Invited Speakers

Head of Division, Professor Division of Laboratory Medicine

Oslo University Hospital

Dr. Muniesa’s interests are focused on bacteriophages and their role as mobile genetic elements. She has

She is currently Head of the Microbiology section and senior member of the MARS group (Health

My research involves the study of molecular mechanisms underpinning the pathogenesis of several bacterial pathogens. In particular, I am interested in how the sensing of environmental cues at the host-pathogen interface is integrated to allow the co-ordinated regulation of virulence factors. The pathogenic E. coli comprise a diverse group of pathogens, some of which are restricted to their native environment within the gut, while others exhibit niche flexibility, being capable of colonising and causing disease at extraintestinal sites. My postdoctoral work at the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom) involved a deep investigation into the differential responses of distinct E. coli pathotypes to niche-specific environmental signals, with particular emphasis on the D-amino acid D-serine. I recently moved to University College Cork (Ireland) to establish my independent research programme where I hope to explore these relationships further and ultimately develop novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of clinically important infectious diseases.

Dr Libby Onyeka is a lecturer at the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Nigeria, where she teaches undergraduate courses on zoonosis and environmental health; as well as veterinary epidemiology and biostatistics.

Vanessa Sperandio is the Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was the Jane and Bud Smith Distinguished Chair in Medicine, and a Professor in the departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She got her bachelors in biology, and her masters and PhD in Molecular Genetics in the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. She was a Latin American Pew Fellow in Biomedical Sciences (1997), an Ellison Foundation New Scholar (2004), a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases (2006), and a National Academy Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow (since 2007). She is the recipient of the ASM 2015 Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research award, and a winner of the 2014 GSK Discovery Fast-track challenge. In 2013 she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), and in 2022 she was elected Chair-Elect of the AAM. She was elected as an American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) fellow in 2022. Her research investigates chemical, stress and nutritional signaling at the interface amongst the mammalian host, beneficial microbiota and invading bacterial pathogens. The main tenant of research in her laboratory is the study of how bacterial cells sense several mammalian hormones leading to rewiring and reprogramming of bacterial transcription towards host and niche adaptation. She has also identified several bacterial receptors to mammalian hormones, and reported that invading pathogens hijack these inter-kingdom signaling systems to promote virulence expression. She also translated these basic science concepts into strategies to develop novel approaches to anti-microbial therapy.

Research Scientist, Department of Microbiology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Dr. Xiong is a professor at National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, China CDC Surveillance and control strategies on diarrheagenic Escherichia coli in China. His research interest are Molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of pathogenic Escherichia spp., especially Shiga toxin-producing E. coli and E. albertii

An accomplished attorney and national expert in food safety, William (Bill) Marler has become the most prominent foodborne illness lawyer in America and a major force in food policy in the U.S. and around the world. Marler Clark, The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused life-altering injury and even death.

Bill began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the historic Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, in her landmark $15.6 million settlement with the company.  The 2011 book, Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak that Changed the Way Americans Eat, by best-selling author Jeff Benedict, chronicles the Jack in the Box outbreak and the rise of Bill Marler as a food safety attorney.

Bill Marler’s advocacy for a safer food supply includes petitioning the United States Department of Agriculture to better regulate pathogenic E. coli, working with nonprofit food safety and foodborne illness victims’ organizations, and helping spur the passage of the 2010-2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.  His work has led to invitations to address local, national, and international gatherings on food safety, including testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce.

At little or no cost to event organizers, Bill travels widely and frequently to speak to food industry groups, fair associations, and public health groups about the litigation of claims resulting from outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria and viruses and the issues surrounding it.  He gives frequent donations to industry groups for the promotion of improved food safety, and has established numerous collegiate science scholarships across the nation.

Bill graduated from the Seattle University School of Law in 1987, and in 1998 was the Law School’s “Lawyer in Residence.”  In 2011, he was given Seattle University’s Professional Achievement Award.

Maurizio Brigotti is Associate Professor of General Pathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Bologna (Italy). He leads the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology of Bacterial Toxins in the Department of Experimental Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (University of Bologna). His research focuses on the pathogenesis and prevention of HUS and, in particular, on the role of Shiga toxins, at the molecular and cellular level, in triggering HUS in STEC-infected patients. He has recently patented a drug useful in the prevention/treatment of HUS. He served as a member of the local organizing committee of the 10th International VTEC Symposium in Florence 1987 and as a member of the International VTEC Symposium Steering Committee.