Bio
My previous and current scientific activities have been mainly developed in the interface between Food and Clinical Microbiology. In July 2009 I assumed a Ciencia2008 position at Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine (FMV) and established my own Microbiology research lab, working with bacteria found in food and assessing for their pathogenicity potential, by comparison with human and veterinarian clinical isolates.Regarding microbial pathogenesis, the majority of the studies being performed worldwide are centered on clinical isolates. The innovative nature of my research is its main subject “food isolates” and how the so-called safe strains became pathogenic, if given the right conditions. Bacteria, although considered among the most simple living organisms, are in fact rather complex. In order to characterize and understand the underlying pathogenicity mechanisms that enable the switch between safety and pathogenicity and integrative approach directed towards gene and protein expression. Using OMICs platforms is the best way to achieve a wider image of the organism under study. Following this idea I aim to use whole-transcriptome and differential proteome profiling to study pathogenicity. The natural evolution of scientific knowledge led me to the optimization of metagenomic analysis to the microbial characterization of Portuguese Traditional cheeses with Protected Designation of Origin. Over the years the establishment of several national and international collaborations with distinct institutions enriched my scientific and personal accomplishments that I intend to maintain and expand.

Bio
Born in 1960. Full professor in Food Microbiology at the Università degli Studi della Basilicata since 2002. Member of the editorial boards of the International Journal od Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology and Foods. Author or co-author of 117 papers in peer reviewed international scientific journals and 20 book chapters. Research interest range from microbiology of fermented foods to molecular microbial ecology and bioinformatics. He is the curator of the database FoodMicrobionet (http://www.foodmicrobionet.org). ORCID 0000-0002-5716-2348

Bio
I am a doctor of veterinary medicine by education, and I have worked since 2010 as an epidemiologist in the field of food safety. In 2013, I completed my PhD on the subject of interpretation of quantitative microbial data for risk assessment, with a special focus on variability and uncertainty in the predictions of foodborne disease. Since 2014, my work is mainly focused on the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in animals and the transmission of resistance to humans. My main tasks involve the implementation and evaluation of new methods for the application of genomics data in source-attribution, risk assessment and surveillance. I enjoy teaching and have had the opportunity to lecture quantitative microbial risk assessment in several international courses under the scope of the European Commission’s programs EDES and BTSF, as well as for Master and PhD students in DTU’s QMRA summer school. I also coordinated and implemented a successful Massive Open Online Course on the use of metagenomics for surveillance of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance (https://coursera.org/learn/metagenomics). I have been seconded to three different international research institutions: Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (2009), Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture - Food Safety Centre - University of Tasmania (2012) and Complutense University of Madrid – Department of Animal Health (2015).

Bio
Marta Laranjo holds a Ph.D. in Biology and is a senior researcher at MED - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (Food Science and Technology Group), Universidade de Évora, Portugal. She is also the executive director of the UNIMED Subnetwork on Food and Water. An expert on microbiology and molecular biology, her main interests include food microbiology, with a special emphasis on starter cultures and the dynamics of food microbiota. She has published several book chapters and numerous research papers in international peer-reviewed journals. She is also a frequent reviewer for several journals in the areas of microbiology and molecular biology. Dr. Laranjo has supervised several Ph.D., Master, and undergraduate students.