Dr Nikolai Petrovsky MBBS FRACP is a clinician and professor of medicine at Flinders University and Research Director at Vaxine Pty Ltd, an Adelaide-based biotechnology company focused on pandemic vaccine development, in Australia. He has held multiple vaccine research grants from the National Institutes of Health in the US, and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed research papers and reviews. Nikolai has won several prestigious awards, including an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010. Most recently he has developed a successful protein-based vaccine against COVID-19 that has completed Phase III trials and has recently received emergency use authorisation.

Research interests: COVID-19 vaccines and drugs

Collaboration ideas: Collaborate on Phase IV clinical trials of our recently approved COVID-19 vaccine, including in paediatric populations. Collaborate on clinical trials of our anti-COVID-19 drugs and monoclonal antibodies.

Dr Moyra Portilho is a post-doctoral researcher at Instituto Gonçalo Moniz/Fiocruz Bahia in Brazil. She holds an MSc and PhD from the post-graduate program in Tropical Medicine at Oswaldo Cruz Institute. Moyra currently carries out research related to the epidemiology of arboviruses, molecular epidemiology of Dengue virus and evaluation of diagnostic methods for Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. Moyra has experience in the following subjects: Viral Hepatitis, Arboviruses, alternative fluids for diagnosis and evaluation of serological and molecular methodologies for diagnosis of viral infections.

Lattes ID: 1981437129112308

Dr Luis Cristovao Porto has experience in cell and tissue biology, histocompatibility and clinical pathology and work mainly on the following topics: tissue repair, organ transplantation, hepatitis and laboratory medicine management.

Luis has participated in the concept and is a professor of the graduate program of human and experimental biology (master and doctoral) after returning from his doctoral studies. Since 1994, he has been head of the Laboratory of Histocompatibility and achieved the position of full professor in Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1999. Luis has the expertise, leadership, training, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed research project in its topics related to HLA and immune response in association to infection diseases. As PI or co-investigators, funded by Brazilian Research Agency, Health Ministry and Rio de Janeiro Research Agency Foundation, Luis contributed to the definition of HLA alleles and haplotypes associated with the susceptibility or protection of diseases and also in relation to vaccination of malaria and the HLA allele and haplotypes frequencies of the Brazilian Bone Marrow Registry.

Luis’s early publications directly addressed the presence of extracellular matrix proteins, more specifically collagen and elastic system fibres and their association with stages of diseases. In this context, both in liver fibrosis, saphenous veins varicosities and in skin diseases Luis has the chance to confirm and increment of knowledge of the disorganization, both qualitative and quantitative, of the “normal” complex macromolecular arrangement around hepatocytes, bile ducts, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, myofibroblasts and monocyte/macrophages in experimental animal models and human tissues. Luis maintained collaboration with colleagues that he supervised in their initial studies during doctoral studies in tissue repair and extracellular matrix, which implicates the cell modulation related to inflammation and oxidative stress.

Research interests: immunogenetics; immunology

Collaboration ideas:
- Establishment of a long-term partnership, with the possibility of greater exchange between researchers and training for doctoral and postdoctoral students.
- Evaluation: 1) of the amplitude and longevity of neutralizing responses, as well as antibody epitope profiles targeting VOCs/emerging mutations; 2) the roles of virus variants and the decline in immunity, allowing reinfections.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/luis-porto-5
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1499-1821

Dr Porto Wagnner is a veterinary doctor, currently an associate professor at the Federal University of Alagoas. Porto has experience in parasitology and parasitic diseases, focusing on parasitic zoonoses, acting on the following subjects: epidemiology, schistosomiasis, neosporosis and toxoplasmosis.

Lattes ID: 6642873222020222

Dr Janira Prichula currently works at the Department of Basic Health Sciences, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre in Brazil, researching bioinformatic, molecular microbiology, and comparative genomics.

Research interests: bioinformatic; molecular microbiology; comparative genomics.

Collaboration ideas: It will be an opportunity to meet and share experiences with renowned experts in my field. I believe my research and work experiences can contribute to efforts to understand and reflect on possible alternatives to mitigate the threats of emerging diseases around the world. The challenges of pathogens as coronavirus can only be effectively addressed through internationally coordinated efforts. It is imperative that we make good use of the benefits of our research and discoveries to help all of society.

