Talk
keywords: antimicrobial agents; emerging antimicrobial strategies; antimicrobial resistance; biofilms; plant secondary metabolites

Bio
Manuel Simões has a PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering and is currently Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, where he is Pro-Director. He has more than 180 papers published in journals indexed in JCR (h-index = 48), 4 books (1 as author and 3 as editor) and more than 40 chapters in books. His research focusses on biofilms and antimicrobial action and resistance. He has been highlighted as a highly cited author in 2020 and 2021 by Clarivate Analytics. SCOPUS ID: 55608338000; Orcid ID: 0000-0002-3355-4398.

Talk
keywords: mycotoxins; fungal metabolites; antimicrobial; anticancer; antinflammatory; antioxidant

Bio
Dr. Marc Maresca is currently a researcher at Aix-Marseille Université. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Université Paul Cézanne (France, 2003) working on food contaminants named mycotoxins. In 2003, he moved to England to work on enteropathogenic E coli in Brendan Keny’s lab. Then, he moved back to France to continue his work on mycotoxins and their effects on human health. He is currently working at Aix-Marseille Université and his research aims to identify and develop new molecules—natural, synthetic, or bio-inspired—with antimicrobial properties. He focuses on antimicrobial peptides and their mimics as well as on plant derivatives and evaluates, in addition to their antimicrobial effects, additional activities such as anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorigenic effects.

Bio
Prof. Dr. Nick Dixon holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Queensland (1978). He was a Research Fellow with Prof Alan Sargeson (Research School of Chemistry, ANU) before being awarded C.J. Martin and Fulbright Fellowships to study with Nobel laureate Prof Arthur Kornberg at Stanford University, U.S.A. He returned to the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow in 1983, and was appointed as Fellow in Biological Chemistry at the Research School of Chemistry, ANU in 1986. He was subsequently promoted to Senior Fellow and Professor, before leaving ANU in 2006 to take up his present position as Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of Wollongong. He was awarded an Australian Research Council Australian Professorial Fellowship in 2008, and established UOW’s Centre for Medical and Molecular Bioscience in 2010. He is currently an academic leader of Molecular Horizons, a new facility for molecular visualization which opened in 2019.

Bio
Dr. Anthony W. Coleman studied at Huddersfield New College and qualified by competitive examination for admission to the University of Oxford. He was affiliated to Jesus College from 1972-76 obtaining an Honours degree in Chemistry. Publications 260 in Science Citation Index, 150 Invited and Plenary Talks and 22 Patents (3 licenced).

Bio
Jean-Marc SABATIER is a Director of research at the French CNRS, with PhD and HDR degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology. He has headed several academic research teams (CNRS, INSERM and University), as well as a combined academic–industry research laboratory devoted to the engineering of therapeutic peptides (ERT62, Marseilles, France). He was also a Director of Research for several French private companies as well as a Canadian public company. He acts as a consultant for top pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies. Dr. Sabatier works in the field of animal toxins and microbes. He so far contributed to several books in toxicology and virology, and more than 180 scientific articles, 180 communications, and 55 patents in both biology and chemistry. He acts as the Editor-in-Chief of the journals Coronaviruses, Infectious Disorders – Drug Targets, and Venoms and Toxins. He is a member of 66 Editorial Boards of scientific journals, such as Peptides, Molecules, Antibiotics, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He also reviewed articles submitted for publication in >100 international journals and acts as an expert for numerous national and international institutions. He won the ‘Citizen of the Year Award’ from The Nouvel Economiste (1994) for his work on antivirals. He is a member of a dozen scientific societies, such as the ‘American Peptide Society’ (charter member), ‘European Peptide Society’, ‘American Society for Microbiology’, ‘Biochemical Society’ and ‘New-York Academy of Sciences’.

Bio
Dr. Vila is currently the Head of the Department of Clinical Microbiology of the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Full Professor of the School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, and Research Professor in the Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) of Barcelona, Spain. His present main field of interest is in the investigation of the molecular bases of antimicrobial resistance and the development of new drugs against bacteria and molecular tools for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases. Dr. Vila was the Programme Director of the Congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology (ESCMID) from 2009 to 2014 and he has been a member of the ICAAC Scientific Program Committee (USA) for 4 years. He received an Award of the National Plan against Antibiotic Resistance (PRAN) 2018 for the Micro-combat card game, presented by the Barcelona Global Health Institute Foundation (ISGlobal) in the category of better communication and public awareness initiative on the antibiotic resistance. He is also leading the Initiative of Antimicrobial Resistance in ISGlobal. He has published 476 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 44 book chapters and directed 25 doctoral theses (number of citations, 29.536 and H-index of 84, Google Scholar). He has patented three molecules.

Bio
Dr. Xu obtained a B.S. and Ph.D. from South China University of Technology in 2005 and 2011, respectively, and has worked as an Assistant Professor since 2011. Dr. Xu was awarded a Top 100 National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in 2014. His major research interests include microbial biofilm, antimicrobial resistance, polymicrobial interaction, and rapid detection. Dr. Xu is the co-founder and co-president of Asia-Pacific Biofilms (previously known as ChinaBiofilms). Dr. Xu has published more than 100 manuscripts as first or correspondence author, with the total IF > 260, citation > 5,000, H-Index as 42, and I-10 Index as 82. Professor, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. Assistant Visiting Scientist, University of Maryland, College Park, United States. Distinguished Visiting Professor, Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon, Bangkok, Thailand. Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Fundamental Science, Kandy, Sri Lanka.