Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, MD, is the Head of the Diagnostic Virology and Arbovirus Unit at Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, a WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus and Haemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research and National Reference Centre for Tropical Infectious Diseases. His major research interests and current funded projects are as follows: -The German arbovirus surveillance program (2009 - 2019) -Dengue virus and yellow fever virus surveillance in Benin, West Africa: the role of sylvatic and urban transmission cycles for its emergence and circulation (2013 - 2017) -Surveillance and control of arboviruses (dengue and chikungunya) in Rio de Janeiro in preparation for the 2016 Summer Olympics (2013 - 2016) -Vector range, genetic traits and phylogeography of arboviruses in Danube Delta (2014 - 2020)

G. Marshall Lyon, III, MD, MMSc is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Lyon is the Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases at the Emory Transplant Center and Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Lyon was a co-PI at Emory for a large, NIH-sponsored study evaluating the feasibility of kidney transplantation in HIV-infected patients. This study successfully demonstrated that both patient and kidney survival was not statistically different in HIV-positive recipients when compared to HIV-negative recipients. The results of this study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine with Dr. Lyon as a co-author. The Emory Transplant Center continues to expand its services to HIV-infected patients under the guidance of Dr. Lyon and other team members in Transplant Infectious Diseases. Dr. Lyon also serves as mentor and consultant on studies of the pathogenesis of cryptococcal meningitis, a common opportunistic in patients with AIDS.

Dr. Mehta received his M.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 2003. He completed his Internal Medicine internship and residency in the J. Willis Hurst Program at the Emory University School of Medicine. He went on to complete his fellowship in Infectious Diseases, Clinical Investigator track, also at the Emory University School of Medicine. During these training programs, he was awarded the Resident Achievement award, twice, and the J. Willis Hurst Fellow Teaching Award. In July 2009, Dr. Mehta joined the faculty of Emory University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, and as the Assistant Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Section. In 2013, he was made Associate Chief of ID Services for Emory University Hospital, Wesley Wood Hospital, and Emory University Orthopedic and Spine Hospital Dr. Mehta's research and clinical paths have focused on treatment of and protection against infections in immunocompromised hosts, including patients with organ transplants, limb transplants, stem cell transplants, leukemia/lymphoma, cystic fibrosis, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Mehta's research area is broadly within clinical and translational Transplant Infectious Diseases, with a primary research aim to develop predictive immunologic and virologic signatures of risk for viral diseases in patients receiving immunosuppressive agents. He primarily employs polychromatic flow cytometry to phenotypically and functionally describe subsets of the protective immune system. He is currently the co-investigator and primary clinical investigator on the Protective Immunity Project (PIP), a collaborative research projected between the Emory Transplant Center (Christian Larsen, MD, DPhil), the Emory Vaccine Center (Rafi Ahmed, PhD) and the NIH. Dr. Mehta also serves as a co-investigator and clinical investigator of Project 4 (Rafi Ahmed) of the Emory University Influenza Pathogenesis & Immunology Research Center (IPIRC), is one of five national Influenza Centers of Excellence funded by NIH/NIAID. In this project, the group hopes to discern the differences in immunologic memory elicited by different influenza vaccines. Dr. Mehta also serves at the co-investigator and PI of the Viralogic Monitoring Cores of Emory's Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation (CTOT) and Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation in Clinical (CTOT-C) trials, including CTOT-C02, CTOT-10, CTOT-15, and CTOT-16. Recently, Dr. Mehta has replaced Dr, Allan Kirk as the PI of the Emory Transplant Center's Immune Monitoring and Assay Development in Organ Transplant Recipients (IMP) and as the Directory of Emory Transplant Biorepository. Dr. Mehta attends on the Emory University Hospital Transplant Infectious Diseases, Emory University Hospital General Infectious Diseases, and the Emory University Orthopedic and Spine Hospital Infectious Diseases consultation services. As Assistant Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases, Dr. Mehta aids G. Marshall Lyon III, Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases, in developing programatic improvements in care of transplant recipients at the Emory Transplant Center and Emory University Hospital. Dr. Mehta also serves as the Consultant for Occupational Exposure at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Center. In this role, he supervises the care of employees at Yerkes who have incurred a work related exposure or injury, including Herpes-B exposures.

Dr. Stefan Schmiedel is a Consultant in Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease, and Tropical Medicine to the Medical Department I (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Disease, Tropical Medicine) at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg Hamburg/Germany. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia.

Until September 2012, Dr. Marylyn Addo and her family lived in Boston, where the physician and infectologist had successfully researched AIDS viruses and the reactions of our immune system for 15 years. Now she is sitting in a brand new office at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) as the first DZIF professor, and will be working on the topic “Immunity and pathogenesis of newly emerging viral infections” in the coming years. Dr. Addo grew up near Bonn where she also completed her medical studies. After this, the young researcher quickly moved abroad. After spending one year in London, where she acquired a Masters in Applied Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Addo moved to the USA and worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. There she initially researched HIV-1 infections and the cytotoxic T lymphocyte reaction in the human immune system. Dr. Addo created national and international cohorts of HIV controllers, which today comprise over 1500 individuals and form the basis of many research results. Despite all her laboratory work, Marylyn Addo has not lost sight of the patient, especially not of the people in South Africa who have benefited least from the drugs. For this reason, Addo also regularly researches on-site in Durban, South Africa, where she is involved with clinical studies, research and training. She was recently also awarded honorary professorship at the KwaZulu-Natal University. And how will her research continue? “The DZIF professorship offers a lot of scope for new projects. I will continue focusing on viral immunology and vaccine development,” Addo explains. With this she fits perfectly into the group of DZIF scientists dedicated to the topic of “Newly emerging infectious diseases”. One focus will be to develop methods with which new pathogens can be diagnosed quickly and reliably. At the same time, the DZIF researchers work on designing strategies for developing novel drugs and vaccines. The UKE in Hamburg works in close collaboration with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Dominic Wichmann, MD, DTM, is a Senior Physician at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, in the Department of Intensive Care Medicine. He currently holds board certifications and specialisations in internal medicine, intensive care medicine, infectious disease, tropic medicine, and rescue medicine. His research currently centers around new diagnostic tools for parasitic disease (with a special interest in Schistosomiasis) and quality control in intensive care medicine.

Dr. Kreuels studied medicine in Göttingen and Hamburg where he received his medical degree in 2007. He also completed a masters degree in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2011. In 2016 he completed his residenc in internal medicine at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf and currently works as a consultant and lecturer in internal medicine in Blantyre, Malawi. He is involved in several research projects at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

Dr. Ansgar Lohse is the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and is the Chairman of the study group "Research of Infections" of the Academy of Sciences, Hamburg. Dr. Lohse is the Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology and a Member of the Academy of Sciences, Hamburg. He is a Spokesman of the Collaborative Research Center "Liver Inflammation: Infection, Inflammation and consequences."