Andreas Nitsche, Robert Koch Insitute (RKI), Germany

Andreas Nitsche is currently head of the division Highly Pathogenic Viruses at Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, Germany. He earned his degree in chemistry from the Technische Universität in Berlin in 1992, followed by a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2001, and was promoted to professor in virology at Humboldt University Berlin in 2011. He has joined the faculty of Humboldt University as an adjunct professor in 2016.

From 2000 to 2002 Andreas was senior scientist at TIB MOLBIOL Berlin, designing and validating molecular diagnostic assays. In 2002 he joined RKI as senior scientist, was head of the central sequencing facility of RKI from 2004–2016 and established NGS at RKI in 2007. Also in 2007 he became head of the German Consultant Laboratory on Poxviruses and in 2008 head of the division Highly Pathogenic Viruses. He has been a member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research since 2009.

Andreas has a particular interest in:

• development of diagnostics for the detection of highly pathogenic viruses, imported and emerging viruses
• development of approaches to identify and characterize new viruses, including NGS techniques
• basic research on highly pathogenic viruses in order to improve therapy and prophylactics and to elucidate mechanisms of pathogenesis

He is an accomplished scientist with particular expertise in molecular diagnostics of viruses, with more than 150 published manuscripts.

David Heymann, Health Protection Agency, UK

Director, Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House. Professor David Heymann is currently Head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chairman, Public Health England.

Previously he was the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Assistant Director- General for Health Security and Environment, and Representative of the Director-General for polio eradication. From 1998 to 2003, he was Executive Director of the WHO Communicable Diseases Cluster during which he headed the global response to SARS, and prior to that was Director for the WHO Programme on Emerging and other Communicable Diseases.

Earlier experiences at WHO included Chief of Research Activities in the WHO Global Programme on AIDS. Before joining WHO, Professor Heymann worked for 13 years as a medical epidemiologist in sub-Saharan Africa on assignment form the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He is a fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (USA) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK). In 2009 he was appointed an honorary Commander of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for service to global public health.

David Trees, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA

Dr. Trees is a senior microbiologist in CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP). Dr. Trees serves as a team lead for the Microbial Resistance and Genomics Laboratory located in NCHHSTP’s Division of STD Prevention. Dr. Trees has spent more than 25 years working in the field of sexually transmitted diseases. He joined CDC in 1991 and leads a team of scientists working on genetics and whole genome sequencing of antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Because of increasing resistance of strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to third generation cephalosporins, it is becoming increasingly apparent that it may become difficult to treat gonococcal infections with an effective, single-dose therapy. Both laboratory results and observations made on clinical isolates suggest that considerable potential exists for further increases in resistance to cephalosporins. Through the use of whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics they will then be able to determine the presence and prevalence of the mutated alleles responsible for increased MICs in a gonococcal population such as the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project isolates and how a combination of these alleles are related to a strain’s antimicrobial resistance. The WGS data will also be used to develop molecular based assays and pipelines for the detection of the alleles associated with resistance.

Dr. Trees earned his undergraduate degree in microbiology from Iowa State University in 1982 and his PhD in microbiology from Kansas State University in 1987. In addition, he completed three years of post-doctoral work on the molecular biology of Neisseria meningitidis at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.