Boston University, College of Arts and Sciences, Physics

Prof Rama Bansil currently holds the title of Professor Emerita of Physics at Boston University, where she stands as a trailblazer as the institution’s first female physics professor. Her illustrious career has been marked by significant contributions spanning diverse scientific disciplines, including physics, soft matter physics, polymer science, biophysics, and biochemistry. Her remarkable research efforts were supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health throughout her distinguished career.

At the heart of Rama Bansil’s scientific passion lies the intricate world of gels—materials found in a plethora of everyday products, characterized by their captivating visco-elastic properties, distinct from solids or liquids. Her laboratory serves as a hub for interdisciplinary exploration, encompassing Polymer Physics to Biophysics. Through a comprehensive array of experimental techniques, including light scattering, small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, as well as microscopy, coupled with computer simulations targeting model gels, Professor Bansil’s research group has unraveled the molecular-level structure of gels, the physics underpinning gel formation, diffusion phenomena within gels, and the dynamics of phase transitions and chemical reactions occurring within these materials. Their studies into the intriguing phase behavior of multiblock copolymer gels have potential application in the development of templates for nanoscale devices. This research is of particular significance given the prevalence of living tissues adopting a gel-like form, fueling excitement about their potential utility in tissue regeneration.

Additionally, Bansil, in collaboration with peers at Harvard Medical School, has directed her scientific inquiry towards unraveling the role played by gelation of mucin, a glycoprotein found in the mucus layer, in safeguarding the stomach against digestion by highly acidic gastric juices. Employing dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and rheological methods their studies have contributed to a comprehensive understanding of how mucin molecules undergo gelation under acidic conditions, offering invaluable insights into this intricate mechanism. Current work is focused on how Helicobacter move through the viscoelastic mucus medium.

Prof. Nicolae Corcionivoschi is the Head of Food Microbiology at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and elected member of the Royal Society of Biology. He is a PhD supervisor in Biotechnology and teaching at several national and international universities. Having originally studied Biotechnology at Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, King Michael I of Romania, Nicolae went on to study for his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology/Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh and continued his research career at University College Dublin and the National Children Research Centre, in Ireland. His research interests include development and testing of novel natural alternatives to antibiotics, bacterial virulence, isolation and testing of novel pre and probiotics and the development of novel technologies for a more efficient detection of food-borne pathogens. His research group is also performing research trying to understand the composition of animal gut microbiota and how this relates to the presence of bacteria posing a threat to human health and especially in finding ways to manipulate the gut microbiota to reduce their presence.

Dr. Foddai is employed as a Senior Scientist, at the National Food Institute-Danish Technical University (DTU-Food, DK), where he works as a veterinary epidemiologist, risk assessor and advisor (for public institutions and for the food industry). He specializes in setting, evaluation and optimization of national disease surveillance systems and eradication plans. Previously, he worked at the Danish Agriculture & Food Council (L&F, DK) and for the British Government, at the Animal and Health Agency (APHA, UK).

Dr. Foddai is a member of the Network of Experts on Microbiological Risk Assessment of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and serves as a Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics – Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

He holds a veterinary degree (University of Sassari, Italy), a Master’s degree in Animal Health Management (Wageningen University, NL), a PhD degree in epidemiology (Danish Veterinary Institute, DK) and a diploma in European Animal Management (EI Purpan, FR).

Beile Gao is a principal investigator at South China Sea institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science. After her undergraduate training from Shandong University in China, she pursued PhD degree in Biochemistry and Biomedical Science from McMaster University, Canada. Then she completed postdoctoral training in Dr. Jorge Galan’s laboratory at Yale University. She joined South China Sea institute of Oceanology in 2014 as a leader of the functional genomics research group. Dr. Gao’s research interests focus on Campylobacter jejuni pathogenesis, signal transduction and genome evolution. Her group has identified novel regulators ChePQ that specifically regulate chemotaxis gene expression and also a chemotaxis protein CheO that respond to environmental oxygen level in C. jejuni (MM, 2019; PLOS Pathogens, 2022). Recently, she extended her research to the phylum Campylobacterota that include important pathogens/commensals, free-living generalists and deep-sea hydrothermal vent specialists. Based on the “eco-evo” framework of the phylum, her group studied how C. jejuni and related species evolved into important human pathogens from a free-living common ancestor (mBio, 2022, PLOS Genetics, 2022). Dr. Gao serves as an Editor of the ASM Journal Microbiology Spectrum (2021-2024).

