Speakers

Perttu Arkkila is professor and head physician of the department of gastroenterology at Helsinki University Hospital. He has been over 20 years senior consultant of gastroenterology and hepatology. His main scientific interest during last years has been to study the efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation in different indications. He has also done studies in inflammatory bowel disease and functional abdominal disorders.

– MD, senior paediatric physician, Jorvi Hospital, Espoo (a part of Helsinki University Hospital)
– Specialist degree in paediatric infectious diseases
– Doctorial student in Helsinki University
– Doctorial dissertation will examine neonatal GBS infections

Anne Karin Brigtsen, MD, PhD, is a consultant in neonatology, working at Oslo University Hospital. She has previously worked in professor Dennis Kasper’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School, focusing on the development of a vaccine against GBS. Her main professional interests include neonatal infectious diseases with emphasis on GBS disease.

MSc, PhD, Assistant Professor
Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), Department of Medicine Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet

RESEARCH FOCUS
Antiviral T cell immunology

CURRENT POSITION
2020 – 2026 Assistant Professor (Bitr lektor), tenure-track (100% research), Karolinska Institutet

EDUCATION
2004– 2009 Degree of Master (MSc) in Biomedicine, Karolinska Institutet

THESIS DEFENSE
2014-04-03 Degree of Doctor of Medical Science (PhD), Karolinska Institutet
TITLE: INTERDISCIPLINARY CHARACTERIZATION OF T CELL DYNAMICS IN HIV INFECTION

POST-DOCTORAL EDUCATION
2014 – 2018 Post-doctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania

Dominique A. Caugant is Chief scientist at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Meningococci in Oslo. She is responsible for the National Reference Laboratories for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis. She is professor at the University of Oslo since 1999, presently at the Department of Community Medicine. Her main fields of research are population genetics and molecular epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria. She is also involved in vaccine research, especially against meningococcal disease.

Senior consultant in Surgery with interest in colorectal surgery and with research field colorectal cancer and colon diverticulitis. I am deputy Head of the Center for Clinical Center Västerås, Uppsala University.

Prof Adrian Egli, MD PhD, is the head of Clinical Bacteriology and Mycology at the University Hospital Basel in Basel, Switzerland. His PhD (University of Basel) and post-doctoral fellowship (University of Alberta, Canada) focused on virology and immunology. His recently work aims to translate sequencing technologies (whole genome and metagenomics), machine learning, and digital biomarkers in clinical practice.

Christian Giske is a professor of clinical bacteriology at Karolinska Institutet and a chief consultant physician in clinical bacteriology at Karolinska University Hospital. He is the current chair of the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing. His main research interest is antimicrobial resistance in Gram-negative bacilli.

Magnus Gottfredsson is a specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He currently serves as chief at the Department of Science at Landspitali University Hospital and professor of infectious diseases at the University of Iceland. He is the current chairman of NSCMID.

Ásgeir Haraldsson trained in paediatrics and immunology in Nijmegen and Leiden, The Netherlands. He is currently a professor of paediatrics at the University of Iceland and faculty chairman at the Children’s Hospital Iceland, Landspítali University Hospital.
Main research interests are in paediatric immunology, immunisations, and infectious diseases.
Publications: orchid.

Terho Heikkinen is a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Turku, Finland. His main research interest lies in viral respiratory infections, especially in those caused by influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses. He has been an active member of several international and domestic scientific organizations in the field of infectious diseases.

Professor and head physician in clinical microbiology at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University hospital. The main focus of the research is on respiratory tract infections, especially pneumococcal infections and co-infections with viruses. The studies range from clinical studies and the epidemiology and transmission of infections, to basic understanding of microbial pathogenesis and host-microbial interactions.

Medical doctor trained in Germany and Iceland followed by residency in clinical microbiology in Denmark. Consultant at the Copenhagen University Hospital – Herlev and Gentofte. Member of NordicAST since 2017 and currently chair of the Danish antimicrobial susceptibility testing committee DANRES-M. Primary research interest is detection and characterisation of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria.

