The Plasticity of Helicobacter pylori during Human Colonization
Martin J. BLASER, USA
Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 09:00-09:45
Martin J. Blaser, M.D. is recognized as a worldwide authority on infectious diseases and the role of indigenous microbial flora in the gastrointestinal tract. His work has included analyses of the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and ecology of these infections employing clinical, molecular, genetic, and mathematical approaches. He has published more than 350 original articles as well as having edited several books in this field. He currently serves as the Frederick H. King Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and as Professor of Microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine.

Molecular Biology of Prion Disease
Charles WEISSMANN, United Kingdom
Tuesday, March 12, 2002, 09:45-10:30
Charles Weissmann, M.D., Ph.D. was Professor and Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology of the University of Zurich from 1967 until his retirement in 1999. He is now Senior Research Scientist at the MRC Prion Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine. He is a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Society, and the Order Pour le Merite as well as of other learned societies. He has received honorary degrees from many Universities and numerous awards. His main fields of interest have been viral RNA replication; reverse genetics as applied to RNA replication, transcription, and splicing; molecular biology of interferon; and, in the past 15 years, prion diseases. He was a founding member of one of the first biotechnology companies, Biogen, and a member of the Supervisory Board of Hoffmann-LaRoche.

Rotavirus: From Bench to Vaccine
Ruth BISHOP, Australia
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 09:00-09:45
Ruth Bishop is a Research Fellow of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and a Professorial Fellow of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne, Australia. She led the team that discovered rotavirus in 1973 in Melbourne children admitted to hospital with acute gastroenteritis. She has served the World Health Organization (WHO) on a variety of committees concerned with many issues related to the development of rotavirus vaccines. She has published widely in scientific journals, mainly in the area of epidemiology and immunology of rotavirus infection.

Dynamics of HIV Epidemics
Michel CARAEL, Switzerland
Wednesday, March 13, 2002, 09:45-10:30
Professor Michel Carael is an anthropologist, currently Chief of Evaluation at UNAIDS, Geneva. He is Professor of Sociology of health at the Free University of Brussels. For the last 15 years, he has worked in the field of HIV/AIDS in WHO and UNAIDS. He has published more than one hundred articles on the epidemiology and the determinants of HIV epidemics.

Challenges of Multi Drug-Resistant Malaria
Nicholas J. WHITE, Thailand
Thursday, March 14, 2002, 09:00-09:45
Nicholas J. White is Chairman of the Wellcome Trust's Oxford University-based South East Asian Research Units located in the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Bangkok and the Centre for Tropical Diseases, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He has lived and worked in Thailand for over 20 years and has published over 400 papers on a variety of infectious diseases topics including malaria, melioidosis, typhoid, and arboviral infections. He is Professor of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol and Oxford Universities.

Infectious Diseases in the 21st Century: Old Challenges and New Opportunities
Francis A. WALDVOGEL, Switzerland
Thursday, March 14, 2002, 09:45-10:30
Francis A. Waldvogel is presently Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Geneva (Switzerland). As Chairman he simultaneously heads the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology of Lausanne and Zurich. He has a longstanding career in infectious diseases, particularly as an internationally recognized investigator in the field of S. aureus infections and pathogenesis of prostethic infections. He has been an active promoter of the understanding and control of infectious diseases at an international level. He was one of the founders of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, its first President, and is a member of its Executive Committee until 2002. Numerous scientific articles, chapters, and books attest to his various interests in the understanding, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases.