Professor of Pediatrics All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Jeffrey L. Ambroso is a board-certified toxicologist with 21 years of experience in nonclinical safety evaluation of drugs and biotechnology products, in both public and private sectors. At RTI International, Jeffrey works closely with both the TB Alliance and CARB-X to develop novel therapies to treat bacterial pathogens. He has served as the preclinical safety representative on multiple project teams developing drugs for a variety of indications.

Antoine Andremont is currently Emeritus Professor at the Paris Diderot University Medical School, France, a scientific advisor at the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and serves as an expert witness for the French National Highest Judiciary Court (Cour de Cassation). He is also the co-founder and a senior scientific advisor at biotechnology company Da Volterra - which he created in 2000 to research and understand the impact of antibiotics on the intestinal flora microbiota, the development and

John van den Anker is a renowned paediatric consultant based at the Children’s National Medical Center Washington, DC, whose research has resulted in a much more evidence-based use of antibacterial agents such as aminoglycosides, cephalosporins, penicillins, meropenem, and vancomycin in children. John holds many titles including, the Evan and Cindy Jones Endowed Professor of Paediatric Clinical Pharmacology at Children’s National Medical Center; the Eckenstein-Geigy Distinguished Professor in Paediatric Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics at the University of Basel Children’s Hospital in Switzerland,

Anand Anandkumar is co-founder and CEO of Bugworks, India. A startup working on tackling the problem of drug resistance. Bugworks is designing next-generation antibiotics that can tackle a broad spectrum of superbugs and will enter clinical trials in late 2020. More recently the company has also forayed into the design of broad-spectrum anti-virals. Bugworks has won many national and international innovation awards including the Best biotech startup in India 2015, Economic Times Top Innovator award 2017 and is the

Christine Ardal is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) with a focus on the policy aspects of medicine access and innovation, particularly antibiotics. She has worked for over 25 years on access to medicines through different sectors, including research institutes, governmental development assistance, pharmacy, national health service and insurance. Christine was a co-lead in the DRIVE-AB research project which aimed to transform the way policymakers stimulate innovation, sustainable use, and the equitable availability of

Jesús Rodríguez-Baño is Professor of Medicine at the University of Seville and Head of the Infectious Diseases division at Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena in Seville, Spain. He is also Scientific Chair of the Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI), which is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and President-Elect of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). Jesús is a medical doctor and specialist in internal medicine, who gained his PhD in medicine

Carl Balibar is a Principal Scientist in the department of Infectious Disease and Vaccines at Merck & Co. which he joined in 2012. He is an expert in antibiotic mechanism of action and antibacterial drug discovery. He is specifically responsible for efforts ranging from early discovery and target validation through clinical development utilizing various modalities in support of anti-infective drug discovery. Carl has written more than 30 papers and book chapters and participated in the discovery and development of the

Michael Barbachyn is the Brummel Chair and Professor of Organic Chemistry at Calvin College, Michigan, US, and an independent consultant at Barbachyn Consulting. Michael has over 27 years’ experience in medicinal chemistry as a research scientist following periods at Upjohn, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacia, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, focused on anti-infectives. Michael also has 12 years’ pharmaceutical industry management experience as an associate director and director in antibacterial medicinal chemistry at Pharmacia and then Pfizer; and as an

Greg Basarab is Principal Research Officer and Associate Director at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D). He is Head of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) and pharmacology groups located at Groote Schuur Hospital, Head of Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, and Head of Medicinal Chemistry groups within the UCT Chemistry Department. He lectures at the UCT Medical School on Drug Disposition and Pharmacology. Greg worked in various aspects of antibacterial and antifungal

Alex van Belkum is currently Scientific Director of Microbiology Research at bioMérieux, a diagnostics company based in the South of France. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Alex is a microbiologist in the data analytics unit of bioMérieux with a prime interest in next generation sequencing, and the use of other data-rich technologies in clinical microbiology. His long career has been dedicated to the research of molecular epidemiology, molecular and culture-based diagnostics and antimicrobial

Peter Beyer is a trained lawyer and Senior Advisor at the World Health Organization (WHO) where he leads a team working on global initiatives on antimicrobial resistance. He focuses on developing global instruments to combat antimicrobial resistance and to foster the development of new antimicrobial treatments. Peter was involved in establishing the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) as a WHO and DNDi joint initiative as well as the trilateral collaboration among the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World

Julia Bielicki is currently a consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Infection Prevention and Control at the University of Basel Children’s Hospital. She is also an active researcher with the Paediatric Pharmacology Division at the University of Basel Children’s Hospital and a Senior Lecturer with the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group at St George’s University of London. Furthermore, Julia is involved in developing a national antimicrobial stewardship programme in Switzerland. Julia’s research focuses on observational and interventional studies that aim

