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Speaker Profiles

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Dr. Ali Ait Hssain

Hamad General Hospital
Dr. Ali Ait Hssain is a senior consultant intensivist and member of the ECMO Team at Hamad General Hospital, in Doha, Qatar. He has supervised PhD students at HBKU and is involved in clinical research including ICU patients with various diseases. He has also contributed to the Covid 19 diagnosis research with other colleagues at HBKU. Alongside this, Dr. Hssain is an assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his medical degree and completed his residency of anesthesiology and critical care medicine in France. Dr. Ali Ait Hssain has more than 20 years’ experience in Critical Care Medicine from different countries. He served as assistant clinical professor in university d’Auvergne in Clermont Ferrand, France. He was at the origin of the launch of the ECMO program in his center in 2007.
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Dr. Amal Barakat

Technical Officer, World Health Organization's Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO EMRO)
Dr. Amal Barakat is a Technical Officer in Infectious Hazards Preparedness under the Department of Health Emergency (WHE) of the Eastern Mediterranean Regional (EMR) Office of WHO. She is serving as Team Lead Influenza and other respiratory diseases program. She has special interest in emerging infectious diseases and public laboratory systems capacity development, surveillance and outbreak response in accordance with core requirement for implementation of IHR 2005. She provides technical support to the Member States of EMR for the strengthening of their influenza and other respiratory diseases surveillance, and improve public health laboratory for surveillance, alert and response to pandemic and epidemic-prone diseases.
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Dr. Cameron Wolfe

Duke University Medical Centre
Dr. Cameron Wolfe is a Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Disease Division at Duke University Medical Center. His clinical interests revolve around infections complicating immunocompromised patients, including oncology and transplant patients, and those living with HIV. He is a member of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and does research exploring antivirals and vaccine outcomes for patients with respiratory viruses. His other interests including trying to find safe ways to expand organ transplantation, including using donors with viral hepatitis and HIV. He is the director of the clinical response team for emerging infections at Duke University.
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Dr. Emanuele Montomoli

University of Siena
Dr. Emanuele Montomoli is Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Siena in Italy. He received his BSc and MSc in Life Sciences from University of Siena in Italy in 1995 and he earned his MBiochem in 2001. In 2008, he funded VisMederi srl, a private enterprise involved in management and serology for clinical trials and focused studies with human viruses for pharmaceutical companies. His research interest is in the field of influenza vaccines and the study of correlates of protection. He is an expert in development, standardization, and validation of assays for antibody detection. He has also led European seroepidemiological studies for emerging infectious disease in collaboration with WHO Regional Office and eCDC. He has organized 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition of the Summer School on influenza in Siena with the support of ISIRV. Over the years, he has published almost 70 scientific papers and reviews.
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Dr. Erik Karlsson

Institut Pasteur
Dr. Erik Karlsson’s work focuses on viral evolution, surveillance, and host-pathogen interactions. Dr. Karlsson currently serves as Deputy Head of the Virology Unit at Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He oversees all respiratory virus-related activities, including surveillance of human seasonal and zoonotic viruses. As the Director of the National Influenza Center and a WHO H5 Reference Laboratory, he plays a crucial role in global influenza and COVID-19 response. His work at IPC centers on monitoring endemic and emerging viruses in Southeast Asia, developing early warning systems at high-risk human/animal/environment interfaces to preempt future pandemics. A frequent consultant for FAO and WHO, Dr. Karlsson is also the founder of CANARIES (Consortium of Animal market Networks to Assess Risks of emerging Infectious diseases through Enhanced Surveillance), a think-tank dedicated to improving surveillance of infectious diseases at animal markets.
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Dr. Ghazi Kayali

Human Link
Over the past 15 years, the over-arching theme for Dr. Kayali’s research has been emerging zoonoses epidemiology at the human-animal interface. Dr. Kayali has extensive experience conducting and coordinating surveillance on emerging zoonotic viral diseases. Moreover, Dr. Kayali has expertise in providing capacity building and training for public health stakeholders on zoonotic disease preparedness, prevention, detection, and response. Dr. Kayali is a consultant for the World Health Organization, specifically relating to zoonotic diseases, pandemic preparedness, and International Health Regulations. His consultancy work has impacted the public health policies of several countries in the Middle East. Dr. Kayali advocates for One Health approaches in the region and strives to institutionalize the concept in governmental policies and practice. Dr. Kayali established and is currently Managing Partner of Human Link, a member of global surveillance networks including the US National Institutes of Health funded Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response.
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Associate Prof. Hadi Yassine

