Invited speakers

Professor Dr. Christoph G. Grevelding

Dr. Christoph G. Grevelding is a full professor in parasitology and parasitic diseases at Justus Liebig University Giessen. From 2006-2011, he was also the managing director of the Institute of Parasitology in Giessen. Since 2020, Christoph G. Grevelding is deputy chairman of the LOEWE Center DRUID, and since 2022 he is chairman of Section-2, “Infection and Immunity” of the International Giessen Graduate Centre for the Life Sciences. Professor's Grevelding group covers basic and applied aspects of Schistosoma mansoni research such as the identification of drug targets and new compounds with potential effects against adult and larval stages.

Dr. Saša Štefanić

Dr. Saša Štefanić is a project leader and manager at Nanobody Service Facility at the University of Zurich. This technology platform was estabilished to provide production and selection of highly specific single-domain camelid antibody fragments, commonly known as nanobodies, to Life Sciences community in Switzerland and abroad. Dr. Štefanić's team successfully developed nanobodies for many different protein targets of medicinal and veterinary importance including those against helminths such a Echinococcus multilocularis or Fasciola hepatica for basic research and application in diagnostics, treatment and prevention of associated diseases.

Dr. Ivona Mladineo

Dr. Ivona Mladineo has been leading the Laboratory of Functional Helminthology at the Institute of Parasitology, BC CAS since 2021 and before that, she worked as a tenured scientific adviser at the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Croatia. She served as Meeting Secretary of the European Association of Fish Pathologists for eight years and is the Parasitology Subject Editor for the association’s Bulletin. Currently, she is coordinator of the Horizon Europe project Cure4Aqua which includes 31 partner, and deputy coordinator of the EU Reference Centre for Aquatic Animal Welfare. Her research spans from fish diseases and welfare to zoonotic parasites. For the latter, she is in particular interested in the anisakid nematodes, employing them as models for studying human epidemiology, parasites’ functional genomics and host interactions.