Dr. Nicol Janecko leads research at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, UK, focusing on the genomic epidemiology of Campylobacter and utilizing metagenomic approaches to characterize Campylobacter’s clinical attributes in humans, animals, food, and the environment. With interest in understanding Campylobacter’s epidemiology, transmission, and population diversity worldwide, actively contributes to enhancing laboratory testing capacity in resource-limited regions. Her efforts bolster regional capabilities in testing and reporting infectious intestinal diseases. With expertise spanning public health, microbiology, and molecular laboratory methodologies, Dr. Janecko’s scientific portfolio contains >60 peer-reviewed publications. Previously, she contributed to scientific outputs for FoodNet Canada and the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance. Additionally, Dr. Janecko participated in the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on the pre- and post-harvest control of Campylobacter spp. in poultry meat and serves as a scientific expert on the Food Standards Agency UK Advisory Committee for Microbiological Safety of Food.

Luka Jurinović, PhD, is Croatian microbiologist and ornithologist. He is working in Croatian Veterinary Institute as a Head of Laboratory of Bacteriology in a branch Poultry Centre. His main professional interests are Campylobacters and seabirds. In last 15 years, he and his group are doing research on occurrence and genetic diversity of Campylobacter species found in different seabirds, but also in seashells. Most of his work is associated with gulls, from research done on rubbish tips to natural and urban breeding colonies. Now, he leads two projects dealing with Campylobacter in seabirds and marine environment. He has published more than 100 scientific and professional papers and congress announcements.

Michael Sigal is currently Professor for Translational Gastrointestinal Oncology at the Charité University in Berlin, Germany. His group is interested in understanding how bacteria contribute to gastrointestinal diseases.

Before establishing his Group, Michael was trained as a Postdoc at Stanford University and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. As Postdoc Michael has discovered that H. pylori can attach to and interact with long-lived stem cells. He now continues exploring how gastric stem cells are organized and how their behavior can be altered in H. pylori-driven gastric pathology. Michael has published various papers on H. pylori pathogenesis in important Journals such as Nature, Nature Cell Biology, The EMBO Journal and J Clin Invest and has received various Awards such as the DFG Emmy Noether Fellowship and the “Rising Star Award” from the European Society of Gastroenterology.

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Prof Korolik is a senior molecular microbiologist at the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, Australia, and a leader a multidisciplinary group with internationally recognised expertise in campylobacter (and related organisms) biology, pathogenicity, molecular biology, bacterial genetics, prokaryotic signal transduction, two-component regulatory systems and host-bacterial interactions.

Prof Korolik’s 30-year research carrier began when she was awarded a PhD in Molecular Microbiology from Monash University in 1990 and began her first campylobacter project as a Research Fellow at RMIT, Melbourne. After 3 years, she was appointed as a Research Fellow/Lecturer on a 50/50 basis for the following 5 years. In 1998 she joined the School of Griffith University as an academic and then in 2003 as a Research Leader at the Institute for Glycomics as a joint appointment.

Prof Korolik’s group is currently focused on studying the role of bacterial chemotaxis in pathogenicity and bacteria-host interactions, specifically, on deciphering ligand binding specificities of transmembrane chemosensory proteins of Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter fetus and Helicobacter pylori. Recent breakthroughs of the Korolik group are highlighted by the discovery of a novel class of bacterial chemosensors with broad ligand specificities that may be related to sensing of the host molecules, and thus, may play a role in host-bacterial interactions. Her globally recognised reputation in bacterial chemotaxis and chemosensors is evidenced by publications in PNAS, Nature Communications and Science Signaling. The group is currently developing two new research areas, one focused on biofilm formation and its role in disease transmission for campylobacters and the other involving glycan-binding proteins of Vibrio cholerae.

