Dr. Oleg B. Ogarkov is Director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology at the Scientific Centre for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems (SC FHHRP) in Irkutsk, Russia. With a strong foundation in genetics, epidemiology, and molecular microbiology, he received his Cand. Sci. (PhD) in Genetics from the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, SB RAS, and later earned a Doctor of Science (Dr. Sci.) in Epidemiology in 2014. He also completed training in management at Baikal International Business School. Dr. Ogarkov has extensive experience in infectious disease research, particularly in the molecular and epidemiological aspects of socially significant infections. He held various leadership roles, including Head of Molecular Biology at the Irkutsk Regional Diagnostic Center, and conducted postdoctoral research at Rutgers University in the U.S. His career spans work in public health institutions, academic research centers, and international collaborations.
He has authored over 35 publications, with more than 1,700 citations and an h-index of 19 (Google Scholar). His research focuses on microbial communities in tuberculosis, molecular diagnostics, and the epidemiology of infectious diseases. Dr. Ogarkov is recognized for his significant contributions to public health microbiology in Russia and beyond.

Dr. Danila Zimenkov is a senior scientist in Engelhardt institute of molecular biology, Russian Academy of Sciences. He graduated from Moscow Physics-Engineering Institute in 1999 and got his Ph.D in 2005 at the Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganizms in the field of genetics of the E. coli central metabolism.
Dr. Zimenkov has over 25 years research experience in molecular biology of procaryotes. His research is focused on genomics of M. tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria, molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and tolerance, phylogenetics and genome-wide association studies. The research topics allsio include: development of molecular diagnostics technologies, particularly DNA microarrays, nucleic acids amplification and hybridization techniques, integrated microfluidic device design, engineering of portable systems for clinical diagnostics.
Sinnce 2014 he was involved into the study of bedaquilne resistance development upon the start of the drug use for tuberculosis treatment. He described the acquisition and development of the resistance in a small, but noticeable part of cases. Mutations in the atpE gene, encoding the bedaquiline target were decribed for the first time in clinical samples. Many new types of mutations were described, also as novel determinants of high-level resistance to bedaquiline including substitution in MmpL5 and loss-of-function mutations in mmpS4-L4 operon.
In 2022-2024 the research group headed by Dr Zimenkov developed the highly specific moolecular test for mycobacterial species identification and tested more than 3000 clinical samples from patients with suspected non-tuberculous infections. More than 70 different species were found, also as species from other genera of Mycobacteriales. Four new mycobacterial species were isolated and described in Moscow, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk (Russia) and Bulgaria sets of samples.

Dr. Egor Shitikov, D.Sc., is Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Microorganisms at the Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine of the Federal Medical Biological Agency (Russia). His research spans two major areas: multi-omics analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and therapeutic applications of bacteriophages.
In tuberculosis research, Dr. Shitikov's team has made significant contributions to understanding the genomic diversity of M. tuberculosis. His work has introduced advanced genotyping schemes and provided novel insights into regions of difference, establishing their correlation with existing typing systems for the first time. His group has conducted detailed characterization of Lineage 2 strains, developing novel typing schemes and investigating IS6110 evolution within this genotype. The team has described major recombination events in Beijing B0/W148 strains and studied molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and pathogenicity in Russian-endemic strains using multi-omics approaches.
In bacteriophage research, Dr. Shitikov focuses on developing phage-based therapies against ESKAPE pathogens and mycobacteria. His studies include optimizing phage-antibiotic combinations and personalized phage cocktails for multidrug-resistant infections. His team has also characterized the first comprehensive collection of Russian mycobacteriophages.
Dr. Shitikov is the author of more than 100 publications and has 3 patents. He serves as an active reviewer for Infection, Genetics and Evolution, PLoS One, and Scientific Reports. His contributions to molecular microbiology were recognized with the Moscow Government Award (2019).