Jessica Blair currently holds a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) David Phillips Fellowship and is a senior lecturer in Antimicrobial Resistance at the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham UK. She is an expert in the molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and specifically bacterial efflux pumps. Her team at the University of Birmingham are predominantly interested in how efflux contributes to antibiotic resistance and how the expression of efflux pumps are regulated as

Benjamin Blasco is Discovery Senior Project Manager at the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership where he provides scientific support and leadership to several drug discovery project teams working on novel approaches to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. Benjamin has broad expertise in microbiology, molecular pharmacology and drug discovery, with over 10 years of experience working on tuberculosis and malaria specifically. Before joining GARDP, Benjamin worked as a Research Scientist at Medicines for Malaria Venture, managing several projects spanning from

Helen Boucher is currently chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She is also Director of the Tufts Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance (CIMAR), a collaborative, cross-disciplinary initiative between Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center. She is Director of TMC’s Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device Infectious Diseases Program and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include infections in immunocompromised patients and S. aureus infections, and her research focuses

Mark Brönstrup has been head of the Department of Chemical Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and since 2013 he has also held a Professorship at the Leibniz Universität Hannover. After his graduation, he worked as a laboratory head for Mass Spectrometry at Aventis. This was complemented by a research sabbatical in 2003 at Harvard Medical School. He then led the Natural Product Sciences section at Sanofi-Aventis in Frankfurt with the goal of discovering leads from natural

Pamela Brown has over 30 years’ experience in anti-infective drug discovery gained within the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors. She is currently a consultant in Antibacterial Drug Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry offering independent advice and expertise to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), biotechs and academic institutions. Pam was Director, Medicinal Chemistry at Cantab Anti-infectives for five years following its inception in 2012. There, Pam led the medicinal chemistry team towards novel polymyxins, resulting in a commercial deal with Spero Therapeutics in

Vincent Cattoir is currently Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Rennes 1, and Head of the Clinical Bacteriology department of the University Hospital of Rennes, France. Vincent is the Director of the Lab Enterococci, affiliated to the National Reference Center for Antimicrobial Resistance. He is also a senior scientist in the INSERM U1230 at the University of Rennes 1, currently focused on regulatory mechanisms involved in the pathogenicity and antimicrobial resistance in opportunistic bacterial species such as Enterococcus

Marco Cavaleri is the head of the office of biological health threats and vaccines strategy at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). He is the Chair of the EMA COVID-19 Taskforce and responsible for EMA activities for emergent pathogens, vaccines and AMR. Marco is a pharmacologist who has spent several years in the industry within research and development mainly in the area of anti-infectives covering different positions in preclinical and clinical development. In 2005 he joined the EMA as scientific

Ryan Cirz is Chief Scientific and acting Chief Executive Officer of Revagenix, Inc. a biotechnological company focused on antibacterial R&D. Previously, he was founder and vice President of Research at Achaogen. Achaogen focused on discovering, developing and commercializing innovative antibacterials to treat multi-drug resistant (MDR) Gram-negative infections. Here, he participated in and led the advancement of four home-grown antibacterial assets through investigational new drug applications. Three of those programs advanced into the clinic with two advancing past phase one studies

Martha Clokie is Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester, UK where she leads a group of post-doctoral researchers and PhD students working on different aspects of the therapeutic development of phages that target human and animal pathogens.Her work encompasses all aspects of phage therapy development – from unravelling fundamental biology to product development, and commercialization. She is currently developing phages for major gut pathogens including clostridial and Salmonella species, respiratory pathogens and for antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary

Anthony Coates is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Helperby Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing the next generation of lifesaving antibiotics. Anthony created the company in 2002 and together with colleague Yanmin Hu invented Antibiotic Resistance Breakers (ARBs), a new form of ‘antibiotic renewable’ technology. With existing antibiotic treatments rapidly becoming obsolete, Helperby’s unique antibiotic technology outsmarts highly resistant bacteria by combining ARBs with old antibiotics such as colistin, to create a new and sustainable commercially viable

James (Jim) Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology Faculty. He is a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Being one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology, his research

Matthew Cooper is co-founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Inflazome, which develops inflammasome inhibitors for chronic inflammatory diseases. Matt is also Co-Founder and Director of Defensin Therapeutics and Affiliate Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He holds a fractional Professorial Research Fellow appointment at the University of Queensland, where he is Professor of Chemical Biology at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience and, Affiliate Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biology. Matt obtained his PhD in 1995 in organic

Lloyd Czaplewski is Chief Scientific Officer for Persica Pharmaceuticals Limited and a Director of Chemical Biology Ventures where he provides life and chemical sciences consultancy services. Previously, Lloyd has served as an R&D executive for Biota, Prolysis, and British Biotech Pharmaceuticals. In his scientific career so far, he has led the creation and clinical evaluation of an engineered cytokine, discovery of the potential for minimal lentiviral vectors in antigen presentation, and demonstrating ability to create and lead structure-informed screening.