Dr. Jun Lin is a Professor in the Department of Animal Science at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee in the US. Dr. Lin received both B.S. (1991) and M.S. (1994) in Microbiology at Fudan University in China and his PhD (1998) in Animal Science from The Ohio State University in the US. He received major postdoctoral training (2000-2003) in molecular microbiology in the Food Animal Health Research Program at The Ohio State University. He joined faculty at The University of Tennessee in 2004. Dr. Lin’s molecular microbiology & immunology training together with his expertise in infectious disease allow him to address a broad range of important microbial organisms significant in animal health, food safety, and public health. Specifically, Dr. Lin’s research is primarily focused on molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic bacterial pathogens. Dr. Lin also has long-term experience studying the complex interactions between gut microbiota and the host. His functional microbiome research has led to the discovery of novel target and translational innovations for enhanced animal health and human health. His laboratory has a strong “One Health” emphasis on the interface of livestock, wildlife, environment, and human health. Dr. Lin is highly active in professional societies and has served in leadership roles in various organizations. Recently, Dr. Lin was selected as inaugural Fellow of the society Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (https://crwad.org/).
Email: jlin6@utk.edu

Dr Ben Pascoe is a Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Dr Pascoe received a BSc (Hons.) from the University of Hertfordshire and a DPhil in Molecular Biology from the University of Sussex. He gained postdoctoral experience in pathogen genomics at Swansea University Medical School prior to taking up a position managing the core sequencing facility at the University of Bath and the Milner Centre for Evolution. As part of the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, Ben manages an active research portfolio, including research into Campylobacter global epidemiology, emergence of multi-drug resistant Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter ecology and evolution and genome-wide identification of transmission and virulence traits.

Christine Szymanski first began working with Campylobacter jejuni during her PhD in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She then joined the Enteric Disease Vaccine Program at the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, Maryland for her postdoctoral studies prior to starting her own independent research career first at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada and then back at the University of Alberta. It was in Edmonton where she formed the company, VaxAlta Inc. with a focus on carbohydrate-based vaccines for livestock. Christine joined the University of Georgia in 2016 where she continues to: 1) characterize bacterial glycoconjugate pathways, 2) exploit bacteriophage recognition proteins that bind these structures, and 3) understand the protective benefits of host milk oligosaccharides to develop novel therapeutics and vaccines for the prevention of diarrheal diseases and post-infectious neuropathies such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and recipient of the Peter Gallagher Memorial Glycomics Award from Griffith University.

A/Prof. Thi Thu Hao Van is a Vice Chancellor’s Principal Research Fellow at RMIT University, Australia. Her areas of expertise include gut microbiota characterization and manipulation, genomics, identification of bacterial pathogens and deciphering their biology, and developing intervention strategies to combat bacterial diseases and improve gut health, including the development of probiotics, postbiotics, fermented food, and vaccines. She was the key player in the identification and isolation of two Campylobacter species, Campylobacter hepaticus and Campylobacter bilis, that are the cause of Spotty Liver Disease in chickens, an emerging and economically devastating disease of layer birds. The discovery of these bacteria has opened the research area, facilitating the development of disease models and has enabled the study of treatment options for this disease. She is the author of more than 100 publications and currently supervises 14 PhD students at RMIT and externally.

Prof. Liang Wang is currently working as a principal investigator and group leader at the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. He is also an adjunct research fellow at the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia and an adjunct associate professor at Edith Cowan University. His current research interests are microbial physiology and metabolism, rapid diagnosis of bacterial pathogens, microbial informatics, and glycogen structure and functions. He was awarded his PhD degree from the University of Western Australia in 2014 and received his postdoctoral training at Concordia University and Curtin University. Prof. Wang serves as an associate editor at Frontiers in Microbiology and is an editorial board member at BMC Bioinformatics, PeerJ, Heliyon, Immunity, Inflammation and Disease (Emerging Editor), and Translational Metabolic Syndrome Research, etc. Prof. Wang also serves as reviewers for multiple international journals such as Lancet Digital Health, Journal of Global Health, and Communications Biology, etc. Prof. Wang has edited six books and published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in international journals such as Lancet Microbe, ISME, and Emerging Infectious Diseases, etc. He is the recipient of the Australia-China Helicobacter Research Fellowship (2019) awarded by the Australia-China Council and Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Barry J. Marshall.

