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Plenary speaker

Ligia Alejandra De la Torre Cifuentes

  • Medical Doctor, Specialist in Ophthalmology, Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia.
  • Fellowship in Ocular Immunology and Uveitis, MEEI, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
  • PhD in Biomedical Sciences, University of Quindío, Colombia.
  • PhD in Translational Medicine, Institute of Parasitology and Tropical Pathology (IPPT)-Louis Pasteur, University of Strasbourg, France.
  • Full Professor, Head of the Immunology Unit, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia.

John Boothroyd

John Boothroyd, Ph.D., currently splits his time between being the Burt and Marion Avery Professor (Emeritus-Active) in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine and Chair of the Academic Council at Schmidt Science Fellows. He received his BSc from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Edinburgh University in Scotland. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 1982, he worked as a scientist in the Immunochemistry and Molecular Biology Department at Wellcome Research Laboratories, UK. Dr. Boothroyd’s Stanford group initially focused on the molecular biology of African trypanosomes, co-discovering mRNA trans-splicing in those organisms. For about the past 40 years, he and his collaborators have been immersed in studying the pathogenesis of Toxoplasma gondii with a focus on how this ubiquitous parasite invades and co-opts a human cell. That work has included identification of the machinery these intracellular parasites use to invade a host cell, discovery of protein effectors that mediate virulence, and elucidation of the machinery by which such effectors exit the parasite and enter a host cell.  In addition to his research role, Dr. Boothroyd has served as Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Senior Associate Dean for Research and Training in the Stanford School of Medicine; currently, he serves as Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs for Stanford University.  In 2016, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, testimony to the creativity and hard work of the many staff, students and post-docs he has had the privilege of working with, over 35 of whom are now in independent faculty positions and a similar number of whom are making a major impact in business, government and science communication.

https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/john-boothroyd

Jonathan Howard

Jonathan Charles Howard, born 24 June 1943

  • Brought up in London
  • BA Zoology, Oxford University 1961-1964
  • One year in lab of JBS Haldane and Suresh Jayakar, Orissa, India 1965
  • D.Phil Oxford with James Gowans; Lymphocyte recirculation and function, 1966-1969
  • MRC Scientific Staff, Cellular Immunology Unit, Oxford 1970-1974
  • Dept. Pathology, University of Pennsylvania Med. Sch, with Darcy Wilson 1972-1976
  • The Babraham Institute Dept of Immunology, Cambridge, 1974-1994
  • Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany, 1994-2012
  • Director, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal, 2012-2018
  • Emeritus, Institute for Genetics and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, now

Sabbaticals with:

  • Irv Weissman, Stanford University
  • Lee Hood, Caltech
  • Peter Parham, Stanford University
  • Harvey McMahon, MRC Lab Molecular Biology