Magnus Gisslén [2] Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Senior Consultant at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. His current research primarily focuses on HIV persistence and latent reservoirs, with a particular emphasis on HIV infection of the central nervous system. Additionally, he has published several papers on COVID-19, especially regarding its effects on the central nervous system.

Marcus Buggert, [1] PhD, is an Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet and group leader at the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), Sweden. After postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania, he returned to Karolinska Institutet in 2018 as a centrally KI-funded principal investigator. His work has provided key insights into antiviral T cell responses, with a particular focus on HIV and SARS-CoV-2 in susceptible individuals, human tissues, and vaccine-induced immunity. He has made pioneering contributions to understanding SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity and leads several major national and international research projects on antiviral immune responses.

Nina Weis [3] Professor at University of Copenhagen, and senior physician at Department of Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark. She is sharing her time between clinical work and clinical -, registry- and translational research. Further, she is Head of DANHEP, the Danish Database for Hepatitis B and C, with chronic viral hepatitis being one of the main topics of her research, and of the Danish HIV Birth Cohort, with women living with HIV, especially those who give birth and their children, being another main research topic.

Jan Gerstoft [3] Professor of clinical virology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He works at the department of infectious diseases at Rigshospitalet where he is heading the outpatient clinic that primarily takes care of HIV and hepatitis patients. His research has mainly been focused on HIV, since he described the first European AIDS patients in 1981. His research has involved clinical trials of antiviral agents, resistance and cohort studies of co-morbidities. The research has been published in more than 400 papers often in high impact journals.

Magnús Gottfreðsson [4] Professor of Infectious Diseases at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Iceland and chief, Department of Science at Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik. He divides his time between clinical teaching, research and administration. His diverse research interests include HIV and viral hepatitis, including elimination of hepatitis C in Iceland, as well as genetic determinants of host susceptibility to infectious diseases. He is the former president of the Nordic Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (NSCMID).

Annika Karlsson [1] Independent researcher and group leader at Karolinska Institutet since 2005, after completing her postdoctoral training at Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Dr Karlsson’s research group are using a translational approach with basic studies linking viral evolution and immunological patterns in clinical samples to understand the underlying mechanisms of HIV specific T cell function and pathogenesis. Specifically, they aim to unravel basic immunological and virological dynamics so that immunological approaches can be developed to restore T cell function and thereby provide a framework to rationally design a prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine.

Pia Kivelä [5], MD, PhD, is a specialist of Infectious diseases and works as senior consultant at Department of Infectious Diseases, Helsinki University Hospital. She is also the clinician responsible for the National HIV register FINHIV at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. HIV epidemiology and register studies are her main research interests.

Helene Mens [3], (MD 2002, Ph.D. 2009) is a fellow in infectious diseases at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has 4 years as Ph.D. and post.doc at the HIV Drug Resistance Program at NCI-Frederick, Frederick, MD, USA, under the supervision of Dr. John Coffin. Her research centers on investigating evolution and population dynamics in HIV and HCV during different host/drug pressure.

Henna Rautiainen [5] MD, PhD (born 1964) is a specialist in Internal medicine and Gastroenterology and work in Helsinki University Hospital in Finland as gastroenterologist. Her thesis involved liver disease, Primary biliary cirrhosis, and liver diseases has been her area of interest among gastroenterology. Since 2019 Henna have been working part time in Hepatitis C helpdesk, which provides low threshold consultation and education for health care workers.
All chronic hepatitis are part of her clinical work.

Dag Henrik Reikvam [6] Associate professor and senior consultant at Dep. of Infectious Diseases, Oslo University Hospital, campus Ullevål and University of Oslo. His academic training was in basic mucosal immunology and his current scientific scope is gut mucosal immune function in HIV infection and immunopathology of chronic hepatitis B. He leads the hospital’s new Centre for Precision Medicine in Infectious Diseases and co-chairs Oslo HIV Research Network.

Anders Sönnerborg [1] Professor of Infectious Diseases at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and senior consultant at Karolinska University Hospital. He has been working with persons living with HIV since 1983 and has been doing HIV research since 1986. He is presently responsible for molecular-virology diagnostics for HIV and hepatitis at Karolinska University Laboratory, and translational/experimental research on HIV, SARS-CoV-2 and antiviral therapy. The main interests of his current research are HIV cure including persistence and latent reservoirs, impact of microbiota on viral pathogenesis and treatment response, and evaluations of broad-spectrum antivirals.

Aylin Yilmaz [2] Associate professor and senior physician at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research mainly focuses on HIV-infection and the central nervous system.

Affiliations

1.       Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
2.       Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg
3.       University of Copenhagen, Denmark
4.       University of Iceland, Iceland
5.       University of Helsinki, Finland
6.       University of Oslo, Norway
7.       Örebro University, Sweden