Virasakdi Chongsuvivatwong MD, PhD is a Professor in Community Medicine at Prince of Songkla University. He founded Epidemiology Unit in 1986 and started the International Programme for Graduate Study in Epidemiology in 1992. Currently, he is the Curriculum Chairman of the Programme. He has published 245 research articles in PubMed database and has over 3,000 citations (excluded all authors). Over the past 28 years, the Programme has produced over 128 PhD and over 83 MSc graduates who came from 17 countries in Asia and Africa. He has received Senior Research Scholar title from Thailand Research Fund, Outstanding Research in Medical Science Award from the National Research Council of Thailand, NSTDA Research Chair from the National Science and Technology Development Agency and National Outstanding Teacher Award from the National Academic Senate. He is currently serving the National Health Security Office as a consultant on utilization of the national claim data for research purpose. One of the grants that he currently receives is for training of health planners and IT officers in all provinces of Thailand to make use of the existing data routinely collected from the hospitals.

Dr. Nawamin Pinpathomrat, MD, DPhil, is an Associate Professor of Immunology and Assistant Dean of International Affairs at the Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University (PSU), Thailand. He earned his MD with First Class Honors from PSU, followed by an MSc in Immunology from Imperial College London and a DPhil in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford’s Jenner Institute. His expertise spans immunology, vaccinology, tuberculosis and COVID-19 vaccine development, emerging infectious diseases, and biosafety level 3 research. Dr. Nawamin has led multiple national research projects on TB and COVID-19 vaccines, including those using viral vectors and mRNA platforms. He also serves as Vice Director of the Medical Science Research and Innovation Institute at PSU. With extensive experience in preclinical vaccine development and immunological studies in autoimmune diseases, he has authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals and continues to contribute significantly to translational research and vaccine innovation in Thailand.

Dr. Sayera Banu is a Bangladeshi scientist and medical doctor with advanced degrees in Microbiology, specializing in mycobacterial infections. As a Senior Scientist at icddr,b, she leads the Program for Emerging Infections and has dedicated over 25 years to tuberculosis (TB) research and programmatic initiatives. She is also leading a well-equipped Mycobacteriology laboratory. Dr. Banu’s work has had a significant national and international impact. She established the cutting-edge icddr,b TB laboratory, conducted Southeast Asia's first multidrug-resistant TB sentinel surveillance, and introduced new tools and technologies to advance TB research. Her studies on TB prevalence and transmission in confined prison settings in Dhaka and the development of an innovative public-private model for TB diagnosis and management have been incorporated into Bangladesh's National Strategic Plan.
A fellow of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences, Dr. Banu has received prestigious awards, published extensively, and secured major research funding. She is widely recognized as an expert in tuberculosis globally. She has received several grants from various funding agencies, including USAID, GFATM, and the Stop TB Partnership, etc. She maintains strong collaborations with scientists both nationally and internationally and works closely with the National TB Control Program in Bangladesh.'s National Strategic Plan.

Dr. Richard M. Anthony is a microbiologist specializing in tuberculosis diagnostics, drug resistance, and microbial molecular epidemiology. He currently serves as Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory at RIVM, where he oversees TB genotyping and supports global collaborations in TB control. Prior to this, he led the TB research group at KIT Biomedical Research, developing molecular assays and initiating the global rollout of LED microscopy for TB screening. Dr. Anthony’s career spans over three decades, including roles as a molecular microbiologist at St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Institute of Dermatology in London. His Ph.D. from King’s College London focused on molecular typing of Malassezia yeasts. His work has been instrumental in empowering international labs and facilitating skill transfer in regions like Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and South America.
He is an editor for the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, a WHO expert group member, and has coordinated several international and EU-funded TB projects. He is also proficient in Dutch and skilled in genome analysis tools (RStudio, SAMtools).

Prof. Christophe Sola, holds a PharmD and a PhD in Life Sciences. He is a former Resident of Lyon’s Hospitals, a former research fellow of the Institut Pasteur, Paris, and of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (IRCM). He holded various R&D positions in French (Limagrain Seed Group), German (Boehringer-Mannheim) and American (Parexel Corporation) Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical companies between 1989-1994, before moving to Guadeloupe, where he worked as senior scientist within the International Network of Pasteur Institutes. Christophe Sola holds since September 2007 a Full Professorship position at the University of Paris-Saclay (UPSay) ; he created and was the Principal Investigator from 2007 to 2020, of the Infection Genetics Emerging Pathogen Evolution (IGEPE) research team, within the CNRS-UPSay funded Institute for Integrative Cell Biology (I2BC). Since January 1st 2021, He joined the INSERM IAME laboratory Infection Antimicrobials, Modeling Evolution, and the French NRL for tuberculosis as a senior scientist.
His main field of interest is Evolutionary Biology of Tuberculosis and Public Health. He is working on the understanding of the consequences of the genetic diversity in relation to anthropology, systems epidemiology, virulence, molecular adaptation and drug resistance mechanisms, and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence. He was very active in CRISPR research using CRISPR diversity for molecular typing of pathogens. He is an associated Editor of PloS ONE, BMC Infectious Diseases, Frontier in Microbiology, the author of >170 international peer-reviewed papers, a member of the steering committee of the European Society for Mycobacteriology since 2023, and a member of the Latin American Society for Mycobacteriology.