Qatar University Biomedical Research Center | WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Capacity Building on Emerging and Re-emerging Zoonotic Diseases
Dr. Hadi Mohamad Yassine is an associate professor of infectious diseases and section head of research at the Qatar University (QU) Biomedical Research Center (BRC), where he leads the communicable diseases section, and former chair of the QU IBC committee (2020-2023). He also serves as an adjunct faculty at the Center for Food Animal Health - The Ohio State University. After earning a Ph.D. degree from The Ohio State University (OSU) in 2009, he worked at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Health (NIH) for over five years. He has excellent experience in virology, microbiology, immunology, molecular diagnostics, and vaccine development. He has published more than 220 articles and was named a highly cited researcher (top 0.1% worldwide) by Clarivate, 2021-2023. He received several awards in recognition of his work and contributed to seven patents on new designs of viral vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Dr. Hamad Eid Al-Romaihi

Qatar Ministry of Public Health
Dr. Hamad Eid Al-Romaihi is a senior Consultant, Community Medicine and the Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control Department, Ministry of Public Health, Qatar. He earned his MD from Arabian Gulf University’s Medical College, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, completed his Arab Board Community Medicine training in Qatar, and is a Fellow of the Faculty of travel medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
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Dr. Hassan Zaraket

American University of Beirut | Roche
Dr. Hassan Zaraket is an expert in infectious diseases whose work bridges academia, industry, and global health, driving impactful solutions for infectious disease challenges worldwide. He is currently serving as the Global Medical Science Leader for Infectious Diseases at Roche and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Before joining Roche in 2021, Dr. Zaraket was a faculty member at AUB where he progressed to the rank of Tenured Associate Professor and served as Assistant Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research. Hassan served an advisor to the WHO and served as a council member of ISIRV. Dr. Zaraket earned his Ph.D. from Niigata University in Japan and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In 2012, he co-founded and served as the chief technology officer of US BIOLOGIC, a pioneer in zoonotic disease vaccines.
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Prof. Hiam Chemaitelly

Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar
Hiam Chemaitelly is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. Her primary research focuses on the epidemiology of respiratory infections, particularly COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus. She has also made numerous contributions to the study of infectious diseases in the Middle East and North Africa region including the epidemiology of HIV, bacterial and viral sexually transmitted infections, and viral hepatitis. She has a distinguished record of high impact scholarship and is one of the most-published scientists on COVID-19 epidemiology. She has published over 150 research studies in leading journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and Lancet. Her research work has been instrumental in informing public health policy and received broad international media coverage.
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Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad

Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company
Kayvon Modjarrad, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist who leads Pfizer's R&D for viral vaccines. Previously, he led the development of vaccines for emerging infectious diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Defense and the World Health Organization and has worked in global health for more than 20 years.
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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud

Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University
Dr. Mahmoud is a Professor and Research Director of the Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology Program and lead investigator at the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. Dr. Mahmoud’s main research interests focus on environmental quality and nanobiotechnology including the development of renewable nanomaterials and analytical methods for membrane desalination, water treatment, emerging contaminants, environmental monitoring and remediation, and nanocatalysis. His groups’s contribution to the One Health and Water-Based Epidemiology is recognized by leading the national Wastewater-based Pathogens Surveillance for Public Health Action in Qatar. He is leading cross-cutting research in the applications of 2D carbon nanomaterials and their composites for water treatment and environmental remediation applications. Dr. Mahmoud is a co-author of over 150 high-impact papers, book chapters, patents, and numerous presentations in the field. Dr. Mahmoud obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada in 2007.
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Prof. Laith Abu-Raddad

Weill Cornell Medicine – Qatar
Laith Abu-Raddad is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Weill Cornell Medicine–Qatar, Cornell University. His research is multidisciplinary, with a focus on the epidemiology of infectious diseases, utilizing analytical and computational methods alongside conventional epidemiologic study designs. He has led numerous high-impact studies with significant international and regional implications. His work has been widely published in top-tier journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, JAMA, Nature Medicine, and The Lancet. His research spans a broad spectrum of infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and SARS. He has served as the principal investigator for numerous projects funded by various agencies and has acted as an expert advisor or consultant for a range of international organizations. Dr. Abu-Raddad's research has played a pivotal role in shaping public health policy at both regional and global levels.
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Professor Maria Zambon

