Assoc Prof Amy Jennison is the Chief Scientist of the Public Health Microbiology laboratory in the Queensland Department of Health, which is the Australian state of Queensland’s reference laboratory responsible for the molecular surveillance of notifiable bacterial pathogens and characterisation of public health related outbreaks. The laboratory is uniquely positioned for responding to public health disease threats as it consists of clinical, high containment, genomic, food and waters teams, who work synergistically for both pathogen surveillance and outbreak responses. A/Prof Jennison has led the molecular team in the application of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to routine molecular surveillance and heads numerous research projects aimed at utilising WGS for improving molecular epidemiological investigation and preventing disease outbreaks of notifiable and emerging pathogens. She has been a found member of the Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (CDGN) and assisted at both the state and national level in the establishment of integrated national genomics surveillance of SARS-COV-2.

Dr Verderosa is a multidisciplinary chemist with expertise in organic chemistry, microbiology, and drug discovery. He obtained his PhD from QUT in 2020 (Chemistry/Microbiology) and is currently the head research chemist in Assoc/Prof Mark Blaskovich’s lab, where he coordinates a team dedicated to developing new drugs to combat resistant infections

Andrew Vallely is a clinical epidemiologist with the Public Health Interventions Research Group at the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW. Andrew has more than 25 years experience in international public health, HIV/STI and infectious disease interventions research. He has designed and led multi-disciplinary research teams in Australia, Kenya, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Tanzania, United Kingdom and Vanuatu.