ASM BacPath Orator
Prof Kate Seib
Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University
Professor Kate Seib is a NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Principal Research Leader and the Associate Director (Research) at the Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Australia. Her work is focused on the discovery, pre-clinical characterisation and clinical evaluation of vaccines for human mucosal pathogens including Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis. She was part of the team that developed the serogroup B meningococcal vaccine, 4CMenB, and is now leading two clinical trials to evaluate the ability of 4CMenB to prevent gonorrhoea. She is a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Research Priority Setting and has been an invited expert for recent WHO Gonococcal Vaccine Consultations.
International Keynote Speakers
Prof Kimberly Kline
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva
Kimberly Kline is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. From 2011-2022, she was a Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at NTU Singapore a Principal Investigator at SCELSE. Kimberly received an MPH in Biostatistics and Epidemiology and a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Northwestern University, and completed postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm Sweden. Kimberly has received multiple awards for her contributions to the field of microbiology, including a NIH K99 Career Development Award in 2011, the Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship in 2011, the ICAAC Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Microbiology in 2014, and the Nanyang Education Award in 2017. Research in the Kline lab works to dissect the pathogenic mechanisms of polymicrobial biofilm-associated infections, including catheter-associated urinary tract infections, wound infections, and infectious endocarditis. Given the intrinsic phenotypic resistance of biofilms to antimicrobials, the Kline lab seeks to exploit their fundamental discoveries to identify new therapeutic intervention points for these difficult-to-treat infections.
Prof Christoph Tang
William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford
Christoph Tang is currently Professor of Cellular Pathology at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, Professorial Fellow at Exeter College and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. he was awarded a PhD at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in 1995, then was appointed as a Clinical Lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Medicine to complete his specialist medical training in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine. He received an MRC Clinician Scientist Award in 1997 which included a year's fellowship at the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland. He was appointed to a Readership then Professorship in Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London in 2001, and elected to his current position in 2010. He studies the fundamental mechanisms of how human bacterial pathogens adapt to microenvironments found in vivo. His group applies this understanding to vaccine development, and this work has led to clinical trials of vaccine candidates.
Prof Alain Filloux
Nanyang Technological University
Professor Alain Filloux completed his master’s degree in cellular and molecular biology, and PhD in molecular biology and microbiology from Aix-Marseille University, France. He is centre director of the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and holds appointments at both the School of Biological Sciences and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine at NTU. Prior to his appointment, Alain Filloux was a visiting professor in NTU since 2017. In his previous post at Imperial College London, UK, he had a chair in Molecular Microbiology at the Department of Life Sciences and was the deputy director of the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection.
Alain Filloux is an expert in bacterial infection biology, with the aim of translating fundamental and basic research into strategies for preventing and treating bacterial diseases. He has profound expertise in bacterial biofilms, bacterial virulence factors and protein secretion systems, and bacterial communication and signalling.
Alain Filloux has been the editor-in-chief of FEMS Microbiology Reviews, and npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, a partnership between the Nature Partner Journals and NTU, with SCELSE as the journal’s scientific partner. He holds editorial positions at Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, microLife, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He has also been elected Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Royal Society of Biology.