Talk
The A-B-C of Antimicrobial Stewardship

Bio
Prof. Bojana Beović graduated from the Medical School at the University of Ljubljana, where she also earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. She completed her board certification in infectious diseases at the University Medical Centre (UMC) Ljubljana and pursued further training in pharmacology at the University of Zagreb and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. A visiting professor in Trieste, Italy, she has been employed at the Department of Infectious Diseases at UMC Ljubljana since 1986, serving as an attending physician in the intensive care unit from 1993 to 2013. Currently, she leads the ID Consultancy Service and the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme at UMC Ljubljana. Prof. Beović has held several leadership roles, including president of the Slovenian Society of Chemotherapy (2004–2018) and chair of the Intersectoral Coordination Mechanism for Prudent Use of Antimicrobials at the Ministry of Health since 2019. She has chaired the Antibiotic Committee at UMC Ljubljana since 2008 and has been actively involved with ESCMID, serving as honorary secretary and chair of the Study Group for Antimicrobial Stewardship and currently as co-chair of its Antimicrobial Stewardship Certificate Programme. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the Scientific Advisory Group to the Ministry of Health and is currently the president of the Medical Chamber of Slovenia. A full professor of infectious diseases at the University of Ljubljana, she has organized numerous scientific meetings and educational courses and is a frequently invited speaker at international events. Her primary research interests include antimicrobial stewardship and surgical infections, with over 350 publications to her name in national and international literature.

Talk
Use of Ceragenins to Prevent Microbial Biofilm Formation on Medical Devices

Bio
Paul B. Savage is the Reed M. Izatt Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Brigham Young University. He received his undergraduate degree at BYU and his PhD at the University of Wisconsin. He did postdoctoral research at the Ohio State University. His interests encompass chemical biology, which emphases in development of non-peptide mimics of antimicrobial peptides, natural killer T cell adjuvants, conjugate carbohydrate vaccines and high-affinity antibodies against bacterial polysaccharides.

Talk
Is there a role of metal-based antimicrobials in the AMR Era?

Bio
Raymond J. Turner is a multi-ethnic, multi-generational Canadian and Faculty Professor of Science at the University of Calgary, where he has also held roles as Department Head, Graduate Program Director, and Director of the Biofilm Research Group. With a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry, followed by postdoctoral training in Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Biochemistry, he has garnered research funding from NSERC, CIHR, Genome Canada, MITACS, and industrial partners. Recognized with awards for research and graduate supervision, he also holds multiple Faculty Fellowships from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Italy, fostering international collaborations. His research as a Microbial Biochemist spans antimicrobial resistance, bioremediation, bioinorganic chemistry, and nanotechnology, focusing on bacterial resistance mechanisms to stressors such as metals and pollutants, with applications in bioremediation, green nanomaterial synthesis, and antimicrobial development. Additionally, he teaches courses on biomembranes, toxicology, and biofilms and contributes to Canada’s AMR One Health Consortium, delivering insights on resistance mechanisms through the AMR: A One Health Approach Seminar Series.

Talk
The Role of Medical Journals in Containing Antimicrobial Resistance: Promoting Good Quality Research and Detailed Peer-Review

Bio
Albert Figueras is a Medical Doctor and Clinical Pharmacologist by training and retired Professor of Pharmacology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, he has over 20 years of experience consulting for organizations such as WHO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Africa CDC. His work in research, training, and consultancy has taken him to over 55 countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, and he has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to serving as a reviewer for journals like MDPI, JAMA, BMJ, The Lancet, and the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, he is an Academic Editor for MDPI’s Antibiotics.

Talk
Phages as a Tool to Challenge Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens: Challenges and Possibilities

Bio
I am trained as chemical engineer and have always had a passion for microbiology. After doing a PhD in Denmark I was post doc at Stanford University where I worked with plasmids expressing antibiotic resistance genes. In 2004 I became a professor at University of Copenhagen and since then, I have worked with the human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus focusing on how it both can be a harmless colonizer of humans as well as an aggressive pathogen. Currently my research has three cornerstones namely development of antibiotic resistance, quorum sensing communication as a target for anti-virulence therapy and phages as potential solutions to the antibiotic resistance crisis.

Talk
Antimicrobial Resistance in Biofilms

Bio
Manuel Simões is an Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Chemical Engineering - Faculty of Engineering – University of Porto and a senior researcher at LEPABE-ALiCE research centre. His main research interests involve the development of microbial control strategies, particularly biofilms, using innovative molecules. Since 2020 he is one of the 1% most cited researchers worldwide.