Meet the Topic Editors

Katarzyna Maria Garbacz, MD, is an Associate Professor at the Medical University of Gdańsk, Poland and she is the head of the Department of Oral Microbiology of the Medical University of Gdańsk. She has published more than 50 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. She has been a project leader funded by the National Science Centre of Poland. Prof. Garbacz is a microbiologist working on applied and fundamental questions in

microbial epidemiology and pathogenesis. Her research interest is in antibiotic resistance, host-pathogen interaction, and therapeutics development for staphylococcal pathogens, mainly Staphylococcus aureus, which causes hospital-acquired infections. Currently, her research is mostly focused on the study of oral pathogens, particularly Staphylococcus spp.

Tomasz Jarzembowski was born in 1968 in Gdansk, Poland. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2000 from the Medical University of Gdańsk. After a specialization in clinical microbiology in 2003, he started studying biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance at the single-cell level. In 2015, he obtained his D.Sc. degree. His later study in cooperation with experts in nephrology and immunology resulted in the designation of the new diagnostic method of UTI,

patented in 2017. He is currently working at the Department of Microbiology, Medical University of Gdańsk (GUMed), Poland. He is a member of the steering committee of the Gdańsk branch of the Polish Society of Microbiologists and a member of ESCMID. He is also a reviewer and a member of the editorial boards of a number of international journals.

Yuping Ran, Professor, Department of Dermatology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, completed the course in Medical Mycology at the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands (2006). He is an International Union of Microbiological Societies fellow, an International Emerging Infectious Diseases fellow, and Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention fellow, in Atlanta, USA. He holds

a diploma in Dermatology from the Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology and a Ph.D. from Juntendo University, Japan. He is the chair of the Sichuan Medical Association Dermatology Committee and was a general secretary of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Dermatology and the Asia Pacific Society for Medical Mycology (2013). He is in charge of the Annual Medical Mycology Course for over 20 years authorized by the National Continued Medical Education Committee of China. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Asia-Pacific Society for Medical Mycology, associate editor of Mycopathologia, vice-chief of the editorial board of the Chinese Journal of Mycology, and a Board Member and Chair of Mycology Group of Chinese Society of Dermatology.

Amidou Samie is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Venda, in South Africa, where he graduated with his Ph.D. in May 2008. He joined the Department of Microbiology the same year and has been giving lectures on topics covering parasitology, immunology, molecular biology and industrial microbiology. He is currently a rated researcher by the National Research Foundation of South Africa in category C2. He has published

widely in the field of infectious diseases and has overseen several MScs and PhDs. His research activities mostly cover topics on infectious diseases from epidemiology to control. His particular interest lies in the study of intestinal protozoan parasites and opportunistic infections among HIV patients as well as the potential impact of childhood diarrhoea on growth and child development. He also conducts research on water-borne diseases and water quality and is involved in the evaluation of point-ofuse water treatment technologies using silver and copper nanoparticles in collaboration with the University of Virginia, USA. He also studies the use of medicinal plants for the control of infectious diseases as well as antimicrobial drug resistance.

Shailendra K. Saxena is a vice dean and professor at King George's Medical University, Lucknow, India. His research interests involve understanding the molecular mechanisms of host defense during human viral infections and developing new predictive, preventive, and therapeutic strategies for them using Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), HIV, and emerging viruses as a model via stem cell and cell culture technologies. His research work has been published

in various high-impact factor journals (Science, PNAS, Nature Medicine) with a high number of citations. He has received a number of awards and honors in India and abroad including various Young Scientist Awards, BBSRC India Partnering Award, and Dr. JC Bose National Award of the Department of Biotechnology, Min. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Prof. Saxena is a fellow of various international societies/academies including the Royal College of Pathologists, United Kingdom; Royal Society of Medicine, London; Royal Society of Biology, United Kingdom; Royal Society of Chemistry, London; and Academy of Translational Medicine Professionals, Austria. He was named a Global Leader in Science by The Scientist. He is also an international opinion leader/expert in vaccination for Japanese encephalitis by IPIC (UK).

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