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Janira-Prichula
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6767-8890

Professor Rafaela Rech is a speech-language therapist, with a PhD in epidemiology, a professor at the Speech and Language Department of the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre.

Research interests: ageing; swallowing disorders; oral epidemiology; global health and public health

Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/rafaela-rech
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3207-0180

Dr Simon Reid is an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. He is a keen advocate of One Health and the application of systems thinking approaches to understand and improve interventions for wicked problems at the human–animal–ecosystem interface, such as zoonoses. His research includes projects exploring the drivers of human–bat interactions, human brucellosis and improving global health security. He has an emerging interest in multisectoral governance as it applies to high-level issues such as health security and antimicrobial resistance. He delivers postgraduate courses in communicable disease control and One Health at UQ.

Research interests: zoonotic diseases, including leptospirosis and wildlife–human interaction (especially bats); the multisectoral governance of antimicrobial resistance

Website: https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/2707
https://publons.com/researcher/1147134/simon-reid/
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6103-4429

Dr Rafael Resque completed his degree in Pharmacy from the University Center of Pará in 2004, with specialization in genetics and molecular biology from the Lutheran University of Brazil in 2005, a master’s in genetics and molecular biology from the Federal University of Pará in 2010 and PhD in genetics and molecular biology from the Federal University of Pará in 2015. Rafael currently serves as adjunct professor C, Level II at the Federal University of Amapá (UNIFAP) and as a permanent professor of the Graduate Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Graduate Program in Health Sciences at UNIFAP. Rafael has experience in genetics and molecular biology with emphasis on human and medical genetics, population genetics and pharmacogenetics, working mainly on the following topics: ancestry, mixed Latin American populations, interethnic mixture, genetic markers of ancestry, molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases and clinical virology.

Research interests: genomic diversity; epidemiological surveillance; public health.

Collaboration ideas: I believe that collaboration between Brazilian and Australian researchers can occur in several ways. Initially through the exchange of technologies developed for the identification and monitoring of the circulation of infectious agents such as SARS-CoV-2, since the methods developed for viral monitoring in the pandemic we are going through can be used in future opportunities, in the identification and monitoring of other infectious agents, both of known and unknown circulation in the region. Tools of this nature are extremely valuable in environments such as the Amazon forest, where enormous biodiversity can be observed. Finally, to form partnerships through the exchange of researchers between Australia and Brazil with the aim of knowledge transfer.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5769-5734
Lattes ID: 6862708091934825

Professor Karen Reynolds is the director of the Medical Device Research Institute at Flinders University, Australia. As one of Australia’s leading researchers in biomedical engineering, Karen is passionate about bridging the divide between research and industry. In 2008, she founded the Medical Device Partnering Program, a program designed to facilitate early-stage innovation and collaborations. In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she established a personal protective equipment test facility to support sovereign manufacture.

Research interests: medical devices; biomechanics; physiological monitoring; PPE

Collaboration ideas: Medical device R&D

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8273-1610

Dr Izabel Rezende is a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine, US, in Dr A. Desiree LaBeaud’s lab. Izabela is also ACAV/ASTMH trainee councilor. Since 2018 Izabela has been an editor in the Journal Docência do Ensino Superior and became editor-in-chief in 2020.

Izabela did her bachelors in biology, MSc in immunology and infectious diseases, and PhD in microbiology. She has a broad background in virology, microbiology and molecular biology applied to viral infectious diseases. Izabela has a vast knowledge of classical virology, molecular biology, phylogenetic analysis, serological, and molecular diagnosis. She is working on recent YF outbreaks, focusing on viral dynamics, ecology, diagnosis, and the investigation of virological, immunological, and clinical aspects during the course of infection. Izabela’s Lab has supported the hospital and Secretary of Health of Minas Gerais with laboratory testings applied to the diagnosis of YF, viral genotyping related to YF patients suspected to have adverse events following vaccination, and other analyses. They have also been working on dynamics of the outbreak, on the virological, epidemiological, and immunological aspects during the course of yellow fever. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they supported the Brazilian Ministry of Health with the SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in human samples and also in the investigation of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA in surfaces of density public areas of Belo Horizonte.

Website: https://az659834.vo.msecnd.net/eventsairseasiaprod/production-aas-public/c8d2095ae9194cfd9015051988177dfa
Lattes ID: 6642778587459130