Amona Fructueux Modeste
Coordinator of the Research Center and Study of Infectious and Tropical Pathologies, Oyo’s district, Republic of Congo.
Dr Ana Alastruey-Izquierdo
Research Scientist, National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Bright Katey Ocansey
Medical Laboratory Scientist, New Hope Specialist Hospital, Aflao, Volta Region, Ghana.
Guillermo Garcia-Effron
Investigador independiente del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina (CONICET)
Profesor Asociado de Micología y Director del laboratorio de Micología y Diagnóstico Molecular – Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Biológias – Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Santa Fe city (Santa Fe) Argentina.
In English: Independent researcher of the Argentinian National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET)
Associate Professor of Mycology and Director of the Laboratory of Mycology and Molecular Diagnosis – School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences - National University of the Littoral. Santa Fe city (Santa Fe) Argentina.
David W. Denning FRCP FRCPath FMedSci
David Denning is an internationally recognised retired clinician with expertise in fungal diseases and a Professor of Infectious Diseases in Global Health at The University of Manchester. He was the founding Director of the UK’s National Aspergillosis Centre in Manchester (2009-2020), the world’s only such centre. David was Chief Executive of GAFFI from its inception in 2013 until early 2023, part-time. David Denning has published more than 700 papers, books and book chapters and lectures worldwide. His writings have been cited over 95,000 times and he has successfully lead many major international collaborative science, diagnostic and treatment projects and clinical guidelines, with subsequent publication in Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet. He is the Founder of two University spinout biotechnology companies – F2G Ltd (antifungal drug discovery and development) and Myconostica Ltd (molecular diagnostic tests for fungi).
David is Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Aspergillus Website (1998-) accessed by >100,000 computers per month and the educational LIFE website. He has chaired the Scientific Committees of several international fungal infection meetings and co-chairs the alternate-year Advances Against Aspergillosis meetings, attracting ~400 delegates from >120 countries. He is a longstanding member of the Infectious Disease Society of America Aspergillosis Guidelines group, the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Aspergillosis Guidelines group and the British Society for Medical Mycology Standards of Care Committee and a member of the SEARO Task Force on AMR (2019 - 2021).
Victor Rydgren
Victor Rydgren retired as Team-leader in Assessio Norge AS, a company specialising in human resources with its focus on High Performance Work Systems. Victor is now running MEC Consulting with its focus on recruitment and HR.
Victor has previously worked in different organizations and companies in executive positions mainly within marketing. He was Vice President (Marketing) both in Glamox Lighting Company and HÅG Office Furniture and before that he was with SAS International Hotel (now Radisson Hotels) in different positions.
Victor also worked for UNICEF in Geneva as Deputy Director for Private Sector Division for several years before he returned to Norway and took over as Chair of the Norwegian National Committee for UNICEF. When he was in UNICEF, he travelled to see the programs conducted by UNICEF and experienced some of the areas where GAFFI is now planning to do a global impact.
Victor graduated in Economics with focus on Marketing and Transport economics in Norway. He is a Swiss Board member and a Trustee of GAFFI, UK.
Nigel Lightfoot
Nigel studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and joined the Navy. After three years on nuclear submarines he was appointed to Malta, as Medical Officer and GP to the Families Clinic. In 1982 Nigel left the Navy to take up a post as Director of the Public Health Laboratory in Taunton and in 1989 in Newcastle. He dealt with large outbreaks of food poisoning and furthered his own research on Anthrax. Nigel also began a new phase of work looking at the microbiology and public health aspects of water. He went on to develop an external quality assessment scheme for water, which is now used worldwide – The HPA Drinking Water EQA Scheme.
With the emerging threat of bio-terrorism and the break up of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Nigel’s focus shifted to emergency strategy on an international level and he put together a group to develop cutting edge responses, protocols and government cooperation strategies. In 2001, in the wake of September 11th, Nigel was driving in his car when he heard the news that a reporter had died from Inhalation Anthrax poisoning in Florida. Nigel travelled to London to The Department of Health and was immediately called in by the Americans to advise as the saga unfolded.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) was formed in 2003 and Nigel was appointed Director of Emergency Response. Organising the different parts of the HPA into a united body capable of a cohesive response in the case of an emergency was ‘like walking through a minefield’. However the cohesive response he developed turned out to be of vital importance for the subsequent Avian Influenza outbreaks and also for the Polonium-210 murder of Litvinenko in 2006, during which Nigel led the public health investigation and worked closely with police. This experience became invaluable for his later work in the G8 Bio-Terrorism Experts Group on Forensic Epidemiology and in the planning and responses to the recent H1N1 pandemic.
In the 2009 New Year’s Honours List 2009, Professor Nigel Lightfoot was appointed CBE for services to public health. In 2010, Nigel retired from full time work as Director of the Health Protection Agency and he now serves as the Executive Director of Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS) based in Lyon, France.
Nigel is a Swiss Board member and a Trustee of GAFFI, UK.
There are no conflicts of interest
David S. Perlin, Ph.D.
Dr David S. Perlin, PhD is a highly- accomplished administrator and medical researcher. He serves as the inaugural Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President for the Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation, developed as a major translational research enterprise to rapidly develop innovation in science to improve outcomes for patients with cancer and infectious diseases. He was previously Executive Director of the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), a 77-year-old specialized center for global infectious diseases. He was also Director of the Rutgers Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL), one of thirteen NIH-designated national centers for pathogen research, and a Professor of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Dr Perlin help establish PHRI as a leading translational research organization specializing in infectious diseases. As Executive Director over the past decade, PHRI attracted >$200 million in research funds and produced more than $80 million in licensing income from >200 patents.
Dr. Perlin’s research emphasizes studies to diagnose and overcome drug-resistant fungal and bacterial infections in high-risk patients, and he is widely regarded as a global leader in antifungal drug resistance and fungal molecular diagnostics. He has published more than 250 papers and book chapters and has co-authored two books. His laboratory is supported by multiple grants from the NIH, DoD, Pharma and biopharma sectors. The NIH has continuously funded him for 30 years, and he currently leads an NIH-designated National Center of Excellence in Translational Research to discover novel antibiotics and against drug-resistant bacterial infections. Dr Perlin’s recent awards include being named a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Lab profile at Centre for Discovery and Innovation
Felix Bongomin
Felix Bongomin, Internal Medicine Resident, Department of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala.