Tomasz Jagielski, PhD, DSc received a PhD in medical sciences from the National Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Institute, which serves as the National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory for Poland. He currently works as an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw, where he established and now heads the Department of Medical Microbiology. His research interests are interdisciplinary and span a breadth of topics related to infectious diseases, with special emphasis on developing new molecular markers and diagnostic algorithms to be used in everyday clinical practice. The primary areas of his expertise include mycobacteriology, fungal infections, and antimicrobial resistance. He is also actively involved in forging a new realm of microbiology, called medical phycology. The PI of several national and international research projects and (co-)author of more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He acts as a reviewer for numerous scientific journals and is a member of the editorial boards of Infection, Genetics and Evolution, Microbial Biotechnology, and One Health Mycology. He is affiliated with several international societies and research networks. He also serves as the Country Liaison of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the International Society for Human & Animal Mycology (ISHAM). He is a founder and coordinator of the international research consortium on TB and other mycobacterial diseases – Fight Against TB in Central and Eastern Europe (FATE). Since 2005, he has worked on various aspects of TB and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections, including diagnostics, drug resistance, and molecular epidemiology. He was among the first to demonstrate the transmission of multidrug-resistant TB in Poland using genotyping methods. His research have also extensively contributed to the taxonomy and diagnostics of the Mycobacterium kansasii complex.

Prof. Alexander S. Apt is Head of the Laboratory for Immunogenetics at the Central Tuberculosis Research Institute in Moscow, Russia. With a career spanning over five decades, he is an internationally recognized expert in tuberculosis immunology and host genetics. Prof. Apt holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the N. Gamaleya Institute, and a D.Sc. in Immunology focusing on the genetic control of intracellular infections using tuberculosis as a model.
Prof. Apt has held various positions, including a visiting professorship at McGill University’s Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, and has served as Professor at the School of Biology, Moscow State University. His research focuses on genetic susceptibility to tuberculosis, immune responses in murine models, and host-pathogen interactions. He has been a Principal Investigator on multiple international grants from the Wellcome Trust, NIH, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His scientific contributions include over 130 peer-reviewed publications and significant advances in understanding immune regulation and the role of B cells and MHC molecules in TB pathogenesis. He has received awards and fellowships from WHO, MRC Canada, and served as an ASM Ambassador for Russia and former Soviet Union states.

Prof. Kiatichai Faksri is a Dean of the Graduate School at Khon Kaen University (KKU), Thailand and also serves as Director of the Research and Diagnostic Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at KKU. Prof. Faksri earned his B.Sc. in Medical Technology from Naresuan University and a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology (Royal Golden Jubilee Scholar) from Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital. He completed postdoctoral training in whole-genome sequencing of mycobacteria at the National University of Singapore in 2015.
He has held multiple academic and administrative positions, including Assistant Dean for Research and Planning at the Faculty of Medicine, KKU, and Deputy Head of the Department of Microbiology. Currently, he holds key roles on the boards of graduate and academic service programs both at KKU and nationally. As a respected academic, he serves as Associate Editor for the European Journal of Medical Research and Academic Editor for PLOS Global Public Health. He is also a certified assessor for Thailand’s TQA and EdPEx programs. Prof. Faksri has been recognized with numerous awards for his research and leadership, including multiple Outstanding Researcher Awards from KKU, and national fellowships. He has published over 90 research articles indexed in Scopus and leads several international projects, including a major grant from the Open Philanthropy Foundation to develop Raman spectroscopy-based diagnostics for tuberculosis. His academic influence and leadership continue to shape microbiology and infectious disease research in Thailand and the region.

