I currently work with the Gene Therapy team at Gordian Biotechnology on optimizing AAV vector production and purification. I also contribute to the single cell sequencing efforts, plasmid cloning and production that makes our in vivo therapeutic screening platform work. As a graduate student in the Azarian Lab at UCF I conducted research focused on mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer in Streptococcus pneumoniae influenced by changes in gene expression.

I am a clinician, currently working on the Invasive Respiratory Infection Surveillance (IRIS) Project. I am reading for my PhD under the supervision of Professor Angela Brueggemann.

Until recently Carmen worked at the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) and predecessor organisations since 1999. Starting with a laboratory based job in the virus reference department, developing serology assays, she moved into the Respiratory bacteria field in 2000. Focussing on developing non-culture diagnostic and characterisation tests for pneumococcal disease. Carmen attended her first ISPPD in Alaska 2002. She completed a Ph.D with Queen Mary University of London in 2006, duiring which she further developed PCR and antigen detection methods for detection of pneumococcus and began using sequence based methods. Carmen was heavily involved with the switch of the reference laboratory to whole genome sequencing and the development of the pneumococcal serotyping tool PneumoCaT which was published in 2016 with the pneumococcal routine service going live in the UK in October 2017. Since then she has changed careers somewhat, undertaking an MSc in Bioinformatics which she passed with distinction in 2020, also gaining state registration as a Clinical Bioinformatician in 2021.

Anita Shet, MD, PhD is a pediatrician and a public health specialist and Director of Child Health at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also directs the Johns Hopkins Maternal and Child Health India center that focuses on addressing health issues among women, infants and children, and strengthening public health capacity in India. Her interests span maternal and child nutrition, social determinants of health, sustainable interventions for orphans and vulnerable children, childhood immunization and vaccine-preventable infections. Her research and practice areas include addressing global pandemic-related disruptions of routine childhood vaccination and essential health services, and advocacy efforts to expand vaccine access globally, especially newer vaccines such as the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).

Rayhan Sk is a public health researcher. He did M. Phil and PhD in Population Studies from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, New Delhi, India. His research interest areas focused on child and maternal health, child malnutrition and morbidities, and socio-economic determinants of population health.

Professor Slack is an Independent Consultant Medical Microbiologist. She was formerly employed by Public Health England (PHE) as Head of the Haemophilus Reference Unit in the Respiratory & Vaccine Preventable Bacteria Reference Unit, Colindale, London, United Kingdom. She coordinated the laboratory aspects of enhanced population-based surveillance on invasive Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae disease in England and Wales. From 1975 to 2003 she was the University Lecturer (Honorary Consultant) in Bacteriology at the University of Oxford, responsible for clinical microbiology teaching to Oxford Clinical Medical Students. She is currently a Professor in the School of Medicine & Dentistry, Griffith University Gold coast campus, Queensland, Australia. She was formerly Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae; Head of the Global Reference Laboratory for Haemophilus influenzae in the WHO Global Vaccine-Preventable Invasive Bacterial Disease (VP-IBD) Surveillance Network. She has worked extensively in developing countries- assisting WHO, PATH, IVI, the Hib Initiative and the PneumoADIP by providing technical support, advice and training for sentinel site surveillance of paediatric bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis. Her principal research interests include aspects of infections caused by H. influenzae and S. pneumoniae, specifically the epidemiology of invasive haemophilus and pneumococcal infections, the impact of Hib and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance in H. influenzae, the role of vaccines in combatting antimicrobial resistance and community acquired pneumonia. Her findings in these areas have been widely published and presented at national and international meetings.

I am manager of the national pneumococcal reference laboratory at Statens Serum Insitut (SSI) in Denmark.

Senior epidemiologist focusing on invasive pneumococcal, meningococcal and Haemophilus influenza B disease