Shampa Das is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and a Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) consultant. Following 17 years within the pharmaceutical industry, Shampa has extensive expertise in using PK/PD for developing Clinical Pharmacology and dose strategies to support the clinical development and regulatory approval of new anti-infective drugs. Shampa is a senior leader within the Antimicrobial Pharmacodynamics and Therapeutics group which supports biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies to develop new antimicrobial agents by developing the critical Pharmacokinetics and

Mike Dawson is a consultant in antimicrobial research, who has spent the last 14 years working in the biotech sector. Mike also has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry gained at GSK. As Head of Biotransformation and Natural Product Chemistry he played leading roles in natural product based drug discovery and the application of biological processes to drug manufacturing. He left GSK in 2003 to set up Novacta Biosystems where, as Chief Scientific Officer (CEO), he led

Aleksandar Danilovski is Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Xellia Pharmaceuticals, Denmark, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on anti-infective treatments against serious and life-threatening infections. He is also a member of the Scientific Selection Board of Novo Holdings' REPAIR Impact Fund and a Board member of Active Biotech AB, Sweden and Pharmaero ApS, Denmark. Aleksandar has participated in and led the development of several novel and patented specialty pharmaceutical products including more than 100 different drug substances. He is an

David Denning is an infectious diseases clinician with expertise in fungal diseases. He has been a Professor of Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Manchester since 2005. From 2009 to 2020, David led the National Aspergillosis Centre, Manchester, a referral centre in the UK for all patients with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis. His current academic interests are chronic and allergic pulmonary fungal disease, the global burden of fungal infection, resistance in Aspergillus and getting new antifungals developed.

Harpal Dhillon is a pharmacist, founder of AntiBx and a Global Medical Value consultant. Harpal has amassed over 15 years of experience working across healthcare, public health, academia and the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of roles within infectious diseases. He has specialized in developing innovative strategies and initiatives to optimize antibiotic prescribing. This has included the launch of TARGET antibiotics in the UK and the execution of an EU-wide compassionate use programme for an antibiotic. His experience led

Thomas Dougherty is a Senior Scientist in the laboratory in Professor Steve Lory in the Department of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School. Here, he researches compounds that inhibit the lipoprotein pathway in the periplasm, to pharmacologically compromise the outer membrane integrity of Gram-negative bacteria. Thomas spent 8 years at the Rockefeller University in Alexander Tomasz’s laboratory, 3 as a postdoctoral fellow and 5 as an assistant professor. He worked on studies funded by the United States, National Institute of

Michael N. Dudley is President and Chief Executive Officer of Qpex Biopharma, a clinical-stage resistance-focused company based in California, USA which he co-founded in 2018. He has overseen the development (R&D) and regulatory approval of multiple antimicrobials. Most recently, vaborbactam, a first member of a new class of beta-lactamase inhibitors that progressed from discovery to FDA and EMA approval in less than 8 years as a combination product with meropenem (Vabomere®; Vaborem®). As Chief Scientific Officer and Co-leader of

Jacques Dumas is a trained chemist with over 20 years’ experience in discovery to clinical proof-of-concept in infectious diseases and oncology. He has been Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals since July 2015, where he oversees non-clinical sciences and CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) activities to support the company’s product pipeline. Jacques became CSO at Idenix Pharmaceuticals in January 2014, then Vice President at Merck following Merck’s acquisition of Idenix. Between 2007 and 2014, Jacques held several positions at

Barry Eisenstein is the chair of the Scientific and Business Advisory Board of CARB-X, a public-private partnership based at Boston University, devoted to new antimicrobial drug and diagnostic development. Barry received his medical degree from Columbia University and subsequently trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina. He has spent his career in academy and industry, serving as Chief of the Infectious Diseases division at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio then

Alice Erwin is an independent scientific consultant, providing advice on antibiotic discovery to academic and industrial research groups. She also conducts due-diligence evaluation of antibacterial programmes being evaluated as in-licensing or investing opportunities. Alice is an infectious disease microbiologist with experience in both academic and industrial settings. Her scientific research over the past thirty years has revolved around the structure and function of bacterial membranes, with particular interest in the contribution of lipopolysaccharides to both the pathogenesis and the

Cecilia joined the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) as AMR Medical Officer in 2018. Here, she supports projects addressing gaps in the availability and use of diagnostic tests for antimicrobial resistance in order to better guide the appropriate use of treatments. Prior to joining FIND, Cecilia worked at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for 14 years in several countries such as China, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda. In this role, she implemented HIV and tuberculosis (TB) activities in conflict affected

