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Keynote Speakers

 

 

 

Prof. Yifat Merbl

Prof. Yifat Merbl is a professor at the Systems Immunology Department at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She earned her PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard Medical School. Her research bridges biochemistry, immunology, and systems biology to uncover regulatory mechanisms of the epiproteome, focusing on posttranslational modifications and protein degradation in cancer and immunity. Her lab integrates basic and translational science to reveal molecular mechanisms and translate discoveries into diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities. A recipient of numerous awards including the Rappaport Prize (2024), CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Award (2024), Dr. Merbl is also a biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of two companies based on her lab’s proprietary technologies.

 

 

 

Prof. Jose Vazquez-Boland

Prof. Jose Vazquez-Boland holds a veterinary degree and a PhD in Microbiology (Madrid,1990). Following postdoctoral studies at the Institut Pasteur of Paris, he became a Titular Professor at Complutense University of Madrid (1993), where he established one of Spain’s first microbial pathogenesis research units. He later held Chairs in Microbiology at the Universities of León (Spain) and Bristol (UK). Since 2007, he has been Chair of Infectious Diseases at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests lie in the virulence and adaptive mechanisms of zoonotic facultative pathogens with a focus on Listeria and Rhodococcus equi. His contributions include the discovery and characterization of several key listerial virulence determinants and pioneering Listeria and R. equi genomics research. José describes himself as an “all-terrain” microbiologist, equally at ease exploring molecular mechanisms at atomic resolution or addressing issues in bacterial taxonomy and nomenclature. In September 2025, he became the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of ASM Animal Microbiology after having previously served as editor of mBio (2016–2025). In 2018 he was elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Prof. Gilbert Greub

Prof. Gilbert Greub is the current director of the Institute of Microbiology of the University Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland). He is also Chef de Service and head of medical microbiology at the University Hospital of Lausanne. His activities mainly include research, teaching, & diagnosticsas a microbiologist, as well as patient care as an infectious diseases specialist. His research is mainly focusing on chlamydia and related strict intracellular bacteria. Among others, his group succesfully studied the division of these bacteria as well as chlamydia toxins. He is highly interested in genomics and metagenomics, especially on annotation of virulence factors, taxogenomics and microbiota. Regarding clinical aspects, his research focus on infections due to intracellular bacteria,.  Active in lay  communication, he recently created and edited two games called krobs (www.krobs.ch) and mykrobs (www.mykrobs.ch). He is also the current chair person of the ESCMID study group on mycoplasma and chlamydia (ESGMAC).