Conference Speakers
Get to know our 2026 speakers!
Ursula Theuretzbacher
Founder of the Center for Anti-Infective Agents (CEFAIA) &
independent expert in antibacterial drug discovery and development strategies.
Ursula Theuretzbacher is an independent expert in antibacterial drug discovery and development strategies that align with public and global health priorities. Her broad expertise spans the evaluation and comparative assessment of antibacterial agents, optimization of antibacterial therapy concepts, and public and philanthropic funding strategies to strengthen the global antibacterial pipeline.
She has contributed extensively to global policy and strategy efforts, serving as a member of the coordinating group for the WHO Priority Pathogen List for R&D and as the lead scientist for WHO’s Clinical and Preclinical Pipeline analyses and Target Product Profile development. Dr. Theuretzbacher has also participated in several large EU-funded initiatives focused on antibacterial R&D, the revival of existing antibiotics, and innovative economic models to reinvigorate antibacterial innovation.
Her work has also included comprehensive analyses of the global antibacterial discovery landscape and the scientific challenges in identifying new antibiotic classes. She previously served as President of the International Society for Anti-Infective Pharmacology (ISAP), as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), and as the founding chair of the ESCMID PK/PD of Anti-Infectives Study Group (EPASG). Dr. Theuretzbacher holds a PhD in Microbiology from the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck and lectured at the University of Vienna for ten years.
Rafael Cantón
Head of the Clinical Microbiology Department at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid (Spain)
Head of the Clinical Microbiology Department at the Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid (Spain) and Associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology at Complutense University in Madrid. His research activity is developed within the Spanish Network CIBER in Infectious Diseases (CIBERINFEC) and Institute Ramón y Cajal for Health (IRYCIS) in which he is the principal investigator of the group “Biology and evolution of microorganisms”. This activity is focused on antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, antimicrobial susceptibility testing with new disruptive technologies, chronic respiratory tract infections, mainly in bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis, and the interplay of clonal epidemiology and resistance. He is currently the clinical data coordinator of the European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) (former president 2012-2016). He has been President of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) (2015-2017), member of the Advisory Board of the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) (20018-2025). He has also participated in several EU funded research projects on antimicrobial resistance and published more than 600 articles in peer-review journals.
Anne Kveim Lie
Professor at the University of Oslo’s Department of Community Medicine and Global Health
Anne Kveim Lie is a Professor at the University of Oslo’s Department of Community Medicine and Global Health, specializing in the history of medicine with a focus on the Scandinavia welfare states. Her work centers on the social and political dimensions of healthcare and medicine, and on the history of infectious disease and pharmaceuticals. Recently, her research has expanded globally, addressing contemporary issues like antibiotic resistance and climate change, through interdisciplinary projects that connect historical insights with pressing global challenges. Dr. Lie is involved in education initiatives in medical school aimed at incorporating medical humanities and social medicine into healthcare training, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in understanding and addressing current health challenges.
Rob Warren
Head of the TB Genomics research group at Stellenbosch University
Professor Rob 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 my contribution to research at SU. He was the Unit Director of the SAMRC Centre for Tuberculosis Research between 2017 and 2025. 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 to next generation sequencing (NGS) to correlate genome sequence variation to phenotype (virulence and transmission). Prof Warren continues to contribute to global initiatives to improve diagnostics. 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.
Rena Conti
Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business
Rena Conti is Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. She co-directs the Technology Policy and Research Initiative and leads work on biopharmaceutical markets at the Ravi K. Mehrotra Institute for Business, Markets, and Society.
Her research centers on the economics of drug pricing, competition, and access. She has advised the U.S. Congress, FDA, and CMS, and helped design Louisiana’s groundbreaking subscription model for Hepatitis C treatment. Recenty, she was involved in evaluating CARB-X, a global non-profit partnership accelerating antibacterial products to address drug-resistant bacteria.
A former University of Chicago faculty member, she holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy and Economics from Harvard University. Her work has been featured in numerous academic journals, as well as disseminated in major outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and 60 Minutes, with funding from leading national foundations and institutes.
