Helen comes from a procurement background and has held roles at NHS PASA in pharmaceutical purchasing and childhood vaccines, as well as pharmacy and diagnostics procurement for Surrey and Sussex Confederation, and National Contracts Manager for laboratory goods at NHSBT.
Helen worked for 11 years in a number of roles across UK and Europe at Abbott, leading supplier management and contract provision for managed services.
She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, has an MSC in Strategic Procurement from the University of Glamorgan Business School, and an LLM in Public Procurement Law and Policy from the University of Nottingham, School of Law.
Professor Paul Verweij is head of the Medical Microbiology department, which deals with the prevention, diagnostics, and treatment of infectious diseases, especially those of patients admitted to the Radboud university medical center. Verweij is the chairman of the Nijmegen University Centre for Infectious Diseases (NUCI), a leading organization combining patient care, education, and research in the field of infectious diseases. Verweij's research focuses on the detection and treatment of fungal infections in patients with greatly reduced resistance to infections. This research has aided the improved and earlier detection of these fatal infections.
Susie has a background as a medical microbiologist, having trained across the South Coast of England and was previously a consultant in infection for 13 years. Her early consultant career focused on antimicrobial stewardship before specialising in infection prevention and becoming an Infection Control Doctor for seven years. Currently, Susie is using her experience in hospital medicine and infection prevention and control to demonstrate the benefits of whole genome sequencing in exposing and preventing healthcare-associated infections.
Senior biomedical scientist working at Imperial college healthcare NHS Trust for 20 years initially as Immunologist and later on moved to virology. Currently working as lead scientist for infection and immunity in multidisciplinary lab.
Stephen Bustin obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. He was Professor of Molecular Science at Queen Mary, University of London before moving to Anglia Ruskin University in 2012, where he is currently Professor of Molecular Medicine. His research interests centre around developing novel approaches for the early diagnosis of infectious diseases. Professor Bustin was an expert witness advising the UK High Court and the US Department of Justice on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology in the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine - Autism class action. He has authored numerous papers, review articles and book chapters aimed at improving the reproducibility and robustness of molecular methods, especially those based on the use of the PCR and has presented hundreds of talks and workshops worldwide on this subject. He has published three books, the “A-Z of quantitative PCR” (2004), universally known as the “qPCR Bible”,“The PCR Revolution” (2011) and “PCR Technology” (2013). He led an international consortium developing the MIQE guidelines for the use and reporting of real-time (2009) and digital PCR (2013). Professor Bustin is Editor-in Chief (Gene Expression), International Journal of Molecular Sciences and is a member of the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals. During the COVID-19 pandemic he published several papers highlighting the importance of correct testing for SARS-CoV-2 and developed a novel five-plex assay targeting the virus. He is currently developing a sub five-minute combined extraction, RT and PCR test for point-of-care diagnosis. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) and a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE).
Dr Jennifer Heaney is a Researcher within the Clinical Immunology Service in the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy. Jennifer’s main theme of research is immunoassay development for clinical applications, focusing on multiple myeloma, measurement of immunocompetence, and non-invasive testing. She collaborates with industry partners to develop and validate novel immunoassays. She has received funding from Cancer Research UK, the MRC and NIHR.
Dr Jennifer Heaney, Research Fellow, Clinical Immunology Service, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham.
Jennifer specialises in the development and validation of immunodiagnostic tests for a range of clinical applications.
Sort biography: Graduated in Sri Lanka and completed the post graduate studies in medical microbiology in Sri Lanka (PG Diploma and MD), working in UK since 2014, completed FRCPath (UK) and working as a consultant since 2017 at University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust. Interested in antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, infection prevention and control, medical education. Enjoy gardening, cooking and singing outside the work.
Stuart is a Biomedical Scientist and Molecular Laboratory Manager at Ipswich Hospital, East Suffolk North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT). He has an MSc in Virology and has worked within NHS diagnostic virology laboratories since 2002. He joined ESNEFT in 2021 to develop the molecular diagnostic service for the Trust and guest lecturers at the University of Essex on their BSc Biomedical Science course.
Peter is a Clinical Lead, Microbiologist in University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and Trust Clinical Lead for antimicrobial stewardship with a great track history of continuous clinical service mprovements in tertiary healthcare. He is skilled in formation and leading highly functional and agile clinical teams. He is an accomplished and GMC certified medical educator, coach and mentor and enjoys teaching.
After graduating from medical school Dr Awad-El-Kariem completed MSc and PhD degrees at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and was then employed there as a post-doc to study molecular typing of Cryptosporidium. He was then offered the prestigious Wellcome Research Career Development Fellowship in 1995 to study opportunistic infections in AIDS patients at Imperial College, London. He later accepted a post as a Consultant Microbiologist in 2006, with special interest in Infection Prevention and Control. He is currently the Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) in a large teaching hospital just outside London. His research interests include drug resistance in protozoan parasites, population genetics in medical protozoa, antibiotic multi-drug resistance in Gram Negative Bacteria and Molecular diagnostics of Clostridioides difficile.
Rocio’s group investigates post-transcriptional RNA regulation in inflammation and inflammatory diseases, particularly severe asthma. They focus on investigating how mRNA translation and decay modulate cellular pathways that are “traditionally” transcriptional. Keen on bioinformatics, open source everything. SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics.
Eimear is a Molecular Product Specialist at Randox, with expertise in applied biology and biopharmaceutical science, acquired through her BA degree. Before joining Randox, she honed her molecular skills at the National Containment Laboratory in New Zealand, where she was a member of the Bacteriology and Aquatic Diseases team. At Randox, Eimear applies her knowledge and experience to drive innovation in molecular diagnostics and QC solutions.
Adriana is Teaching coordinator in the courses Laboratory Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (bot Italian version and English version) at Department of Medicine and Surgery, member of the Teaching Council of the PhD course in Medical and Surgical Translational Sciences, director of the post-degree medical school in Microbiology and Virology. She is Director of the Unit of Clinical Microbiology, Director in charge of the Unit of Clinical Virology, University Hospital of Parma.
Her major research activities are in bacteriology, parasitology, and virology involving the study of the biological features and of the molecular biology (including both the genome analysis and the biotype study by Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry – MALDI-TOF MS) of human intestinal spirochaetes, the interaction of intestinal spirochaetes with other bacteria and with the host, the study of leptospires, borrelias, and treponemas, and the study of mycobacteria; it was also extended to the application of MALDI-TOF MS to the Clostridioides difficile ribotyping identification and to the development of assays for the identification of enterobacteria resistant to carbapenems. In mycology, the research activity regarded the application of MALDI-TOF MS to the identification of dermatophytes. In parasitology, the research activity involved the study of human parasites (plasmodia, Toxoplasma gondii, intestinal protozoa, Leishmania). In virology, the research activity involved the study of viruses pathogenic for humans (hepatotropic viruses, viruses of the respiratory tract, viruses of the gastrointestinal tract, emerging viruses such as arbovirus and SARS-CoV-2).
Her main scientific activities in foreign institution were at the Institute for Animal Health, Compton Laboratory, Compton Berkshire (England) and at the Institute Pasteur, Paris (France). She was Associate Editor of the "Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease" journal from 2021 and member of the “Editorial board” of the journal from 2011.
