Professor Gao currently serves as Chief Scientist of the Avian Immunosuppressive Diseases Innovation Team at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Chief Scientist of the National Key R&D Program during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period; Director of the WOAH Reference Laboratory for Infectious Bursal Disease; and Position Expert of the National Broiler Industry Technology System. His research mainly focuses on pathogen infection, pathogenesis, immunosuppressive mechanisms and prevention & control technologies of avian viral immunosuppressive diseases including infectious bursal disease and avian leukosis. He has been selected as a Leading Talent under the National Special Support Program and an Innovative Leading Talent of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has obtained 4 national new veterinary drug registration certificates, 8 provincial and ministerial-level science and technology awards, and 18 national invention patents.

Professor Ruichao Li received his doctoral degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is currently a Professor and PhD Supervisor at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou University, China. He is the recipient of the Jiangsu Outstanding Youth Fund, Director of the Department of Basic Veterinary Medicine, and Principal Investigator (PI) at the Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Major Animal Epidemics and Zoonoses. His research focuses on veterinary pharmacology and bioinformatics, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms underlying antimicrobial resistance in animal pathogens and the development of novel sequencing technologies. He has published over 200 SCI-indexed papers in leading journals, including Lancet Microbe, Nature Communications, The ISME Journal, Genome Medicine, Drug Resistance Updates, Journal of Infection, Engineering, GigaScience, mSystems, and Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and has received more than 6,000 citations. He has an H-index of 41 and has been selected for the Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List for three consecutive years. Professor Li was selected for the High-level Overseas Returnee Talent Support Program of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China and the Jiangsu 333 High Talent Program. He has led 12 research projects, including four grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), comprising General Program and International Cooperation projects.

Dr. Kai Liu is an Associate Professor at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong. He leads a team focused on applying AI to smart livestock farming to improve animal health and welfare. He has published 51 papers in top-tier journals (h-index: 25) and serves as an Associate Editor for Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Dr. Liu is a working group member and Scientific Advisor for the EAAP AI4Animals conferences, and holds committee roles in three divisions of the China Animal Agriculture Association. Internationally, he serves as a grant reviewer for major funding agencies, including the SNSF, ANR, FWF, and the U.S.-Israel BARD Fund.

Dr. Shangtong Li is a ZJU 100-Talents Program Research Professor at Zhejiang University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Huazhong Agricultural University and his PhD from Tsinghua University / National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing. His research primarily focuses on the mechanisms of animal aging, multi-omics dissection of virus-host interactions, and the development of single-cell multi-omics technologies. He has published research articles as the first or corresponding (including co-corresponding) author in prestigious journals such as Aging Cell, Advanced Science, and Nature Plants.

Luca Guardabassi is professor with special duties (PMSO) and leader of the research group One Health Antimicrobial Resistance. He is an internationally recognized One Health microbiologist specialized in AMR and antimicrobial therapy with over 180 publications in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 57 on Google Scholar, last accessed in March 2021). LG graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pisa in Italy in 1994, and obtained his PhD in Microbiology from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark in 2000. Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Public Health (ECVPH) since 2005 and the European College of Veterinary Microbiology (ECVM) since 2020. For over 20 years, his research has focused on evolution and epidemiology of multidrug-resistant bacteria of clinical relevance in human and veterinary medicine, including but not limited to VRE, MRSA, MRSP and ESBL-producing Enterobacteriales. Among the highlights, he contributed to a better understanding of the environmental origins of some of the most feared AMR determinants in human medicine, namely glycopeptide resistance operons in Gram-positive bacteria and carbapenemase-encoding genes in Gram-negative bacteria. In recent years, his research has shifted focus towards bacterial response to antimicrobials, antimicrobial drug target discovery, and metagenomics of the intestinal and respiratory tract in domestic animals. He is a pioneer of antimicrobial stewarship in veterinary medicine and participated in numerous national and international working groups for developing guidelines for rational antimicrobial use in animals. As part of his honorary office, he is a member of the executive committee in ESCMID Study Group for Veterinary Microbiology (ESGVM) since 2015 and chairs the Therapeutic Guidelines Group of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) since 2018.

Professor Jinyan Gu is a Professor and a PhD Supervisor at the Institute of New Rural Development (Agricultural Technology Extension Center) & Agricultural Experimental Station, Zhejiang University. She is a recipient of the Excellent Young Scientists Fund of NSFC. Her research interests cover veterinary virology, mainly porcine enteric coronaviruses, porcine circovirus, pseudorabies virus and avian influenza virus, focusing on pathogen characterization and virus-host interactions. She has published corresponding-author papers in mBio, iScience, and the Journal of Virology, and was the 6th recipient of the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award (2020). Professor Gu is the Director of the Infectious Diseases Branch and Avian Diseases Branch of the Chinese Society of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine; a member of the youth subcommittees of the Animal Infectious Diseases Branch and the Committee on Microbial Biosafety, Chinese Society for Microbiology; and a member of the Animal Immunology Committee, Zhejiang Immunology Society.

Rita Cabrita is Associate Professor with Aggregation at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS), University of Porto, Portugal. She graduated in Zootechnical Engineering in 1997 and obtained a Master’s degree in Animal Production in 2000 from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. In 2004, she obtained her PhD in Veterinary Sciences from ICBAS, University of Porto. She is a permanent member of the Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (LAQV), within the Network of Chemistry and Technology (REQUIMTE). She is a member of the Editorial Boards of Veterinary Sciences (MDPI) and Agriculture (MDPI). Her research focuses on animal nutrition and feeding, with particular interest in alternative feed resources and innovative feeding strategies for livestock and companion animals, aiming to improve sustainability, reduce environmental impact, and promote animal health and the quality of animal products.

Xiaohui Zhou is a Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He earned his PhD in Microbiology from Washington State University in 2008. Previously, he served as Tenured Professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Connecticut, USA, and Principal Investigator at its Vaccine Research Center. He is a recipient of the National High Level Talent Program and a Changjiang Scholar. He has published over 80 peer reviewed papers, including more than 30 corresponding author articles in top tier international journals such as PNAS, EMBO J, Nature Communications, Biomaterials, and PLoS Pathogens. He has led multiple NIH R01 grants and United States Department of Agriculture projects, with total research funding exceeding USD 3 million, and holds several national and international patents. He currently serves as Editor in Chief of Microbiological Research, a well recognized journal in microbiology. He is a long standing ad hoc reviewer for numerous leading international journals, including EMBO J, eLife, mBio, and Biomaterials.