Speaker

Laurent Fraisse joined the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) as the Research & Development (R&D) Director and Executive Team member in October 2019. In this capacity he drives DNDi’s scientific strategy and oversees all research and clinical activities worldwide.
Laurent is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical executive, and a leading expert in infectious diseases, having led R&D for large pharmaceutical firms such as Sanofi and Evotec, and served as chair of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Strategic Governing Group dedicated to infectious diseases.
Laurent joined Sanofi in 1999 after a ten-year tenure as a science leader in Elf Atochem. During 20 years at Sanofi, he rose to serve as Vice President for Infectious Disease R&D, addressing medical needs in bacterial, parasitic, and viral related infections. He then joined Evotec as Executive Vice President for infectious diseases with the mission to accelerate the infectious disease research pipeline development and initiate new open innovation R&D initiatives.
Laurent graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie in Rennes, France, with a specialty in Biochemistry and was awarded a PhD in Biotechnology by the Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse in 1993.

Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of BioVersys with over 10 years of experience in the biotech industry, having launched a university spin-off in the field of antimicrobial resistance and growing it into a multi-asset clinical stage company. Some of these assets will address significant unmet medical needs in infectious conditions such as tuberculosis and hospital acquired Acinetobacter infections. Marc has raised over $70 mio in equity financing and secured over $30 mio in non-dilutive funding. He has also established several important partnerships with a Big Pharma and other development organizations. Multi-award-winning Biotech CEO, having received amongst others the Swiss Technology Award 2011, Venture Kick 2009 and Venture Leaders 2008 and 2017 awards for his work in founding and advancing BioVersys. He is also President of the Board of the BEAM Alliance, a European association representing over 70 European and international SMEs active in antimicrobial research and development and Board member of AMR Industry Alliance. Marc is a young thought leader in the field of antimicrobial research and development. He is passionate about next generation antimicrobial therapies and leads a highly motivated team striving to bring life-saving antimicrobial therapies to patients in need. He is also co-author on several high ranked scientific publications and patents in the field. 

Achim Kaasch is Professor of Medical Microbiology at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. He studied medicine at the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg and trained in the U.S. at Yale and Johns Hopkins. After clinical and research roles in Berlin and Cologne, he became a professor at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in 2016. In 2019 he transferred to Magdeburg as the Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene.
His research focuses on diagnosis and treatment of S. aureus bloodstream infection, S. aureus pathogenesis, and infectious disease diagnostics. He gained international recognition as principal investigator of the SABATO trial, a landmark study on oral switch therapy in Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections. Prof. Kaasch has published extensively and is actively involved in academic teaching and public health.

Prof. Dr. med. Annette Moter ist Direktorin des Instituts für Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Virologie am Universitätsklinikum Leipzig und Leiterin des Nationalen Konsiliarlabors für Tropheryma whipplei. Zuvor leitete sie das Biofilmcenter an der Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin sowie am Deutschen Herzzentrum Berlin. Sie verfügt über langjährige Expertise in der molekularen Diagnostik und in der Untersuchung bislang nicht kultivierbarer Bakterien. Ihr wissenschaftlicher Schwerpunkt liegt auf der in situ Charakterisierung mikrobieller Infektionslandschaften in klinischen Materialien, insbesondere bei Endokarditis und anderen biofilmassoziierten Infektionen. Sie nutzt Fluoreszenz-in-situ-Hybridisierung (FISH), Mikrobiomanalysen und in-vitro-Modelle, um bakterielle Strukturen und Biofilme zu erfassen. Ziel ihrer Forschung ist es, die Rolle komplexer Biofilme besser zu verstehen und innovative diagnostische sowie therapeutische Strategien zu entwickeln.

Prof. Dr. Irit Nachtigall leitet seit Oktober 2025 als Direktorin das Institut für Hygiene und Umweiltmedizin der Vivantes Netzwerk für gesundheit GmbH, von Juni 2024 bis September 2025 war sie Leiterin der Abteilung für Translationale Forschung, Lehre und Kooperation bei Vivantes und hat seit September 2023 eine W3-Professur für Infektiologie und Infektionsprävention an der Medical School Berlin inne. Zuvor hatte sie leitende Positionen im Bereich Krankenhaushygiene und Antibiotic Stewardship bei den Helios Kliniken (2017–2024) und war als Anästhesistin und Intensivmedizinerin als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Oberöztin von 1997 bis 2016 an der Charité tätig.

Ihre Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen in den Bereichen Antibiotic Stewardship und Infektionen durch multiresistente Erreger mit einem besonderen Fokus auf geschlechtersensible Medizin in der Infektiologie. Sie entwickelte ein Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) für die Antibiotikatherapie, arbeitet an der Weiterentwicklung der Sepsis-Diagnostik und engagiert sich für Geschlechtergerechtigkeit in der medizinischen Digitalisierung.