of the department of Parasitology-Mycology of Cochin Hospital, Assistance Publique- Hôpitaux de Paris (France) and head of the National Reference Center for Trichinella. He holds a MD in general practice, a specialization in Tropical medicine and a phD in Parasitology, all obtained in Paris University. He is past president of the International Commission on Trichinellosis, past general secretary of the French Society of Parasitology and Vice president of the European federation of Parasitologists (EFP). 

Maria Giovanni (Keynote, Day 2)

NIAID and Global Health: Building Genomics Capacity

Dr. Giovanni is the Assistant Director for Microbial Genomics and Advanced Technologies at the National Institute of Health, U.S. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. She did her postdoctoral training in the NIH laboratory of Nobel Prize Laureate, Dr. Marshall Nirenberg in molecular neuroscience.  She continued at NIH in 1988 at the National Eye Institute as Director of Fundamental Retinal Processes and then Chief, Retinal Diseases Branch, and she also lead their efforts in Ocular Genomics. In 2000 she moved to the National institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases at NIH as Assistant Director for Microbial Genomics and Advanced Technologies and has been involved in leading and managing genomics, bioinformatics, proteomics and system biology programs in infectious diseases including influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, other diseases, and Biodefense and Medical Diagnostics for NIAID.

Larry Schlesinger

The impact of tuberculosis and other respiratory tract infections at the human-animal interface

Dr. Schlesinger is the Samuel Saslaw Professor of Medicine and 2011 Distinguished Scholar at The Ohio State University (OSU). He is previous director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, current chair of the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity in the College of Medicine, and founding Director of the OSU Center for Microbial Interface Biology (CMIB) which focuses on infectious diseases of major concern to human health. He also serves as chair of the steering committee for the OSU Targeted Investment in Excellence Program on Public Health Preparedness for Infectious Diseases (PHPID). He is an internationally recognized scientist in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and diseases caused by other intracellular pathogens that subvert lung immune mechanisms. He also leads a major infectious disease biodefense program within a multi-university consortium. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and American Academy of Microbiology. http://cmib.osu.edu/people/faculty/larryschlesinger/index.cfm

Frank Brombacher

Alternative Macrophage Activation & Host-Directed Drug Targeting

Prof Brombacher is the Scientific Coordinator for Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the African International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB, http://www.icgeb.org) based in Cape Town. In addition, he holds a South African Research Chair (SARCHi) for Immunology of Infectious Diseases in Africa and a Medical Research Council Unit on Immunology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Cape Town (IIDMM, http://www.iidmm.uct.ac.za). He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and currently president for the South African Immunology Society (SAIS, http://saimmunology.org.za). His group investigate immunological mechanisms, regulation and protective host effector functions in experimental murine infectious disease models, relevant to Africans, e.g. tuberculosis, African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis and helminthic infections, like bilharzia - four of the top ten WHO declared human threats to combat. 

Dr. Karen Nelson

The Study of the Human Microbiome

Dr. Nelson is the Director of the Rockville, Maryland campus of the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Cornell University in 1997. Dr. Nelson has extensive experience in microbial ecology, genomics and metagenomics as well as in microbial physiology. In 1999, at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), she led the genome sequencing of Thermotoga maritima MSB8. The resulting landmark publication provided insights into microbial evolution. Dr. Nelson and her group were part of a national team of researchers who completed the first comprehensive metagenomic survey of the human gastrointestinal tract. Currently she is a key investigator in the multi-center NIH Human Microbiome Project.

Dr. Cecil Czerkinsky (Keynote, Day 3)

Developing Vaccines against Enteric Infections in Developing Countries: the IVI Paradigm

Dr. Czerkinsky joined the International Vaccine Institute as the Deputy Director-General for Laboratory Sciences in October 2005. Dr. Czerkinsky received doctoral degrees from the University of Lyon Odontology Faculty in France, and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden where he served as a professor of the immunology. He has been serving as the Director of the Division of Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology at INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) since 1997, focusing on vaccine research and discovery of the basic mechanisms governing induction of immunity in mucosal organs. Dr. Czerkinsky invented the ELISPOT and is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies.  His work has been focused on basic immunological mechanisms pertaining to vaccine development against infections, auto-immune disorders and allergies.  

Policy session speakers 

Berhe Gebreegziabher

Policy issues in animal health in Africa: OIE Perspectives

Dr Berhe Gebreegziabher was formerly the President of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Regional Commission for Africa and Director, Animal and Plant Health Regulatory Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Dr Berhe has recently been appointed as the Director of Animal Production and Health Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He has an extensive experience on veterinary regulatory services and policy issues dealing with animal health and diseases control systems. 

Patience Mensah

Global Policy and Capacity Needs in Food Safety and Zoonotic Diseases

Director for Food Safety and Zoonoses (FOS), Regional office for Africa, World Health Organization (WHO).