Lena Friberg is Professor of Pharmacometrics at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Uppsala University, Sweden, a position she has held since 2014. Lena obtained her PhD degree in Pharmacokinetics and Drug Therapy in 2003 and spent nearly two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia. She has published over 125 original articles and nearly 15 reviews and book chapters in the area and has an H-index over 40. Her research is focused on advancing pharmacometric

Domingo Gargallo-Viola is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at ABAC Therapeutics, a leader in pathogen-specific antibiotics that was formerly part of Grupo Ferrer Internacional based in Spain. Domingo has over 30 years’ experience in the discovery and development of anti-infective drugs. At ABAC Therapeutics he is focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class, novel mechanism of action, pathogen-specific, narrow spectrum antibiotics - for the treatment of severe and life-threatening infections due to multidrug-resistant organisms. He is also responsible

Olga Genilloud, Scientific Director and Head of the Microbiology Department at Fundación MEDINA, has over 25 years’ extended research experience in the discovery and biosynthesis of novel natural products antibiotics, obtained in the academic, clinical environment and pharmaceutical sectors. Olga has a PhD in chemistry from the Complutense University of Madrid and has a solid background in industrial microbiology - with expertise in bacterial natural products, molecular biology, ecology and taxonomy, physiology, and production of secondary metabolites. Since 2009, Olga

Mark Goldberger is an independent consultant at Mark Goldberger MD MPH LLC Maryland, USA, where he advises pharmaceutical and biotech companies on the development of infectious diseases products. Before retiring in 2014 and becoming a consultant, Mark spent seven years at AbbVie - formerly part of Abbott - in various senior positons including vice president of regulatory affairs and senior advisor. In these roles he provided regulatory guidance and strategic advice with a focus on US Food and Drug Administration

Trudy Grossman is Vice President of Research at Azitra Inc., a company developing microbial-based therapies aimed at treating skin disorders. Previously she was Senior Director of Biology and Pharmacology at Melinta Therapeutics in New Haven, Connecticut, where she managed a team supporting antibiotic discovery and development. Trudy has worked in microbiology in increasing roles of seniority for over 25 years; most of that time applying the genetics, molecular biology, physiology, and biochemistry of bacteria to the discovery and development of

Bob Hancock is a leading microbiologist in Canada, who has researched and taught at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for nearly 40 years. Bob is currently UBC Killam Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, an Associate Faculty Member at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK, and a Canada Research Chair in Health and Genomics. Bob is focused on designing new therapeutic strategies to treat infections - in the light of increasing antibiotic resistance and a dearth of new

Brigitte Happ is an independent consultant of regulatory affairs. She has more than 25 years of extensive experience in global regulatory affairs for biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies and as an Independent Consultant. Her expertise covers a broad range of therapeutic areas such as metabolic endocrinology, dermatology, oncology, therapeutic vaccines and urology as well as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Brigitte has a strong scientific background being able to bridge the gap between research and development. As the founder of Happ consulting,

Stephan Harbarth is a full professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. A position he has held since 2018 and he is board certified in infectious diseases. After serving as a clinical fellow in the Infectious Diseases Division in the Department of Internal Medicine at Geneva University Hospitals, Stephan completed his master’s degree in epidemiology at Harvard University in Boston, USA. Stephan's work has garnered several awards. His group is currently conducting several clinical and epidemiological studies to evaluate key

Stephen is Chief Executive Officer of IHMA Europe Sàrl based in Switzerland, a wholly owned affiliate of International Health Management Associates. Since it began operating in 2009, under Stephen’s leadership, IHMA has focused on providing a full suite of technical capabilities and domain expertise in all phases of antimicrobial drug development: drug discovery, clinical development, regulatory approval and commercialization. Before joining IHMA, Stephen held several key positions in the pharmaceutical industry spanning 15 years, focused on antibacterial and antifungal

Paul Heath is a Professor and Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St George's University Hospital’s NHS Foundation Trust and St George’s, University of London, where he co-leads the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group and is the Director of the Vaccine Institute. Before joining St George’s, Paul was a research fellow in the Oxford Vaccine Group Department of Paediatrics, at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Paul’s research has focused on the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases, and clinical vaccine trials, particularly

Paul J. Hergenrother is the Kenneth L. Rinehart Endowed Chair in Natural Products Chemistry at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He established his own laboratory in 2001 which seeks to understand compound accumulation in Gram-negative bacteria to then use this information to create novel antibiotics. Paul is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Vanquish Oncology, and an anticancer compound discovered by his lab is now being used in multiple clinical trials. Paul has received numerous awards including the

Edward W. Hook III is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (USA) with expertise in infectious diseases, microbiology and epidemiology. In his role as a clinical investigator with a focus on sexually transmitted infections, Edward has led and participated in clinical trials of new antimicrobials, vaccines, and diagnostic tests as well as conducting epidemiologic research on a variety of topics. He has consulted with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease