Prof Shamez Ladhani PhD MRCPCH(UK) MSc(distinction) MBBS(hons) BSc(hons) is a paediatric infectious diseases specialist at St. George’s Hospital, a reader in paediatric infectious diseases at St. George’s University of London and consultant epidemiologist at UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), where he is the clinical lead for a number of national vaccine preventable infections, including Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria meningitidis, which are all major causes of childhood bacterial meningitis. He completed his medical training at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, London, and then worked in a children’s hospital in rural Kenya. Upon returning to London, he obtained his PhD in genetic epidemiology and vaccine failure in children and completed his specialist paediatric infectious diseases training at St. George’s and Great Ormond Street Hospitals, London. In the current pandemic, he is the clinical lead for of SARS-CoV-2 in Children at UKHSA. His work has focused on national surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, PIMS-TS and long COVID, immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in children compared to adults as well as infection, transmission and outbreaks in educational settings and COVID-19 vaccines for children

Fani Ladomenou graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Crete (1998-2004) with Honours and she obtained a Doctoral Degree in Medicine (2011, Paediatrics). She has served as a Fellow in Paediatric Infectious Diseases/Immunology in Academic Hospitals in the UK (London, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Newcastle upon Tyne, Great North Children Hospital) and has also worked as a consultant in Paediatric Immunology & Infectious Diseases at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, UK. She has been a clinician in Paediatrics since 2012 and is currently caring for sick children at Venizeleion General Hospital of Heraklion, Crete, where she is responsible for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases services. She has completed her postgraduate studies in the field of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford, UK and is actively involved in medical research focusing on Infectious Diseases, Immunology and Paediatrics and has relevant publications in peer-reviewed international journals. She served as a Board member of the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases between May 2018 and May 2021 and has served as a member of the Editorial Board of Paediatric Infectious Diseases Journal since August 2019.