Pentti Huovinen, MD, PhD, is Professor of Bacteriology in the Institute of Biomedicine, Medical Faculty, University of Turku, Finland and Physician in Chief in Turku University Central Hospital. He has worked and studied in Infectious Disease Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and in Wharton School, Philadelphia. His main research interests are various aspects of antibiotic resistance, antibiotic use and health aspects of human microbiota.

Anders Johansson is an associate professor at Umeå University and senior consultant in infection prevention and control, and in infectious diseases at Norrlands universitetssjukhus, Umeå, Sweden. He is a board member of NSCMID, and the chair of Svenska hygienläkarföreningen. Johansson´s research is on surveillance and prediction of hospital-acquired infections and on tracking bacterial disease transmission. The research projects are international and based on analyses of large amounts of electronic healthcare data and bacterial genome sequences, respectively.

Ilkka Julkunen, M.D., Ph.D, Professor of Virology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. My research interest have been on analyzing the activation and inhibition of innate immunity in viral infections such as influenza, Zika and coronavirus infections in human cell models. In addition, we have developed multiplex serological tests for respiratory viruses and analyzed influenza and COVID-19 vaccine induced humoral immune responses.

Prof. Asko Järvinen is the Head and Chief Physician of Infectious Diseases at Helsinki University Hospital. He has a specialist degree in Infectious diseases, Internal medicine and Clinical pharmacology. He is an author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and numerous domestic articles and text-book chapters. His main research interests are in staphylococcal and non-mycobacterial infections as well as in skin infections and anti-infective agents. As the responsible physician in combatting contagious diseases he has been heavily involved in covid-19 epidemic.

Anu Kantele, MD PhD, is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Helsinki and Senior Medical Officer at Helsinki University Hospital (HUH). At HUH, she also heads the Meilahti Vaccination Research Center, MeVac. Her research interests include antimicrobial resistance, diarrhoea, returning travellers, tropical diseases, vaccinations, and infection immunology.

Combined clinical residency in Infectious diseases and PhD-training program at Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. My main focus of interest are healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance and clinical informatics. I’m currently involved in projects concentrated on sepsis and bloodstream infections.

Elisa Kortela is MD from University of Turku and specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases. She works at the Department of Infectious Diseases in Helsinki University Hospital, Finland. Her main research interest is clinical aspects of Lyme borreliosis.

Professor of Orthopedics and Traumatology
Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital

Henrik Nielsen, MD, DMSci is Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases at Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark. For 25 years Head of Department and past president of Danish Society for Infectious Diseases. His research interest is broad on many aspects of infectious diseases (> 350 publications), with current focus on neurological infections, COVID-19, and gut microbiome.

MD PhD Chief Physician at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL, Department of Health Security, Unit of Infectious Diseases Control and Vaccines, background in clinicial vaccine trials, international and travel health, present research interests covid19, influenza, and other respiratory pathogens, vaccine impact analysis (VE and safety), decision making.

Dr, MD, PhD, university lecturer in clinical epidemiology, specialist in public health medicine
Research manager at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Tampere, Finland

Dr Palmu’s key research interests are in pneumococcus and influenza and their prevention by vaccines, and he has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His primary expertise is on clinical trials and register-based research and he has been pivotal in the development of the combination of clinical trial design with real-world evidence from the national health registers.

Dr Penttinen, MD MPH PhD, is Principal expert on coronaviruses and influenza at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and currently a technical lead and crisis manager for the organisation’s COVID-19 response. He is a medical doctor with a specialization in public health and an epidemiologist with experience of working for the public and private sectors at local, national and supranational levels. His research interests include surveillance, pandemic preparedness, epidemic intelligence, respiratory viruses and vaccines.

Prior to joining ECDC in 2009 Dr Penttinen worked with the national public health institutes in Finland and Sweden and advised a large privately funded public health programme in Papua, Indonesia with components on primary health care, TB, HIV-STI and malaria control.