Dr Parwinder Kaur is a proud Indian-Australian award-winning scientist, a passionate leader and positive role model as a mother, and a professor in science for the next generation of diverse scientists to pursue their passion for science and discovery. She leads cross-disciplinary biotechnology research investigating Earth’s biodiversity and natural environments to ensure sustainable futures. She uses her expertise to reach people in new ways, connecting them with their surroundings. Through her diverse research teams, such as DNA Zoo Australia, she harnesses STEM to achieve maximised impact. In doing so, she believes this will help us tackle the bigger issues we as society are facing, bringing about solutions through fresh thinking rather than following usual norms. 

Dr Parwinder Kaur was inducted into the WA Women Hall of Fame (STEM) 2023. Her noteworthy achievements include receiving the prestigious “Science and Innovation Award” from the Australian Academy of Sciences in 2013, winning Microsoft’s AI for Earth award in 2019, being recognised as a finalist for WA Innovator of the Year in 2022, and earning the esteemed Australian Sikh Woman of the Year for Excellence in 2023. Notably, Dr. Kaur is an adept science communicator, an entrepreneur in the biotechnology sector, and an ardent advocate for gender equity.

Dr Li Zhang is an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Dr Zhang’s research has been focused on investigating bacterial species that are associated with gastrointestinal inflammatory diseases. Dr Zhang has conducted pioneering research on exploration of the role of Campylobacter species typically found in the human oral cavity in causing inflammation when they colonize the other parts of the human gastrointestinal tract. One such example is Campylobacter concisus, which has been linked to the development of human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Her research has led to the discovery of novel bacterial plasmids and their roles in modulating the human mucosal immune system. The second area of focus in Dr Zhang’s research group is on Aeromonas species. Aeromonas species are emerging enteric bacterial pathogens, causing gastrointestinal infections with varied severity from mild self-limiting diseases to dysentery. Dr Zhang’s team recently made a significant discovery, revealing that Aeromonas species are the second most common enteric bacterial pathogens in Australia, with a unique three-peak infection pattern associated with patient age. Her team is currently investigating the sources of infection and examine the Aeromonas pathogenic mechanisms at the species level.

Dr. Zhibo HOU graduated from Nankai University with a bachelor degree in biochemistry and molecular biology in 1998, from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a PhD degree in Biochemistry in 2007. He worked in School of Biomedical Sciences of The Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2008-2014. After that, Dr. HOU moved to Shenzhen to establish the Hongmed-Infagen Co., Ltd with Nobel Laureate Barry Marshall in 2015, and serves as the member of Marshall Biomedical Engineering Lab in Shenzhen University. He has great interests in clinical Helicobacter pylori research, its culture, genomics and the NGS technology. For the past 10 years, Dr. HOU has been profiling and monitoring the antibiotic resistant pattern of H. pylori in China over 100 cities. Through the antibiotic susceptibility testing, the clinicians were able to provide a cure rate of over 95% among multi-drug resistant cases. Since H. pylori has strong association with gastric cancer, and China is a gastric cancer hotspot, many doctors were under tremendous stress for not able to eradicate H. pylori due to antibiotic resistance. Dr. HOU hopes to use this opportunity to collaborate with more hospitals and research institutes to gain more understanding of H. pylori.

