INVITED SPEAKERS
International Keynote Speakers
Chantal Abergel has been heading the Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory in Marseille, France since 2018. She received her education at the Aix-Marseille University (France) where she completed a PhD (1990) in material science, studying the impact of microgravity on protein crystallization. She then became a research fellow in structural biology at the National Institute of Health. In 1995 she co-founded with Jean-Michel Claverie the first French laboratory combining bioinformatics with experimental research. The discovery of the first giant virus, mimivirus, in 2004 marked a turning point in her scientific career. She is now studying giant viruses’ physiology, evolution, and their ecological role in the environment.
Dr. Chantal Abergel
Director, Information Génomique et Structurale, Research Director CNRS, France
Heiner Wedemeyer is Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School (MHH) since April 2020. He received his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1996 and subsequently started his training in Internal Medicine at Hannover Medical School in Germany. Afterwards he was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health, bethesda, USA. He completed his training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at MHH. Heiner Wedemeyer is member of several scientific organizations and was Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver from 2009 to 2011. He is spokesperson of the EU-funded “D-SOLVE” consortium and is President of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS) since January 2023.
Prof. Dr. med. Heiner Wedemeyer
Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany
Plenary Speaker
Yonatan Ganor received his PhD degree in neuroimmunology from the Weizmann institute (Rehovot, Israel) in 2006, and completed his postdoctoral training on mucosal HIV-1 transmission and reservoirs at the Cochin Institute (Paris, France) in 2013. He then created an original research theme in neuroimmunovirology, permitting his recruitment as Research Associate by the French CNRS in 2013. He is group leader since 2017, Senior Research Director since 2022, and future laboratory co-director at the Cochin Institute in Paris from 2025. His early studies pioneered the use of human tissues derived from the male genitals and made significant contributions to the HIV-1 field. He currently focuses on neuro-immuneepithelial interactions that control transmission of human mucosal viruses, and was the first to describe the protective role of the neuropeptide calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) against a variety of viruses, including HIV-1, HSV-2, and more recently SARS-CoV-2.
Dr. Yonatan Ganor
Cochin Institute, France