He is active on twitter as @ppenttin.

Preceding my current position as head of Clinical Microbiology in Turku University Hospital, I have especially worked with clinical bacteriology and mycology. In 2003 I defended my thesis entitled “Use of PCR in the Diagnosis of Bacterial and Fungal Infections” and have since then continued routine and research work for rapid detection of pathogens and their resistance methods. I have also had the pleasure to cowork with colleagues in clinical microbiology, infection control and infectious diseases within Finnish, Nordic and European societies, among other things as scientific secretary of NordicAST.

Dr. Mika Rämet, Professor of Peadiatrics, received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Oulu, Finland. Dr. Rämet worked as a research Fellow at Harvard University in Boston MA, from 1999 to 2002. After returning to Finland, he received his Specialists degree in Paediatrics and Neonatology at the University of Tampere, where he has led his independent research team since 2003 and holds a tenured professorship in Experimental Immunology. He served as the Director of of the PEDEGO Research Unit at the University of Oulu 2015-2020. Since 2020, he has been the director of the Tampere University Vaccine Research Center.

Dr Rämet’s research centers on the basic mechanisms of the immune response, vaccine development against Tuberculosis and elucidating genetic and molecular determinants of spontaneous preterm birth. Using primarily non-mammalian models such as the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and zebrafish (Danio rerio) he investigates host-microbe interactions that are related to the most important paediatric pathogens.

Dr Rämet has received several honors in recognition of his research including the Anders Jahre Prize for young scientist. He has published more than 110 papers in peer reviewed journals, with an H-Index of 42 and more than 7,800 citations.

Kristján Godsk Rögnvaldsson got his medical degree from the University of Iceland in 2015. Kristján is currently a PhD student at the University of Iceland. The main focus of the PhD project is pneumonia.

Paulina Salminen, MD, PhD, Sigrid Jusélius Professor of Surgery. She works at University of Turku and Turku University Hospital and she is a specialist in general and digestive surgery training. She was appointed Professor of Surgery in 2019. Both her clinical and research interests focus mainly on bariatric surgery and acute care surgery with the main focus on acute appendicitis. She is one of the pioneers of randomized clinical trials in Finland and has been running her APPAC and SLEEVEPASS research groups for over 15 years. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Scandinavian Journal of Surgery, the past president of the Finnish Surgical Society, Digestive Surgery Society and the Finnish Society fo Gastroenterology. She is the current president of the Finnish Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society. She has an active international collaboration and network with about 40 invited international lectures. She is an active supervisor with 15 PhD or post doc students.

Professor Harri Saxén is a pediatrician and Consultant in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Childrens Hospital / University of Helsinki. His research has focused on intrauterine and neonatal infections and on microbial resistance and the use of antibiotics in Pediatrics.

Lotta Siira, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). She is a public health microbiologist, with a special interest in laboratory-based surveillance of invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumococcal epidemiology. Since January 2020, she has been actively involved in the COVID-19 response.

MD, Specialist in clinical microbiology

Present occupation: National AMR Coordinator, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, Member of the Executive Committee of ESCMID

Research interests: Antimicrobial resistance, susceptibility testing methods, public health microbiology and challenges including in low and middle income countries , S. aureus epidemiology

Dina Stensen, MD. PhD-student in the Department of Microbiology and Infection Control, University Hospital of North Norway. Research interest: Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus.

Professor MD PhD, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Medical director, The National Advisory Unit for Detection of Antimicrobial Resistance, University Hospital of North-Norway. Research: (i) Klebsiella pneumoniae and related AMR in a OneHealth perspective. (ii) Human gut microbiome-resistome. (iii) Antimicrobial susceptibility testing. (iv) Molecular epidemiology of antibiotic resistance.

Malte Mose Tetens is a medical doctor and Ph.D.-student at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet. His areas of interest are primarily epidemiological studies and Lyme borreliosis, but also include HIV and neurological infections. He has previously performed nationwide studies of the risk of neurological and psychiatric diseases in Lyme neuroborreliosis patients.