Dr. Marisa Ponpuak was awarded a prestigious national scholarship from Thailand’s Development and Promotion of Science and Technology Talent Project (DPST) to pursue her studies in the United States. She earned her Bachelor’s degree with honours in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2001. She then completed her Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Prof. Daniel E. Goldberg, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Her doctoral research focused on the biology of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for malaria. Following her Ph.D., Dr. Ponpuak conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Vojo Deretic at the University of New Mexico, where she gained extensive experience in host immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In 2010, she joined the Department of Microbiology at the Faculty of Science, Mahidol University. Her current research centres on host cellular immunity in the context of globally significant infectious diseases, with a particular emphasis on tuberculosis. Her work includes drug discovery, biomarker identification, and vaccine development to combat M. tuberculosis infection

Dr. Surakameth Mahasirimongkol, MD, MSc, PhD has worked in several institutes in the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. He specializes in epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and tuberculosis research, with a focus on integrating human and pathogen genomic data to support TB control programs. He currently leads research projects on pharmacogenomics for precision drug use and develops genome-informed TB diagnostics. With a robust publication record of nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles and over 4,000 citations and h-index of 30, Dr. Surakameth is a respected authority in genomics, bioinformatics, and public health. He is proficient in R, next-generation sequencing, and computational genomics. Based at the Ministry’s Department of Medical Sciences, Dr. Surakameth also contributes to regional and international collaborations aimed at improving infectious disease surveillance and personalized medicine in Thailand.

Dr. Pakorn Aiewsakun received a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences and an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology from Imperial College London, and subsequently earned a D.Phil. in Zoology from Oxford University. During his doctoral study, his research focused on endogenous viruses, exploring viral genomic fossils in the genomes of animals, to connect recent and ancient viral evolution. His key findings included the time-dependent rate phenomenon, demonstrating that both DNA and RNA viruses evolve rapidly in the short term but remain highly conserved over longer periods.
Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Pakorn Aiewsakun continued at Oxford University as a postdoctoral researcher, developing a sequence-based framework for family-level virus classification called GARViTy. Since joining Mahidol University in late 2017, he has been a pioneering force in microbial genomics research as a founder of the Pornchai Matangkasombut Center for Microbial Genomics (CENMIG). He also leads many research projects in bacterial and virus genomics and has organised many hands-on bioinformatics workshops to disseminate knowledge and technical skills. In his spare time, he enjoys competitive ballroom dancing.

Professor Robin Warren is a Distinguished Professor at Stellenbosch University (SU) and heads the TB Genomics research group in the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. In 2015 he was awarded the SAMRC Gold Medal award for scientific excellence and in 2018 the Chancellors award for his contribution to research at SU. Prof Warren has published over 475 papers and 15 book chapters. His research is based on a foundation molecular epidemiology which has led to numerous landmark publications in the field of Tuberculosis (TB). Through his research he has challenged dogmas with respect to recurrent TB, demonstrated mixed infection, identified outbreaks, mapped acquisition of resistance and highlighted programmatic limitations in the standard of care. Critical questions currently under investigation include determining the association between genotype and phenotype for new and repurposed drugs to enable the transition from culture-based methods to molecular methods for drugs susceptibility testing. His research is directly linked whole genome sequencing (WGS) to correlate genome sequence variation to phenotype(virulence and transmission).
Prof Warren continues to contribute to global initiatives to improve diagnostics by being a major contributor to WHO technical guides, a global repository of WGS data and the development of a WGS analysis pipeline that is being adopted by the WHO. He continues to play a pivotal role in the archiving of clinical TB isolates in collaboration with the National Health Laboratory Service which houses over 60000 drug-susceptible and drug-resistant isolates and is a national and international resource. Prof Warren collaborates extensively in Africa to ensure skills transfer and postgraduate education.

Amador Goodridge; Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Technology from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Panama. He also holds a Master of Science with a specialization in Biotechnology from Universidad Santa María la Antigua, and a Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and Immunity from the University of California, Berkeley, United States. Recently, he earned a Diploma in Project Management from Florida State University at Ciudad del Saber. Currently he is principal investigator of the Tuberculosis Biomarker Research Unit at INDICASAT-AIP, City of Knowledge, Panamá. He has also collaborated with government and non-government organizations in building scientific capacity for R&D. For more than 20 years he has carried out scientific research on human and animal tuberculosis. Additionally, he collaborates in antimicrobial resistance, nosocomial infections, perinatal infections, nutrition and water quality.

