Track Committees
Track A: Basic science
Lead: Marina Caskey
The Rockefeller University, USA
Marina Caskey is Professor of Clinical Investigation at The Rockefeller University. Her work focuses on the clinical evaluation and development of novel immunotherapeutic strategies against infectious diseases, including HIV-1 and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2. Marina has led a series of clinical trials on anti-HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to evaluate their potential role as part of long-term HIV-1 remission strategies. Her team’s studies aim to evaluate the direct antiviral activity of these promising new immunotherapeutic investigational products, as well as their potential effects on the HIV-1 reservoir and on host immune responses. She currently serves as Chair of the Medical Staff Executive of the Rockefeller University Hospital and Chair of the ACTG Reservoirs Remission and Cure Transformative Science Group. Marina co-lead’s the REACH Martin Delaney Collaboratory and she is an Associate Director of the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY CFAR (ERC-CFAR).
Afam Okoye
Oregon Health & Science University, USA
Afam Okoye is an Associate Professor at the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute, the Division of Pathobiology and Immunology at the Oregon National Primate Research Center and the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University. He received a BSc in microbiology from the University of Nigeria, an MSc in biotechnology from Nottingham Trent University and his PhD from the University of Glasgow. Afam is a trained immunologist with extensive experience in the investigation of nonhuman primate models of HIV/SIV pathogenesis and immunity. His current research involves understanding the barriers to HIV eradication and developing therapeutic interventions aimed at achieving durable remission from HIV replication after ART withdrawal.
Anthony (Tony) Kelleher
University of New South Wales, Australia
Anthony Kelleher, a clinician scientist, is Director of the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, Head of its Immunovirology and Pathogenesis Program, and Principal of the Infection, Immunology and Inflammation Theme at UNSW Medicine and Triple-I clinical academic group of the Advanced Health Research and Translation Centre SPHERE. As a clinical academic at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Anthony is responsible for clinical care of people with HIV and autoimmune diseases, as well as oversight of the NSW State HIV Reference Laboratory. He is exploring novel gene therapy approachesfor the control of the HIV reservoir. He has led the development of fine needle biopsies of lymph nodes for the assessment of vaccine responses and elucidation of the viral reservoir. In the past three years, he has studied the immune response to COVID-19, its impact on long COVID, its development in the context of an evolving virus, and lessons for passive immunotherapies, vaccine development and siRNA design.
Gabriela Turk
Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida, Argentina
Gabriela Turk is a basic researcher specialized in virology working at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida (INBIRS) in Buenos Aires. Gabriela obtained her PhD at the University of Buenos Aires in 2008 and, since then, has led a research group focused on studying aspects of HIV immunity and immune pathogenesis and its correlates with virus control and persistence. Currently, she holds an independent researcher position sponsored by the Argentinean National Research Council and a teaching position at the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires.
Kiera Clayton
University of Massachusetts, USA
Kiera Clayton, an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, focuses on the interaction of HIV-infected macrophages with cytolytic cells of the immune system). In addition to studying the mechanisms of HIV-infected macrophage resistance to killing, Kiera has established various other collaborations to study cytolytic cell interactions with macrophages that are infected with other pathogens, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Ebola virus and human cytomegalovirus. By studying macrophages as “hideouts” for multiple pathogens, the goal is to uncover common mechanisms of resistance to killing, which can then be targeted for the development of therapies.
Michaela Müller-Trutwin
Pasteur Institute, France
Michaela Müller-Trutwin is Professor and Head of the HIV, Inflammation and Persistence Unit at Institut Pasteur. She studied at the University of Bonn, obtained her PhD from Paris University in the Barré-Sinoussi lab, and has worked in West and central Africa. She serves as ANRS Coordinator for HIV Basic Science. Her studies have contributed to a better understanding of SIV infection in natural hosts and the role of inflammation in HIV-induced disease. Her work currently focuses on innate immune responses with the ultimate goal to provide novel insights into mechanisms of viral reservoir control and tissue damage protection, contributing to the development of concepts for HIV remission.
