Hospital De La Santa Creu I Sant Pau / University of Queensland

Dr Natividad Benito has a degree in Medicine and Surgery and a PhD from the University of Barcelona, Spain. Specialist in Internal Medicine (Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid), dedicated to the field of Infectious Diseases since 1997, in the areas of clinic, teaching and research.

She currently works as a senior consultant in the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Barcelona). She is an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research has focused on the epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of complex infections, such as osteoarticular and endovascular infections, infections in immunocompromised patients and healthcare-acquired infections, particularly those caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. She is the author or co-author of more than 120 articles in journals with an impact factor (H=42) and more than 30 book chapters.

She has been president of the Spanish Study Group of Bone and Joint Infections (GEIO) (belonging to the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology) and she is currently a member of the Spanish Antibiogram Committee (COESANT).

The Alfred Hospital and Monash University

Iain is an Infectious Diseases Physician & Clinical Microbiologist at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, and is a Post Doc Research Fellow at Monash University. Iain is passionate about tackling the problems of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from bench-to-bedside. His specific interests include improvements in antimicrobial susceptibility testing, dynamic PK/PD in-vitro modelling and optimising the antimicrobial choice and dosing in the treatment of complex infection syndromes in vulnerable patients. Iain spent 3 years at Erasmus MC (Rotterdam), under the supervision of Prof Johan Mouton, completing a PhD in the area of antimicrobial PK/PD in-vitro modelling. Iain also has professional committee roles on the ASA Australian National Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Committee (AusNAC) and serves as the scientific editor for the ASA Breakpoint Newsletter.

The University of Queensland

Associate Professor Dr Mark Blaskovich is an ‘antibiotic hunter’ based at the Centre for Superbug Solutions in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland. A medicinal chemist with 15 years of industrial drug development experience prior to his academic career, he has been developing new antibiotics to treat drug resistant pathogens and using modified antibiotics to detect bacterial infections. He cofounded the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD), a global antibiotic discovery initiative, and has led a number of UQ-industry collaborations focused on antibiotic development. An inventor on eleven patent families, Mark has developed drugs in clinical trials, published over 100 research articles, and received over $20m in antibiotic-related grant funding, including the first CARB-X award to a university-based antibiotic development program.

University of Western Australia

Associate Professor Chris Blyth is a clinician scientist with the Division of Paediatrics in the UWA Medical School. He is a Research Fellow at Telethon Kids Institute, Head of Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital, and a Clinical Microbiologist at PathWest Laboratory Medicine.

Professor Blyth undertook his undergraduate medical degree at UWA before embarking on postgraduate training in paediatrics, infectious diseases and microbiology in Perth and Sydney. He returned to Perth in 2010 as a clinical academic and established the Department of Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital.

He is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow having previously held a WA Health/Raine Early Career Research Fellowship. Professor Blyth also leads an influenza and acute respiratory infection research program undertaking work in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

He has been an investigator on grants totalling more than nine million dollars and has been published widely in peer-reviewed journals.

Professor Blyth has served on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation committee since 2012. He is currently co-chair of the group, which is Australia’s peak scientific committee on immunisation. It provides advice to the Commonwealth Department of Health and is tasked with writing the Australian Immunisation Handbook, one of the most utilised clinical guidelines in the country. Professor Blyth is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society of America, and is a member of the inaugural class of the Vaccine Fellow Program of the Edwards Jenner Vaccine Society.

University of Queensland

Mr Gene Chai is a Doctor of Philosophy candidate at the University of Queensland, Centre for Clinical Research where he holds a NHMRC postgraduate scholarship. His research focuses on evaluating the use of Bayesian dosing software programs along with therapeutic drug monitoring to optimise antimicrobial dosing in the intensive care unit. He was previously a senior clinical and ICU pharmacist at Eastern Health, Melbourne and is currently practicing at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane.

Monash University

Royal Hobart Hospital

Dr Louise Cooley is an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist, and Director of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmania. She is a member of the AGAR Executive Committee, Australian Society for Antimicrobials committee. Tasmanian representative on the Public Health Laboratory Network and Communicable Diseases Genomics Network, a member of the National Centre for Infections in Cancer (NCIC) and FluCAN research groups. Her clinical and research interests include antimicrobial resistance and surveillance, application of microbial genomics for public health and infection control , epidemiology of influenza, epidemiology and management infections in immunocompromised hosts, and antifungal stewardship in high risk patient groups.