Ivo Boneca worked for his Thesis under the supervision of Prof. Alexander Tomasz, at The Rockefeller University, New York, USA, and finished his Ph.D in Biology in 2000. He obtained is Ph.D from the Institut of Technical Chemistry and Biology (ITQB) from the New University of Lisbon (UNL), Portugal. From 2000 to 2004, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institut Pasteur. In 2004, he became an INSERM investigator at the Institut Pasteur. In 2008, Ivo was awarded a junior group and then 2013 a unit at the Department of Microbiology, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. In 2010, Ivo defended his HDR at the Université Paris Descartes. In 2015, he became INSERM Research Director. He was deputy Director of Department in 2017-2019. Since January 2022, he also directs the INSERM Unit U1306 Host-microbe interaction and pathophysiology.

He received in 2002, the Jacques Monod award from the Fondation de France, and in 2003, the Roux fellowship. In 2007, he received the INSERM Avenir 2007 award and a European Research Council starting grant. In 2011, he received the Pasteur Vallery-Radot award from the French Academy of Science and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Since November 2020, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the journal Microbial Drug resistance.

Dr. Xiangyu Wang is currently working as an associate professor at the Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China. She obtained her PhD degree in microbiology from the Southern Medical University in 2018, studying the virulence proteins within pathogenetic E. coli. Dr. Wang received her postdoctoral training at the University of Western Australia and Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology（Chinese Academy of Sciences）under the supervision of Nobel laureate Dr. Barry Marshall and Dr. Alfred Tay. Since then, Dr. Wang’s research has been focused on the gene mutations of H. pylori antibiotic resistance, the prevalence and risk factors of H. pylori infection among children， the vital genes that regulate H. pylori growth speed, and the evolution and pathogenesis of H. pylori strains isolated from Southern Chinese populations. Furthermore, she is engaged in studying the association between different H. pylori isolated strains, mutations in virulence genes, and clinical outcome of infection. Dr. Wang’s research has been supported by grants from the NSFC. She is the recipient of the Australia-China Helicobacter Research Fellowship (2018) awarded by the Australia-China Council.

Samuel Lundin earned his PhD in Immunology from the University of Gothenburg (UGOT), Sweden in 1998. He stayed on at UGOT as a postdoc and later a senior scientist where he focused on regulation of T-cell immunity to Helicobacter pylori in relation to gastric cancer development. He became an Associate Professor in Immunology in 2006, and a Professor in Biomedical Science in 2011.

In 2014, Lundin received a Marie Curie Fellowship to become a Visiting Professor at University of Western Australia, in collaboration with Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Marshall.

Lundin founded the company Biotome in Perth in 2016, with the aim to develop a precision-serology risk diagnostic for gastric cancer. In 2018, Lundin resigned from his Professorship to focus on leading Biotome full time, while retaining a part-time appointment at UGOT.

Lundin is the sole inventor of 5 granted patents and 5 pending patents, and co-inventor of 6 patents; all these are related to the use of precision immunology markers for diagnosis of disease. Biotome is the only provider of linear B-cell epitope mapping services in Australia. Lundin has 55 peer-reviewed publications, an h-index of 37, more than 4800 citations and his most cited publication has 440 citations.

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Ye Chen is a professor of Medicine, chief consultant physician in GI Department, and vice president of Shenzhen hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China. She has a long-lasting research and clinical interests in the pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal dysbiosis-related diseases such as Helicobacter pylori infection, Clostridium difficile infection(CDI) and inflammatory bowel diseases(IBD). She has published more than 100 original articles as well as some systematic reviews in peer-reviewed journals as Gut, Gut Microbes, Nat Commun, J Biol Chem, Inflamm Bowel Dis, et al. She also co-authored the national consensus on the management of Helicobacter pylori infection (2012) and its updated version (2017, 2023). In addition, she is the vice editor-in-chief of Helicobacter (Chinese version) and editorial board member of the Gut journal (Chinese version) , and also the invited peer reviewers of Helicobacter, J Dig Dis and some other Journals.

She is currently the member of standing committee of Chinese Society of Gastroenterology(CSG), general leader of the Chinese Helicobacter Study Group of CSG, also the committee member of Chinese Gastroenterologist Association and the Chair member of Guangdong Provincial Gastroenterologist Association.