Mirko Paiardini
Emory University, USA
Mirko Paiardini is Professor at the School of Medicine and the National Primate Research Center of Emory University, Atlanta. His research focuses on understanding and targeting inflammation and viral persistence during ARV-treated HIV, using the nonhuman primate model of SIV infection. He serves as Director of the “Next Generation Therapeutics” Scientific Working Group at the Emory Center for AIDS Research and as principal investigator for the Enterprise for Research and Advocacy to Stop and Eradicate (ERASE) HIV, Martin Delaney Collaboratory for HIV Cure Research.
Track B: Clinical science
Lead: James McMahon
Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Australia
James McMahon is an infectious diseases (ID) clinician-researcher, Head of Infectious Diseases Clinical Research at the Alfred Hospital and an ID physician at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. His research interests are in clinical trials focused on HIV cure, HIV treatment, the cascade of HIV care and COVID-19. He is Vice President of the Australian Society of HIV Medicine (ASHM) and chairs the Antiretroviral Guidelines Committee for ASHM. He also sits on the Treatment & Chemoprophylaxis Panel for the Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce.
Anchalee Avihingsanon
HIV Netherlands, Thailand
Anchalee Avihingsanon has more than 15 years of experience in the field of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis. Her peers have described her as “one of the Asia-Pacific region’s high-achieving female researchers with an immense amount of dedication and commitment”. Currently, she leads the clinical research programme at the HIV Netherlands Australia Thailand (NAT) Research Collaboration Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. She has served on local advisory and scientific committees for the development of policies involving HIV, hepatitis C/B, tuberculosis and tuberculosis preventive therapy. Anchalee has published more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and co-investigated on more than 100 research grants and studies.
Gail Matthews
University of New South Wales, Australia
Gail Matthews is Head of the Therapeutic Vaccine and Research Program (TVRP) at the Kirby Institute, UNSW, as well as Head of Infectious Diseases at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. She has a strong background in HIV, viral hepatitis and strategic therapeutic clinical trials. As Head of TVRP, she leads several international clinical trials in HIV and COVID-19, as well as national projects in HCV and HBV. She works clinically as a specialist in HIV, infectious diseases and viral hepatitis at St Vincent’s Hospital and is a National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Fellow.
Laura Waters
The Mortimer Market Centre, United Kingdom
Laura Waters is a genitourinary and HIV consultant and HIV lead at The Mortimer Market Centre, London. She is Chair of the British HIV Association (BHIVA), chairs the BHIVA treatment guidelines and serves on the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) Board. Previously, Laura was the Secretary of BHIVA and Chair of its conferences sub-committee, Chair of the BASHH HIV Special Interest Group, and co-author of several national guidelines. Laura represents BHIVA on the HIV Clinical Reference Group, advising National Health Service England on HIV treatment and care. She has published widely, writes a regular column for Boyz magazine, and is a Terrence Higgins Trust trustee. She teaches regularly at local, regional and national levels, including on HIV and sexual health to medical students, and in HIV courses at University College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Rosie Mngqibisa
Enhancing Care Foundation, South Africa
Rosie Mngqibisa is a senior clinician, clinical trials manager, public health professional and Director of the Enhancing Care Foundation, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported NGO involved in research and development in infectious diseases and other health conditions. Rosie has extensive experience in HIV and TB management and research, capacity development and health systems strengthening. Her strong interests are in studies focusing on optimizing care of women and adolescents. Her special interests include drug interactions between ART and TB medication and ART/TB therapeutics and contraceptives and their impact on treatment outcomes. She has served on scientific committees that provide direction to the NIH-funded HIV network on improved outcomes and better management of HIV and is Chair of the Women’s Health Collaborative Science Group (a scientific committee of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group). She works as an investigator, principal investigator and site lead of numerous HIV, TB and COVID studies and clinical trials focusing on women’s health issues.
Roy Gulick
Weill Cornell Medicine, USA
Roy Gulick is Rochelle Belfer Professor in Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Roy’s research interests include designing, conducting and analysing clinical trials to refine antiretroviral therapy strategies for HIV treatment and prevention and assessing antiretroviral agents with new mechanisms of action. He currently serves as principal investigator of the Cornell-New Jersey HIV Clinical Trials Unit of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the HIV Prevention Trials Network, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He also serves as the Co-Chair of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Clinical Practices for Treatment of HIV Infection and Co-Chair of the U.S. NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel.
Wong Chen Seong
National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore
Wong Chen Seong is a consultant physician with the Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, where he is the Head of the Clinical HIV Programme and the Deputy Director of the National HIV Programme. His clinical and research interests are in HIV medicine, including HIV treatment and prevention, and the socio-behavioural determinants of HIV and other STIs. He has published in the fields of clinical HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis and socio-behavioural and implementation science as it applies to HIV. He is actively involved in medical education and training. He is the Programme Director for the National Healthcare Group Infectious Diseases Residency Programme, in addition to being Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
Track C: Epidemiology and prevention science
Lead: Sinead Delany-Moretlwe
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, MBBCh, PhD, DTM&H, is a Research Professor and Director: Research at the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her research interests span the intersections between sexual and reproductive health and infectious diseases, particularly in adolescent girls and young women. She has worked on several Phase III trials of new HIV prevention technologies, including oral, topical and, most recently, injectable PrEP. She has also led several studies to optimize oral PrEP use in adolescent girls and young women, as well as studies to evaluate HPV screening and vaccination approaches for populations living with HIV. She is currently an investigator on two studies evaluating new treatments and vaccines for gonorrhoea and is involved in several COVID-19 prevention trials. She is an advisor to the South African Department of Health PrEP technical working group and serves on several WHO and other advisory committees.
Harriet Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha
Mailman School of Public Health at International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program , Eswatini
Harriet Nuwagaba-Biribonwoha is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, based at ICAP in Eswatini. A medical doctor with a PhD in epidemiology earned as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, she has two decades of multi-country experience in clinical care, HIV programmes and research implementation. As Research Director at ICAP Eswatini, she oversees a portfolio of clinical research projects, epidemiology and research health systems strengthening, and surveillance. She is the Eswatini Investigator of Record for HIV Prevention Trials Network 084 on injectable cabotegravir. She is the principal investigator for the CDC/PEPFAR cooperative agreements to strengthen epidemiological and research capacity in Eswatini and led the second and the third Eswatini HIV incidence measurement surveys and the 2022 Eswatini Violence Against Children Survey. Previously, Harriet coordinated ICAP research and programme evaluations in eight countries in East and southern Africa, coordinated clinical trials for the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit in the UK, and practiced as a medical doctor and researcher in Uganda.
Ines Dourado
Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Ines Dourado is Professor of Epidemiology at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. She holds a master’s in public health from the University of Massachusetts and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her main research area is HIV epidemiology and prevention. She has coordinated several multicity research projects in Brazil among key populations, including men who have sex with men, trans women and female sex workers. Currently, Ines is the Protocol Chair and Salvador site PI for the Unitaid-funded PrEP1519, a demonstration cohort study on PrEP among adolescent men who have sex with men and trans women in three Brazilian cities: Salvador, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. She is the author and co-author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, documenting her commitment to production and dissemination of knowledge, as well as contributing to improving the health and quality of life of people vulnerable to HIV acquisition.
Iskandar Azwa
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Iskandar Azwa is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, the current Honorary Secretary of the Malaysian AIDS Council, and the Clinical Lead for the HIV service in the Infectious Diseases Unit at the University of Malaya. His research interests include HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation among key populations, evaluation of newer HIV treatment strategies and HIV resistance. He is the site principal investigator for several key international HIV clinical trials, including START, D2EFT and the Treat Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD). Iskandar has been a driving force in advancing PrEP research in Malaysia and increasing community access to HIV prevention biomedical interventions and implementation of de-medicalized models of service delivery of HIV care and prevention.
Kenneth K Mugwanya
University of Washington, USA
Kenneth K Mugwanya is a physician-epidemiologist and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. He also serves as the Director for mentoring and career development at the UW International Clinical Research Center. He conducts interdisciplinary clinical, pharmacologic and implementation science studies at the intersection of HIV prevention and reproductive health, with major focus on epidemiologic and biologic risk factors for HIV transmission and antiretroviral-based pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for preventing HIV in people living in Africa. His current work includes a programmatic cluster randomized trial aiming to catalyse integration of PrEP delivery in public family planning clinics in Kenya and a pharmacologic protocol to define, for the first time, tenofovir-diphosphate concentrations in DBS and PBMCs associated with HIV protection in cisgender women.