University of Queensland

University of Tasmania

Monash Health and Peter Doherty Institute

A/Prof Maryza Graham is a Medical Microbiologist & Infectious Diseases Physician at Monash Health, Victoria’s largest health service & is also a Medical Microbiologist at the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory at The Peter Doherty Institute. Maryza has been a member of the RCPA Microbiology Advisory Committee for the past 10 years and is Chair of the National RCPA Selective Reporting of Antimicrobials Guidelines Committee. Maryza is a member of the ASA National EUCAST AST Committee and has a special interest in evaluating and optimising Microbiology laboratory process and result reporting for enhancing clinical impact.

University of Queensland

Krispin is the Director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, the Interim Director of the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute, and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research.

UQ Centre for Clinical Research

Dr Patrick Harris is a clinical microbiologist and NHMRC Early Career Fellow at The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). His research has a focus on antibiotic resistant bacteria and the use of randomised clinical trials to define optimal treatment for these problematic infections as well as the application of microbial genomics to clinical practice.

Biointelect Pty Ltd

Jennifer Herz founded Biointelect in 2011 to provide strategic commercialisation services to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Jennifer has over twenty years commercial, business development and scientific affairs experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has held a variety of roles with responsibility for Australia, New Zealand and European markets. She was the first Managing Director of Sanofi Pasteur in Australia which was a start-up company and grew significantly over the 6 years of her tenure to be an established major provider of vaccines to the public and private market in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Region.

She has previously served on the Board of Medicines Australia where she led industry discussions with government related to the new funding arrangements for vaccines on the PBAC. She was also active in a variety of European and International Industry Association working groups responsible for liaison with health authorities including European Institutions and the WHO.

She is a member of the Accelerate Commercialisation Expert Network, on the Steering Committee of the NHMRC funded Centre of Research Excellence: Policy relevant infectious disease simulation and mathematical modelling (PRISM) and is a member of the Expert Reference Group of the Australian Partnership for Preparedness Research on Infectious Disease Emergencies (APPRISE).

Jennifer has extensive international & local network of industry, policy, scientific and clinical experts across many therapeutic areas and healthcare sectors along with global experience in multiple new product launches and start-ups at all stages of development.

Public Health Microbiology, Forensic and Scientific Services, Queensland Health

A/Prof Amy Jennison is the Chief Scientist of the Public Health Microbiology laboratory in the Queensland Department of Health, which is the Australian state of Queensland’s reference laboratory responsible for the molecular surveillance of notifiable bacterial pathogens and characterisation of public health related outbreaks. The laboratory is uniquely positioned for responding to public health disease threats as it consists of clinical, high containment, genomic, food and waters teams, who work synergistically for both pathogen surveillance and outbreak responses.

A/Prof Jennison has led the molecular team in the application of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to routine molecular surveillance and heads numerous research projects aimed at utilising WGS for improving molecular epidemiological investigation and preventing disease outbreaks of notifiable and emerging pathogens. She has been a founding member of the Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (CDGN), and is a Chief Investigator in the MRFF Genomics COVID-19, Public Health pathogen genomics and clinical metagenomics projects, and has assisted at both the state and national level in the establishment of integrated national genomics surveillance of SARS-COV-2.

Monash Infectious Diseases

Tony Korman is the Director of Infectious Diseases and Director of Microbiology at Monash Health, Victoria's largest health service, and Infection theme leader, Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, and Adjunct Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University.

Herston Infectious Diseases Institute

Amy Legg is an experienced clinical pharmacist in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship. Her research interests include urinary biomarkers for diagnosis of AKI, antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring to ensure efficacy and safety, and uptake and efficacy of the hepatitis C medications. Amy is currently undertaking a PhD aiming to better understand renal toxicity of combination antibiotic therapy for Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia.

Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology

Johanna Mayer-Coverdale is a clinical microbiologist and infectious diseases physician working at Sullivan and Nicolaides Pathology in Brisbane. She is also a clinical research fellow at the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute based at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Johanna has a special interest in establishing multidisciplinary care of patients with complicated urinary tract infections and improving UTI diagnostics.