Dr. Alma Fulurija is an accomplished Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia, where she holds a position within the School of Biology, Biochemistry, and Chemical Sciences, specifically in the Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology. Simultaneously, she serves as the Head of Immunology at Ondek Pty Ltd, a pioneering biotechnology company initiated by Professor Barry Marshall and hosted by UWA. Dr. Fulurija boasts a remarkable skill set encompassing immunology, microbiology, in vivo animal models, and vaccine development, with a particular emphasis on immunotherapy. Her professional journey has encompassed both academic and applied research, yielding a prolific output of scientific publications and patents. Dr. Fulurija’s expertise extends to overseeing preclinical animal models and conducting human clinical trials involving vaccine-based immunotherapy.

Her research pursuits gravitate towards host-pathogen interactions, host defense mechanisms, and immunotherapy. She has exhibited a profound interest in exploring the pathogenesis of H. pylori, a bacterium of significant medical importance. Her focus centers on unraveling the intricacies of the early (innate) immune response and its implications in generating a non-protective immune reaction. Driven by her commitment to advancing scientific knowledge, her current research endeavors revolve around deciphering the molecular mechanisms governing the survival and persistence of H. pylori, with a specific focus on its early colonization processes.

Dr. Yang Mi, PhD, is an associate professor and executive director of the Henan Key Laboratory for Helicobacter pylori and Digestive Tract Microecology, at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University.

Dr. Yang Mi completed his master’s degree at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University in 2011, where he focused on the multidrug resistance mechanism of Helicobacter pylori under the supervision of Prof. Pengyuan Zheng. His early research laid a strong foundation for his future endeavors in understanding and combating bacterial infections. In pursuit of advanced research opportunities, Dr. Yang earned his PhD from the prestigious Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, in 2016. His doctoral studies, conducted at the renowned Max Planck Institute of Infection Biology, investigated Helicobacter pylori and Chlamydia infections and their impact on DNA damage. Under the supervision of Prof. Thomas F. Meyer, Dr. Yang’s work contributed valuable insights into the molecular interactions between these pathogens and their hosts.

Following his PhD, Dr. Yang joined the “ Marshall B.J. Medical Research Center” as vice director collaborating with Prof. Barry J. Marshall on various projects at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. This role allowed Dr. Yang to further his research on Helicobacter pylori while working alongside one of the foremost experts in the field.

Dr. Yang’s research focuses on several key areas: the molecular mechanisms of Helicobacter pylori infection and gastrointestinal microbiota, the process of gastrointestinal tumorigenesis, and the development of the Chinese gastrointestinal 3D organoids, particularly models of intestinal metaplasia as precancerous conditions. Additionally, he is dedicated to the precision treatment of H. pylori infection and exploring the co-evolution of H. pylori strains and Henan population.

Dr. Jung is a Gastroenterologist working for Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea. His research topics are Helicobacter, Gastric Cancer, and Endoscopic treatment of gastric/esophageal cancers. He has more than 500 peer-reviewed papers. Currently, his team is trying to establish Korean version of antibiotic susceptibility test, K-CAST.

Bodo Linz is an evolutionary microbiologist at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Germany. After completing his PhD in 1996 at the University of Braunschweig, Germany, and post-doctoral training in the UK, he joined Mark Achtman’s laboratory at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In the famous Achtman lab he worked on the population genetics of H. pylori and established that H. pylori has been associated with modern humans since their origins and accompanied modern humans during their migration(s) out-of-Africa. In 2008, he went to the United States and worked on the pathogenomics and host adaptation of H. pylori and other bacterial pathogens, first at the Pennsylvania State University and later at the University of Georgia. In 2020, he was recruited to his current position at the University of Erlangen. Dr. Linz’ research interests include H. pylori population biology, co-evolution of H. pylori and its human host, H. pylori pathogenomics, including genomic changes accompanying a jump between host species, and pathogen-host interactions.

