Dr. Deepali Kumar is Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University Health Network. Dr. Kumar has a translational research program that consists of both clinical and laboratory-based research. Her clinical and research interests focus on infections in transplant recipients including the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases in the immunocompromised host. Dr. Kumar has published over 200 scientific papers and mentored many trainees. She is President-Elect of the American Society of Transplantation, and Chair of the Canadian Standards Association Committee on Cells, Tissues, and Organs for Transplant.

Brenda Anna Kwambana-Adams is a Wellcome International Intermediate Fellow and Senior Lecturer (Academic Career Track) at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Clinical Research Programme. Brenda’s research interests are to characterise the mechanisms that modulate transmission of the pneumococcus using cutting-edge “omics”, with the aim to guide the development of more effective control strategies. As part of her Wellcome Fellowship, Brenda is using an innovative vaccine-probe study to investigate the role of under-fives in within-household transmission of the pneumococcus to infants. In the process of doing this, Brenda is also developing tools for early, rapid, and accurate diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) and bacteraemia that could improve case ascertainment in resource limited settings. Brenda also works with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Regional Reference Laboratories supporting surveillance of acute bacterial meningitis across Africa. She led the WHO technical mission which investigated the 2016 pneumococcal meningitis outbreak in Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana. Brenda contributed to the development of the current WHO guidelines on controlling pneumococcal outbreaks in the African “meningitis belt” and the WHO Defeating Meningitis 2030 Global Roadmap. Brenda has won numerous awards including the first prestigious MRC-LSHTM West Africa Global Health Research Fellowship.