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Professor Maria Zambon is the current Head of Respiratory Viruses and Director of the National Influenza Centre at UKHSA’s National Reference Laboratory in Colindale, London. Medical training as a clinical virologist and a PhD on the mechanism of action of amantadine in 1984 underpins her lifelong interest in antivirals and therapeutics. With 40 years of experience as an influenza virologist, of which three decades have been at the UK public health agency, UKHSA, and its predecessor organisations, she has played a crucial role in the surveillance and response to seasonal influenza as well as new and emerging respiratory viruses over this time. This includes some of the earliest work on the development of avian influenza vaccines for humans, responding to global pandemics including SARS (2003), MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 (2020) and developing national and international virological monitoring programmes to support the introduction of new vaccines.
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Prof. Mark Tompkins

Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research, University of Georgia
S. Mark Tompkins, Ph.D., is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Virology and Immunology and Director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia. He is also the Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research, a NIAID Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) at the UGA. He received his doctorate in Immunology from Emory University. He then studied immune mechanisms of onset of autoimmune disease as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow before joining the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA where he studied immunity elicited by influenza vaccination. Mark was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award in 2012 and worked at the CSIRO ACDP in Geelong, Australia. Dr. Tompkins's research and training programs focus on understanding the host response to emerging and re-emerging respiratory pathogens, pathogen-pathogen interactions, and vaccine-elicited immunity.
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Prof. Pasi Penttinen

Gulf CDC | Florence School of Transnational Governance | European University Institute
Prof. Penttinen is the Chief Executive Officer for Gulf CDC. Academically, he is a part-time professor at the Florence School for Transnational Governance/ European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He has more than 20 years in managing disease prevention and control activities in multiple countries, at local, national, and international levels. Prior to his current role, Prof. Penttinen lead the establishment of epidemic intelligence activities at ECDC and the scientific and programmatic work on the influenza and other respiratory viruses. He managed multiple public health emergencies for ECDC, including the 2009 influenza pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. His research interests include surveillance, pandemic preparedness, epidemic intelligence, surveillance of respiratory viruses and vaccines. Prof. Penttinen has also worked with the national public health institutes in Finland and Sweden and advised a large privately funded public health program in Papua, Indonesia with components on primary health care, TB, HIV-STI and malaria control.
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Dr. Peter Coyle

Hamad Medical Corporation
Joined Hamad Medical Corporation Qatar in 2017 as a senior consultant and head of virology. Qualified in medicine, microbiology & virology in Belfast and Atlanta. Admitted Fellow of the College of Pathologists (London) and completed a Doctoral Thesis at QUB Belfast. Appointed consultant clinical virologist in Belfast in 1986. Holds Honorary academic posts with the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine, QUB and the BRC of Qatar University. During the pandemic was a member of the Hospital and MOPH advisory Groups and was lead author on 3 publications. Currently a member of advisory groups for Dengue and MPOX. Coauthor or Lead on more than 214 publication (PubMed). Member of previous WHO TPP Group for MPOX and currently WHO Expert Advisory panel on Dengue. Chair of the hospital DLMP Research Committee and currently working on the impact of viral infections on the airways infection and microbiome.
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Dr. Rabeh El-Shesheny

Centre of Scientific Excellence for Influenza Viruses (CSEIV), National Research Centre (NRC)
Dr. Rabeh El-Shesheny is an Assistant Professor of Virology at the Centre of Scientific Excellence for Influenza Viruses (CSEIV), National Research Centre (NRC), Dokki, Egypt. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship training at the Division of Virology, Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Additionally, he trained at the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for the study of the ecology of influenza viruses. He also serves as a Consultant for the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, supporting the strengthening of sequencing capacities through the implementation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) to improve regional genome surveillance of influenza and SARS-CoV-2. His research focuses on the genomic evolution and molecular characteristics of influenza, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. Since 2020, he has been an Assistant Professor at the NRC, where he leads and organizes the CSEIV group, which consists of Postdoctoral Fellows, PhD students, and Master's students.
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Prof. Rebecca Cox

