Keynote Speaker

Dr. Thomas Theo Brehm ist Internist und Infektiologe am Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf und klinischer Wissenschaftler in der Arbeitsgruppe “Klinische Infektiologie” am Borschungszentrum Borstel, Leibnitz-Lungenzentrum.

Annika Y. Claßen is a specialist for internal medicine and infectious diseases, as well as a clinician scientist, working at the University Hospital Cologne since 2017. Supported by DZIF, she was able to join the Bacteriophage working group of the Leibniz Institute DSMZ Braunschweig in 2021 to evaluate the potential of phages for prevention and treatment of infections caused by multiresistant pathogens (DZIF clinical leave stipend). Following her return to Cologne, she now continues the translational evaluation of phages and the establishment of a Cologne Phage Bank in the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene of the University of Cologne (supported by a DZIF MD/PhD stipend). She is coordinating the DZIF Translational Phage-Network and the AWMF S2k-guideline on “Personalized bacteriophage therapy in Germany” (AWMF no. 092-003). Moreover, she is part of the newly founded EUCAST subcommittee on phage susceptibility testing.

Professor Kevin Foster is the Chair of Microbiology at the Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford (from August 2024). Before Oxford, he had a lab at Harvard as a Bauer Fellow in the FAS Center for Systems Biology. Professor Foster’s research integrates the traditional fields of ecology and evolution with the latest methods in computation, microbiology, molecular genetics, and the study of the mammalian microbiome. The lab focuses on how bacteria compete and succeed in their communities and seeks to use this to manipulate gut communities for better health.

Persönliche Informationen: 

Oberarzt und Bereichsleiter Spezielle Infektiologie
Klinik für Gastroenterologie, Hepatologie und Infektiologie
Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf

Klinische Schwerpunkte:

• Infektiologie mit den Schwerpunkten HIV, opportunistische Infektionen und Tumorerkrankungen, Mykobakteriosen, COVID 19, Antibiotic Stewardship
• HCID (High Consequence Infectious Diseases), Ärztlicher Koordinator Sonderisolierstation des STAKOB Behandlungszentrums Düsseldorf (zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Torsten Feldt)

Forschungsschwerpunkte:

• Klinik und Therapie der HIV-Infektion und ihrer Komplikationen, HIV-Resistenz, - Heilung
• Individualisierte Diagnostik und Therapie bei Infektionserkrankungen
• COVID-19

Nina Khanna is Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Head of Clinical Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. She is Clinical Professor for Infectious Diseases at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and research group leader of the Infection Biology Laboratory at the Department of Biomedicine. Her research focuses on understanding immune responses and the treatment of difficult-to-treat infections, with a particular interest in fungal and viral infections in the immunocompromised host.

Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines. In 2014 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently the endowed Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness (C-VaRPP). Furthermore, since 2024, Dr. Krammer is Professor for Infection Medicine at the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute at the Medical University of Vienna. Dr. Krammer's work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on coronaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses. He has published more than 400 papers on these topics. Since 2019, Dr. Krammer has served as principal investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC), which develops improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long-lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

Jesper Larsen is a veterinarian and senior scientist at the National Reference Laboratory for Antimicrobial Resistance, Department of Bacteria, Parasites, and Fungi, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, which performs surveillance and control of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans, including carbapenemase- and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing organisms, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. He is also a member of the Danish Veterinary Consortium, where he is involved in public health risk assessment of veterinary antibiotics and surveillance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in food animals. He uses epidemiological tools and genomic epidemiology to understand and trace the mechanisms behind the evolution and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wild animals, livestock, food products, and humans in a One Health perspective. He received his Master’s degrees in Veterinary Medicine from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, and his Doctorate from University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg.

Mala Maini is a Professor of Viral Immunology in the Institute of Immunity and Transplantation, Division of Infection and Immunity at UCL, London and an Honorary Consultant Physician in the viral hepatitis clinic. Her lab studies adaptive immunity to hepatitis B, liver cancer and SARS-CoV-2 to inform the development of immunotherapies and vaccines for these major causes of morbidity and mortality. Through access to well-characterised patient cohorts, human tissue samples and models, their studies provide insights into beneficial and dysfunctional T and B cell responses. The lab is particularly interested in dissecting and harnessing tissue-resident immunity for frontline sentinel surveillance of viruses and cancer.  Mala enjoys mentoring and supporting her lab members to obtain fellowships and develop their careers. Work in the Maini lab is funded by Wellcome (including Mala’s Investigator Award), UKRI, Cancer Research UK, ERC Horizon 2020 and the Royal Free Charity.

Dr. Hartmut Stocker hat in Würzburg Medizin studiert. Nach seiner AIP-Zeit im Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin-Marzahn und im Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum in Berlin-Schöneberg hat er seine Weiterbildung zum Facharzt für Innere Medizin im selben Haus unter der Leitung von Priv.-Doz. Dr. Keikawus Arastéh absolviert. Nach dem Internisten folge die Zusatzweiterbildung Infektiologie. Nach einem Zwischenspiel an der Klinik für Infektiologie des Universitätsklinikums Freiburg unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Winfried Kern kehrte er nach Berlin ans Vivantes Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum zurück. Er wechselte 2020 ans St. Joseph Krankenhaus in Berlin-Tempelhof und leitet seitdem die dortige Klinik für Infektiologie.

Prof. Dr. med. Maria J.G.T. Vehreschild leitet seit 2018 den Schwerpunkt Infektiologie am Universitätsklinikum Frankfurt und ist die aktuelle Vorsitzende der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Infektiologie. Klinisch und wissenschaftlich gilt ihr besonderes Interesse dem Thema "Infektionen mit multiresistenten bakteriellen Erregern". Diesbezüglich leitet sie den Forschungsbereich "Healthcare-associated Infections" im Deutschen Zentrum für Infektionsforschung. Ihre eigene Forschung fokussiert dabei auf die Identifizierung und Entwicklung von Ansätzen, die als Alternativen zu klassischen Antibiotikatherapien eingesetzt werden können.