​Professor Wei-Guo Zhu is a Chair Professor and Director of Carlson International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University. He earend Ph.D. in Kyushu University , Japan and trained as Postdocs in Indiana University Medical School and Ohio State University, USA.  He has been a professor of Peking University and a researcher of Peking University-Tsinghua University Life Joint Center. He has published more than 180 research papers in international high-impact journals including Nature, Nat Cell Biol, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Mol Cell, Sci Adv, and Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. His major contributions include “proposing the mode of action of tumor epigenetic therapy, elucidating the cytoplasmic functions of some transcription factors, and demonstrating some key factors influencing the DNA damage response and repair of tumor cells by chemotherapy and radiotherapy”. He also serves as the EIC of Genome Instability & Disease and Associate Editor of Cancer Science  as well as editors of NAR-Cancer, DNA Repair and BBA-Molcular Cell Research.

Prof. Haifeng Dong is a distinguished professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical School at Shenzhen University. He is also a Member of the Academic Committee, a Vice Chair of the Faculty Committee of the Medical School, an Associate Dean of the School of Biomedical Engineering, and a Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanobiosensing Technology at Shenzhen University. He obtianed his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Nanjing University in 2011. His research interests mainly focus on biomolecular sensing and nano-bioanalysis. Since 2010, he has published >120 SCI papers in peer-review journals such as Chemical Reviews, Nature Communications, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and Advanced Materials with citation by >12,000 times (H-index~58). He has published >100 first-author and corresponding-author articles with the highest single-article citation count reaching 1195 times. He has authored two monographs in both Chinese and English and edited one English monograph. His scientific achievements have been honored by the most prestigious scientific award in China and the international, including the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of Jiangsu Province in 2012, the National Hundred Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations in 2013, the First Prize in Natural Science from the Ministry of Education in 2013, the Second Prize in Natural Science from the Ministry of Education in 2018, the First Prize in Science and Technology from the China Association for Instrumental Analysis in 2014 and 2018, the Recipient of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars of China in 2020, a Highly Cited Scientist by Clarivate Analytics in 2020 and 2021, one of the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Stanford University in 2020-2023.

Dr. Xingzhi Xu, a cancer biologist, serves as a distinguished professor and the executive dean of Shenzhen University Medical School, vice director of the Guangdong Key Laboratory of Genome Stability & Disease Prevention, vice director of the Chinese Society for Signal Transduction, CSCB (2016-2023). He also serves as the deputy editor-in-chief for Genome Instability & Disease and editorial board members for NAR Cancer, DNA Repair, and Scientific Reports. Dr. Xu was a distinguished professor at the Capital Normal University College of Life Sciences before he moved to Shenzhen University in 2016, where he established Beijing Key Laboratory of DNA Damage Response and served as the founding director from 2011 to 2017. Dr. Xu received outstanding doctorate alumni of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in 2015, the first-category teaching award in higher education by the Beijing municipal government (named in second) in 2012.  His long-standing research interests fall in molecular mechanisms of DNA damage response, DNA replication stress response and associated diseases including cancer, and development anti-cancer lead compounds targeting genome stability. Dr. Xu has published more than 130 papers in the peer-reviewed professional journals, including Mol Cell, PNAS, NAR, JMC, and EJMC. He initiated and has organized the annual international symposium on DNA Damage Response & Human Disease (isDDRHD) since 2010.

Prof. Yi Gao is the Associate Chair of the School of Biomedical Engineering at Shenzhen University Medical School. Yi Gao received his BS in Biomedical Engineering, MS in Mathematics, and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University and Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. He then served as an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and the Department of Computer Science. He was selected into the national “Thousand Talents Program” in 2017, and then joined the School of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University. His main research interests are analysis and intelligent computing of images and systems. Including geometric and statistical algorithm design, image guidance system design, software implementation, clinical application in practical scenarios, and large-scale cluster deployment. He published more than 100 research articles. The open source software he developed has received tens of thousands of visits and downloads, and has been used in their research and clinical experiments by researchers from the United States, Canada, Israel, Egypt and other countries.