M Kate Grabowski
Johns Hopkins University, USA
M Kate Grabowski is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Pathology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. She is also a senior collaborating scientist with the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda.
Rebecca Guy
The Kirby Institute, Australia
Rebecca Guy is the Theme Director of Public Health and a Professor in Epidemiology at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on reducing the impact of HIV, sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and other infectious diseases in vulnerable populations. This includes implementation and evaluation of point-of-care testing and prevention initiatives to reduce the transmission of HIV and STIs (including HPV) in a range of settings. Her research also focuses on optimizing antibiotic treatment of STIs and using diagnostics to improve antibiotic stewardship.
Track D: Social and behavioural sciences
Lead: Carlos F Cáceres
Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Peru
Carlos Cáceres is Professor of Public Health at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima. He has an MD degree from UPCH and an MPH and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality, AIDS and Society at UPCH and was its Director until he was appointed Vice-President for Research at UPCH in 2021. For more than 20 years, he has led studies on HIV and sexual health with populations of men who have sex with men, trans women and people living with HIV, as well as the Peru components of the C-POL Trial and ImPrEP. Carlos has also focused on social drivers, structural interventions and human rights and served as a consultant to UN bodies. He is the founder and Past President of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society and a member of the IAS Governing Council (2010-14), WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (2012-16) and Global Fund Technical Review Panel (2014-18). Carlos has over 200 peer-reviewed publications.
Brian J Hall
New York University Shanghai, China
Brian J Hall is a Professor of Global Public Health and the Inaugural Director of the Center for Global Health Equity at New York University Shanghai, Associated Full Professor at the School of Global Public Health at New York University, and an Associate Faculty Member in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Brian has served as a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and UNAIDS, and collaborated with international NGOs to improve the health of diverse populations. His work is largely focused on the cultural adaptation and implementation of digital health intervention programmes and addressing the impact of adversity on health and well-being. Brian was the inaugural Global Mental Health Fellow of WHO. His dedication to global health mentoring was recognized by a Faculty Excellence in Advising Award from the Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Global Health.
Deevia Bhana
University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
Deevia Bhana is the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Gender and Childhood Sexuality. She is known for her international fields of study crossing the sociology of childhood and youth studies, with focus on gender and sexuality across the young life course. Her latest co-edited books include Sex and Sexualities, Sexual Health and Justice: Perspectives from Southern Africa (2023, Routledge) and Gender, sexuality and violence in South African educational spaces with S Singh and T Msibi (2021, Palgrave Macmillan). Her latest authored book is Girls Negotiating Porn in South Africa (2023, Routledge). As Research Chair, Deevia is actively involved in supervising a large cohort of students and has a significant impact on building the research profile of the next generation of scholars in the field of gender, childhood sexualities and schooling. She co-chairs RINGS, an international gender association, and is a Chief Editor of Children and Society and Pedagogy, Culture and Society.
Hamid Vega
Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico
Hamid Vega is a psychiatrist who holds a PhD in public mental health. Hamid is a researcher at the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico City, with interests in mental health, HIV prevention and implementation science in the LGBTIQ+ community.
Jennifer Power
La Trobe University, Australia
Jennifer Power is an Associate Professor and Principal Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University. Her research focuses on sexuality, sexual health and HIV. She is the lead investigator on the Australian Secondary Students and Sexual Health Survey and the HIV Futures study and is involved in other studies relating to LGBTQA+ well-being, young people and sexual health.
Judith Auerbach
University of California, San Francisco, USA
Judith Auerbach is Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and an independent science and policy consultant. She previously served in leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, amfAR and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Judy received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught, presented and published widely in the areas of social factors that influence HIV epidemics and related health inequalities, attention to women in the HIV and AIDS response, and community-engaged research. She has served on numerous professional and advisory groups, including the Scientific Advisory Board of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Governing Council of the IAS and the Advisory Group of the Women’s Research Initiative on HIV/AIDS. Judy has received numerous awards, and in 2022, was elected as a lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Marie Préau
Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
Marie Préau is Professor of Health Social Psychology at Lumière Lyon 2 University and Assistant Director of the National French Research Health Unit 1296 (INSERM). For 20 years, she has conducted research into psychosocial challenges of prevention and follow up of people in the context of HIV. Marie has developed several community-based research projects and works on methodological challenges to community-based research.