The Alfred Hospital and Monash University

Associate Professor Trisha Peel (MBBShons, FRACP, GradCertClinRes, PhD) is an Infectious Diseases Clinician-Researcher. Her research is focussed on the prevention of perioperative infections and the optimisation of prophylactic antibiotics. She is involved in a number of large, multinational NHMRC funded trials in this area. She holds several key appointments, including Clinical Lead of the Antimicrobial Stewardship at Epworth and Alfred Healthcare, Infectious Diseases at Alfred Health and Lead of the Surgical Infections Research Group and NHMRC Career Development Fellow at Monash University.

The Alfred Hospital and Monash University

Anton Y. Peleg is Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and the Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Alfred Hospital and Monash University. He is also a research group leader in the Department of Microbiology, Monash University. His research spans clinical to basic research, with a focus on hospital-acquired infections, antimicrobial resistance, infections in immunocompromised hosts and understanding mechanisms of disease caused by hospital pathogens. He has a particular clinical interest in complex infections in highly vulnerable patient groups, including patients with cystic fibrosis, lung and stem cell transplant recipients, and infections in patients with burns or in intensive care.

Australian Department of Health

Adjunct Prof John Skerritt joined the Australian Department of Health in 2012 as a Deputy Secretary. In this role he has been part of national leadership of Australia’s response to the COVID -19 pandemic as well as regular spokesperson on TV, radio, print and online media and with community groups.

He also has line responsibility for the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of Drug Control. He was formerly a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Government, Deputy CEO of a Commonwealth Statutory Authority, senior research manager in CSIRO and in industry joint venture partnerships. From 2009-2012, he was Chair of the Board of a global technical NGO, and a board member for two further years. Apart from development assistance and governance skills he has extensive experience in medical, agricultural and environmental policy, as well as regulation, research management, technology application and commercialisation.

John is an Adjunct Full Professor at three Universities, has a PhD and a University Medal from the University of Sydney, and international qualifications (London, Switzerland) in management. He is winner of the Rotary “Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award”, for leadership of development assistance for education, food security and income generation in response to the East Timor crisis and the response to the South East Asian boxing day tsunami and leadership in the environmental NGO sector. More recently he has driven a program of assistance to support regulatory strengthening, including in the response to COVID-19 in Asia-Pacific developing countries.

Royal Melbourne Hospital

Professor Monica Slavin leads the Immunocompromised Host Infection service at Royal Melbourne Hospital and is Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac). Monica is current Chair of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases Mycoses Interest Group and established and has chaired its antifungal guideline writing committee since 2004. Monica contributes to multiple national and international committees for education, research and development of guidelines for treatment and prevention of opportunistic infections and to standardise definitions and diagnosis of fungal infections. Monica is Vice President of the International Immunocompromised Host Society, which promotes education and research.

University of Adelaide

Dr Turnidge completed his training in Infectious Diseases and laboratory Microbiology at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. He subsequently undertook research with William A. Craig, MD, in Madison, WI, on the early stages of development of the science of antimicrobial pharmacodynamics. He spent eight years at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne before returning to Adelaide as head of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and then as chief of the Laboratory Medicine division at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. He was Clinical Director of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases for SA Pathology for 3 years, while continuing to be based at the Women’s and Children’s. His research career has led to over 340 publications and a range of editorial boards and leadership positions. He has chaired the Australian Joint Expert Technical Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance and the Expert Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. He was a member of the Subcommittees on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Veterinary Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, and chaired the NHMRC’s Expert Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. He co-founded the Australian Society for Antimicrobials in 1999 and was President of the Australian Society of Microbiology from 2010 to 2012. He retired from clinical work in 2014 to work as a Senior Medical Advisor at the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care, responsible for implementing national surveillance for antimicrobial resistance and usage in human health. In January 2017 he commenced work as the Scientific Secretary for the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing.

Monash University

Dr Michelle Yong is an Infectious Diseases Physician and Post-doctoral researcher at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and the National Centre for Infections in Cancer (NCIC), University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on CMV and viral infections in transplant and immune-compromised hosts, in particular, understanding CMV-related transplant outcomes and cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific immunity. Her PhD was undertaken at the Doherty Institute, Melbourne and Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere, Paris. She currently holds several competitive NHMRC and MRFF Australian grants and sits on a number of national and international guideline writing panels. She also co-leads a clinical trials unit exploring novel viral and fungal therapeutics.