Joakim Larsson
Professor of Environmental Pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Infectious Diseases,
and director of the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research (CARe).
Joakim Larsson is Professor of Environmental Pharmacology at the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Infectious Diseases.
There, he directs the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research (CARe) in Gothenburg, which unites more than 150 researchers across 19 departments.
His own research group work focuses on the environmental dimensions of antibiotic resistance, including aspects on both evolution, transmission and surveillance. The group has a particular interest in the role of wastewaters and antibiotic pollution and how environmental selection pressures may contribute to the mobilization and transfer of resistance from the diverse environmental microbiota to human pathogens. He has published over 200 scientific articles and is ranked among the world’s most highly cited researchers on Web of Science since 2018.
Professor Larsson is strongly engaged in bringing science to policy. His prior research and engagement with e. g. the World Health Organization was key for the recent commitments by the 193 members states of the United Nations to adopt standards on environmental emissions from antibiotic manufacturing. He holds a PhD (2000) in animal physiology and built his career by bridging environment and human health.
Evelina Tacconelli
Chief Scientific Officer of the European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases (ECRAID),
and Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Infectious Diseases Division at the University of Verona, Italy.
Evelina Tacconelli is Full Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Infectious Diseases Division at the University of Verona, Italy. She serves as Chief Scientific Officer of the European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases (ECRAID) and as Coordinator of the Cohort Coordination Board established by the European Commission to advance cohort research for pandemic preparedness. She chairs the EUCIC Working Group on guidance in infection control and the ESCMID guidelines on the prevention and treatment of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections in hospitalized patients. She also led the Technical Group that supported the development of the WHO global priority lists of antibiotic-resistant pathogens for R&D of new antibiotics in 2017 and 2024 update. She has coordinated and contributed to multiple EU-funded projects on antimicrobial resistance and pandemic preparedness.
Scott Weese
Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses,
and Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre.
Dr. Weese is a veterinary internist and Professor at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, Director of the University of Guelph Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, Chief of Infection Control at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre. He is Chair of the WHO Advisory Group for Critically Important Antimicrobials in Human Medicine, a member of the Government of Canada’s Advisory Group on AMR, the quadripartite’s AMR Multistakeholder Partnership Platform and the Ontario Public Health Emergencies Scientific Advisory Committee, and a past member of the Quadripartite Global Leaders Group on AMR. He runs the infectious disease website WormsAndGermsBlog (http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com)
photo is copyright of the University of Leicester
Martha Clokie
Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester and Director of the Becky Mayer Centre for Phage Research
Professor Martha Clokie is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester and Director of the Becky Mayer Centre for Phage Research. Her research investigates the identification and development of bacteriophages that kill human and animal pathogens in an effort to develop new antimicrobials. She encompasses all aspects of phage therapy development – from unravelling fundamental biology to product development, and commercialization. Much of her research employs genomic, structural, bioinformatic and AI approaches to identify key traits associated with phage efficacy in clearing infections and currently she is developing phages for major gut pathogens including clostridial and Salmonella species, respiratory pathogens and for antibiotic-resistant bacteria that cause urinary tract infections. Her work is regularly and recently featured on the BBC, for example In our Time, the Life Scientific, the iconic Infinite Monkey Cage and the Today Programme.
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Tobias Spielmann
Head of the Research Group Malaria Cell Biology at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Spielmann did a PhD at the University of Basel and SwissTPH (then Swiss Tropical Institute) in Basel, Switzerland. Moved to Australia for a post doc at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) in Brisbane. Moved back to Europe as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow to do post-doctoral work at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg, Germany. At BNITM started independent lab today called Research Group Malaria Cell Biology (https://www.bnitm.de/en/research/research-groups/molekularbiologie-und-immunologie/ag-malaria-zellbiologie). The lab studies the essential and unique biology of malaria blood stage parasites to understand how this parasite interacts and survives inside human red blood cells.