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Invited speakers
- Invited speakers
Nicole Carnt, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
Nicole Carnt is a Scientia Associate Professor and Deputy Director of Research at School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW, Sydney. Acanthamoeba keratitis is infection of the clear front window of the eye (cornea), caused by FLA Acanthamoeba. Over 90% of cases occur in contact lens wearers with the primary preventable risk factor being water mixing with contact lenses. Despite this, up to 40% of contact lens wearers shower and swim in lenses, placing their vision at risk. Because Acanthamoeba keratitis is rare and shares a similar phenotype to Herpes Simplex keratitis, around 50% of cases are misdiagnosed and receive suboptimal treatment for an extended period. Furthermore, as Acanthamoeba encysts in unfavourable conditions and most treatments are not cytocidal, the infection is difficult to eradicate, taking more than 12 months in many cases, and with multiple drug side effects.
Katrina Velle, University of Massachusetts, USA
Stefan Geisen, University of Wageningen, Netherlands
Stefan Geisen is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Laboratory of Nematology at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His work focuses on soil biodiversity with a particular focus on protists and nematodes as major predators of the microbiome. But his main passion and expertise within this broad organism assembly are amoebae: he currently uses experiments to test ecological hypotheses such as how an increase in diversity (of soil amoebae) impacts soil functions including plant growth. This focus originated in his PhD, where he did cumulative studies including taxonomy, phylogeny and ecology of soil amoebae. Only later he expanded to other protists and eventually nematodes, as his vision is to connect different organism groups and research interests to get a better understanding of soils and the environment in general.
Thierry Soldati, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Thierry Soldati leads a research group focused on Cell-autonomous Mechanisms of Sensing and Defense against Mycobacteria Infection:
The major aim of the Soldati group is to understand the evolutionary conserved cellular and molecular mechanisms of cell-autonomous immunity against pathogenic bacteria. To this end they use the genetically and biochemically tractable social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as a model host organism. The amoeba serves as a powerful and versatile host for Mycobacterium marinum, a close cousin of M. tuberculosis. It allows to investigate host-pathogen relationships, membrane damage sensing and repair, restriction of intracellular infection by xenophagy, the interface with acquisition and transport of lipids and the screen for anti-infective compounds. This model infection system is ethically un-concerning and allows significant progress to further the 3Rs cause.