Track E: Implementation science, economics, systems and synergies
Lead: Sunil Solomon
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Sunil Suhas Solomon, MBBS, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA. He completed his medical training in India and received a Master’s in Public Health and a doctorate in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Sunil has been elected into the Phi Beta Kappa and the Delta Omega honours societies and has received a Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health. His research is primarily focused on the epidemiology, clinical management and access to prevention and treatment services for HIV, viral hepatitis and other infectious diseases, especially among key populations globally.
Abhina Aher
PATH, India
Abhina Aher is an Indian trans activist contributing towards LGBTI rights across the globe. She is a TEDx speaker and works as a technical expert on key populations with PATH in India. Abhina has received a Human Rights Award and the Rex Fellowship award and is recognized as a community champion. She is an advocate with the Global Fund Advocacy Network and a TB survivor. She started the first trans-led dancing group for sexuality and gender advocacy in private sector engagements. Abhina is currently a board member of the IPPF, leading on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues across the globe, and she started the first collaborative social development efforts between trans men and trans women in India through the TWEET Foundation. Previously, she was the Chair of the Asia-Pacific Transgender Network and Vice Chair of the Global Network of Trans Women and HIV.
Anna Grimsrud
International AIDS Society, South Africa
Anna Grimsrud is a Senior Technical Advisor at the IAS. She holds an MPH and PhD from the University of Cape Town (UCT). Previously, she worked at the Treatment Action Campaign, in implementation science and epidemiology at UCT, and with the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and Médecins Sans Frontières. Anna is a Deputy Editor at the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS) and serves on several national, regional and global technical working groups.
Jason Ong
Monash University, Australia
Jason Ong is a sexual health physician based at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and an academic with joint appointments at Monash University, University of Melbourne, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on improving access to comprehensive sexual health services for all who need them.
Neil Martinson
Perinatal HIV Research Unit, South Africa
Neil Martinson graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand as a physician and has over 25 years of managerial and research experience in South Africa in HIV and TB. His research has focused on: preventing TB and measuring its often-fatal interactions with HIV; viral drug resistanceand case finding for TB in pregnant people living with HIV and household contacts of people with TB. Neil has undertaken multiple studies of household contact tracing and published several studies assessing the value of active case finding using different methods of diagnosis. He has experience in design and implementation of both individually and cluster randomized trials. While continuing to conduct research in Soweto, he has established a large research platform in Matlosana, North West Province. His current focus is on measuring yield and reductions in mortality, morbidity and transmission of TB that can be achieved by earlier diagnosis of TB, and severe illness in people living with HIV despite being virally suppressed.
Ruanne V Barnabas
University of Washington, USA
Ruanne V Barnabas, a South African physician-epidemiologist, is a Professor in Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington and an affiliate at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her research focuses on interventions for HIV and STI treatment and prevention and COVID-19 prevention. She is interested in novel approaches that increase access to services and has led clinical trials with companion health economic modelling to assess the potential impact of interventions, for example, the Delivery Optimization for Antiretroviral therapy (DO ART) study, which evaluates the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of decentralized, community-based ART initiation compared with clinic-based care. She is the Protocol Chair of the KEN SHE study to assess the impact of single-dose HPV vaccination in Kenya. The ultimate aim of her work is to identify effective and scaleable HIV, HPV and infectious disease treatment and prevention strategies to increase access across diverse communities and promote equity in health.
Viet (Mason) Trinh
Lighthouse Social Enterprise, Vietnam
Viet (Mason) Trinh is a rising researcher and passionate advocate for Vietnamese young key populations and sexual and mental health of LGBTIQ+ young people. Currently, he serves as the Health Program Coordinator of Lighthouse Social Enterprise. His work adopts a person-centred approach and encompasses community engagement and outreach, intervention design and delivery, and health policy lobbying. Viet and his team partner with the CDC, the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control – Ministry of Health to maximize access of vulnerable populations to HIV prevention and treatment while meeting their other health needs (such as mental health and physical health compromised due to drug-enhanced sex). His research is scientific and community based, investigating topics pertinent to young key populations and health of LGBTIQ+ young people, such as internalized stigma, determinants of sexual behaviours and acceptability of interventions.