Dr. Mi earned her PhD in Genetics from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She began her research on tuberculosis (TB) during a postdoctoral fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 2003. Dr. Mi’s research focuses on key pathogenic microorganisms, especially MTB. Her work spans a broad spectrum of topics including drug resistance mechanisms, novel drug target discovery and host-pathogen interactions. A major focus of her research is on the molecular mechanisms underlying MTB latency and reactivation. She systematically studied the universal stress protein family, notably Rv2623 and Rv2624c, and uncovering how these proteins regulate bacterial metabolism and signaling pathways critical for latent infection. Recently, Dr. Mi’s team has uncovered new insights into the multi-functional roles of antibiotic resistance proteins, particularly their involvement in bacterial virulence. Her lab’s work on dual-target strategies offers promising avenues to combat resistant TB strains and improve therapeutic outcomes. In the field of drug resistance, Dr. Mi has conducted in-depth studies on fluoroquinolone resistance, notably revealing the structure of the MfpA-DNA gyrase complex and demonstrating MfpA’s protective function. By integrating omics technologies, synthetic biology, and structural biology, her group aim to uncover the deeper molecular basis of resistance in mycobacteria and translate these insights into potential therapeutic innovations.

Dr. Margarita O. Shleeva, Ph.D., D.Sc., is a leading biochemist and Head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry of Stresses in Microorganisms at the Federal Research Centre “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Her extensive research is dedicated to understanding dormant and “non-culturable” bacterial forms and their biochemistry, with a particular focus on bacterial adaptation to stress, the formation of non-sporulating dormant bacteria, bacterial viability under stress, and mechanisms of cell division.
Dr. Shleeva’s significant scientific contributions are centered on the biochemistry of microorganisms, especially mycobacteria, and on devising effective strategies against the dormant forms of tuberculosis and mycobacteriosis pathogens. Her research interests encompass the biochemical processes driving bacterial adaptation to stressful environments, the intricate biochemistry and physiology of mycobacterial dormancy, and the mechanisms governing the formation and reactivation of dormant and “non-culturable” bacterial states. A notable breakthrough from her laboratory is the discovery of porphyrin accumulation in dormant mycobacteria, which has paved the way for developing novel antibacterial photodynamic therapy approaches against these pathogens.
Dr. Shleeva’s research has resulted in over 70 co-authored publications, garnering more than 1,400 citations and an h-index of 19. She continues to lead her laboratory, driving advancements in microbial stress responses with broad implications for biotechnology and medicine.

He graduated from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kanazawa University in 1988 and subsequently joined Hokuriku Seiyaku Co., Ltd. (now AbbVie), where he spent 15 years conducting preclinical and clinical pharmacokinetic studies for drug discovery and development. In 2000, he earned his Ph.D. from Hokkaido University. He joined RIKEN in 2003 and began research to identify SNPs and genes associated with drug efficacy and adverse drug reactions. His current research focuses on integrating patients’ genomic information and drug responses to establish stratified drug therapy based on pharmacogenomics, with the goal of providing the right drug at the appropriate dose for each individual patient.

Violeta Valcheva is an Associate Professor in the The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology (SAIM), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2009 she received her Ph.D and did the first comprehensive study of molecular characterisation and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in Bulgaria. The main research topics of her work are the molecular epidemiology, phylogeny and evolution of mycobacteria, bioinformatics, bacterial pathogenesis and virulence; new synthesized compounds with chemical and natural products, drug development, pharmacokinetics, anti-TB chemotherapy. Over the years, she gained experience and high qualifications in the international institutions in various international institutes in the field of molecular epidemiological research, bioinformatics (France, Russia, China, Japan) with visible results (projects, publications, establishing new innovations and collaborations by participating in various COST, ERASMUS+, NATO projects and programs). She was responsible for public relations for the SAIM (2009 - 2020) and responsible for the scientific relation for the SAIM in the International Pasteur Network. She was a secretary of the Microbiology department in the Bulgarian Union of Scientists in the period of 2009-2013.