University of Bergen
Rebecca Cox is professor in medical virology and head of the Influenza Centre at the University of Bergen, Norway. She completed her Ph.D. in 1995 at the London Hospital Medical College, University of London, UK before post doc positions at Guys Hospital, UK and the University of Bergen, Norway. She has more than 30 years of experience of influenza work. Her research focuses on development and evaluation of influenza vaccine with particular focus on human immune responses to infection and vaccination. She currently advises the WHO on influenza, European Medicines Agency on vaccines and the European Expert Group on SARS-CoV-2 variants. She is deputy chair of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, leads the education committee, and is senior editor for the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. She is author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and regularly contributes to the public debate on Influenza, SARS CoV-2, and vaccines through multi-media channels.
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Associate Prof. Sheena Sullivan

Monash University
Associate Professor Sheena Sullivan is an infectious diseases epidemiologist with a focus on the accurate estimation of vaccine effectiveness and the immunological factors that affect it. She collaborates on several large-scale seroepidemiological studies, investigating how repeated influenza vaccinations influence antibody diversity and immune responses, aiming to optimize vaccination strategies.
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Dr. Sook-San Wong

The University of Hong Kong
Dr. Wong obtained her PhD in molecular virology, working on dengue virus, from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She completed her postdoctoral training at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, which was also the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center on the study of the influenza in lower animals. Prior to joining HKU, Dr. Wong was a PI at Guangzhou Medical University, China, where she was involved in some of the early COVID-19 outbreak response in early 2020. In the space of pandemic preparedness, she has been involved in risk assessments of avian influenza viruses, including H7N9 and H5N1 and studying the immunological correlates of protection against them. Her research interest is on studying the humoral immunity to influenza, with a focus on population immunity to avian influenza viruses.
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Prof. Ultan Power

Queen’s University Belfast
Ultan Power is Professor of Molecular Virology at Queen’s University Belfast. After earning a PhD in Microbiology from University College Cork, Ireland, he trained at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA, and later led virology research in the pharma sector in France. He was instrumental in developing the first RSV subunit vaccine to reach phase III clinical trials, targeting a leading cause of severe respiratory illness in infants and the elderly. In 2004, he established a research group at Queen’s, creating advanced in vitro models of respiratory virus infection of airway epithelium. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his work shifted to studying disease mechanisms and exploring drug repurposing for treatment. Prof. Power has held leadership roles, including Chair of the International RSV Society and member of COVID-19 expert panels. He has also served as an expert witness to the UK Parliament and contributes to public and academic discussions on respiratory viruses.
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Dr. Yasser Sanad

FHI 360
Dr. Yasser Sanad, a veterinarian and an Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas Systems, USA, is a distinguished public health expert with 25 years of experience in veterinary medicine and zoonotic diseases. He holds a DVM, two master’s degrees, and a PhD in Veterinary Preventive Medicine with major focus on Molecular Epidemiology/Microbiology of zoonotic diseases from The Vet School at the Ohio State University, complemented by postdoctoral training and service with the US FDA. Currently, he is the Zoonotic and One Health Lead at FHI 360's Infectious Diseases Department. Dr. Sanad specializes in molecular epidemiology and microbiology of zoonotic diseases, microbial genomics, and outbreak/emergency response. His expertise includes genomic surveillance, microbial source tracking, and risk assessment. His work focuses on transmission dynamics of AMR, biosafety, and biosecurity, addressing public and animal health challenges. Dr. Sanad has a prolific publication record and extensive experience in grants and project management.
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Dr. Ziad Memish

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center | Alfaisal University | Emory University
Ziad Memish is currently an Advisor to the Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Center (KSrelief) for Medical & Humanitarian Research, and Professor of infectious diseases at the College of Medicine in Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Adjunct Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Georgia, USA. Memish established the WHO Collaborating Centers for Mass Gathering Medicine in the Ministry of Health and Infection Prevention & Control in the Saudi Ministry of National Guard. He was the first Deputy Minister for Public Health at Ministry of Health (2009-2014) and chair of the national scientific technical advisory group for COVID-19 under the Royal Court. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, 2018-2024. Memish is EIC of 4 medical journals and has published more than 900 papers and chapters.