Symposium Speakers

Dr. Khaldun is an Associate Professor at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He is a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; honorary consultant at the National Poison Centre, Universiti Sains Malaysia; and expert resource at the Malaysian Biodiversity Information System, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability (NRES). He serves as a member of the WHO Global Roster of Experts for the Prevention and Control of Snakebite Envenoming and is the Founding Advisor of Remote Envenomation Consultancy Services (RECS ASEAN). He also holds advisory positions in the Malaysian Society on Toxinology and Philippines Toxinology Society. He is a member of the International Society on Toxinology (IST), Asia Pacific Association of Medical Toxicology (APAMT), and Japanese Society of Clinical & Analytical Toxicology (J’s-CAT). He has authored various publications in related fields.

Allergist and Immunologist, Pediatrician. Thai Asthma Council and Association (TAC) committee.

Carina Venter is a Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Allergy/Immunology at the Children's Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, where she is conducting research in allergy prevention and working with children with food allergies. Dr. Venter is currently the chair of the EAACI work group on Immunomodulation and nutrition.

Cezmi Akdis is the director of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) in Davos and Professor in Zurich University Medical Faculty. He has honorary professorships from Beijign (China), Wuhan (China), Bursa Uludag Universities (Turkey), Harvard University (USA).He is a Senate Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences.

Cezmi Akdis has published 720 peer-reviewed articles. His h-index is 156 and he was selected as a highly cited author consecutively in 2016-2017-2018-2019-2020 and 2021, 2022, 2023 by Clarivate (Thomson Reuters).

Cezmi Akdis acted as the President of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (16’000 members) between 2011-2013. He was the editor of Global Atlases of Allergy, Asthma I-II, Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Allergic Rhinitis.He was the founder and organizer of the World Immune Regulation Meetings, Davos I-XVI. He has contributed the Allergy Chapters in the textbooks that are studied in Medical Schools, Such as Nelson Pediatrics, Middleton Essentials of Allergy. He is one of the Editors of Pediatric Allergy Immunology. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Allergy journal.

Cezmi Akdis’s major scientific contributions are on immune regulation and allergen tolerance, plasticity of antigen-specific T cells 1995, human T regulatory cells 1996, immune suppressive role of histamine receptor 2 2000, human Type 2 NK cell subset 2001, human regulatory NK cells 2007, regulatory innate B cell subset 2017, regulatory innate lymphoid cells 2019. His current research is the continuation of his epithelial barrier theory studies starting from mechanisms of eczema 2000, mechanisms of epithelial shedding in asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis 2003, endotypes of asthma, chronic rhinosinusitis and atopic dermatitis 2011, epithelial barrier theory for the development of allergic and autoimmune diseases 2006 - 2024. Cezmi Akdis is also the author of more than 40 publications on COVID including one of the first ones published on 19 February 2020, including pathophysiology, risk factors, severity, clinical characteristics and how to handle allergy and asthma patients during the pandemic.

Professor of the Asthma & Allergy Center at Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul, Korea.Congress President of 'The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Diseases (KAPARD)

Prof. Dr. h.c. Claus Bachert, born in 1957 in Mannheim, Germany, studied Human Medicine at the Ruprecht-Karls-University in Heidelberg and did his training as ENT-resident and allergologist in Mannheim, University of Heidelberg. He then moved to the University of Düsseldorf, where he received the Venia legendi in 1989 and in 1994was nominated Extraordinary Professor.

From 1996 until 2022, he served as Chief of Clinics at the ENT-Dept., University of Ghent, Belgium and specialised in rhinology, sinus surgery and scull base surgery. He today performed more than 7000 surgeries in this area, and organized a yearly, highly respected International Course on Sinus Surgery in Ghent.

Prof Bachert founded and headed the Upper Airways Research Lab (URL) at Ghent University until 2022, dedicated to translational science in airway immunology, and received several scientific prizes. Today he works as scientific director at the ENT-Dep., Münster University, Germany, and is affiliated to the ENT-Department of the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. Prof Bachert serves as editor of international journals including the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), as organizer of International Symposia (SERIN, SERINASIA), as member of international guidelines (ARIA, EPOS, EUFOREA), and was Vice-President of the German Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. His publication lists comprises more than 750 international publications (Medline) and more than 60 books or book chapters.

Associate Professor Dr Farah Dayana Zahedi is a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Faculty of Medicine & Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She is trained in rhinology, skull base surgery, rhinoplasty and smell & taste. Her research interest is in immunology related sinonasal diseases, sinonasal inflammation and occupational rhinitis.

She is the Active Learning Ambassador for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and teaching & learning coordinator for Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She is one of the exam board members of Examination for Provisional Registration, Malaysia Medical Council. Besides, she is the President of Malaysia Allergic Rhinitis Association, Honorary Treasurer of Malaysian Society of Allergy and Immunology (MSAI) and member of Research Subcommittee of College of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgeons, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia (CORLAMM). She was a member of Development Group of National Practice Guidelines of Management of Rhinosinusitis in Adolescent and Adult, Ministry of Health Malaysia.

Giorgio Walter is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Humanitas University, Milan-Italy & Senior Consultant Personalized Medicine Asthma & Allergy Center at Humanitas Research Hospital IRCCS-Milano Italy

Professor Canonica got his medical degree from the University of Genoa, Italy.

• Specialised in Pulmonary Diseases in Genoa.
• Specialised in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Florence University, Italy.

He subsequently conducted clinical immunology and allergology research at several European & US Universities and Institutes, such as the

• Biomedicum-Uppsala University Sweden
• MUSC-Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA.

Since returning to the University of Genoa in 1995, Professor Canonica has held a number of academic positions, including:

• Full Professor Internal Medicine
• Director of the Speciality School of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
• Full Professor of Pulmonary Medicine
• Director of the Specialty School of Pulmonary Diseases
• Chairman of the Department of Medical Specialties (University Hospital San Martino Genoa, Italy).
• Laurea Honoris Causa – Cluji-Napoca Medical University -Romania
• He has been defined LEGEND of Allergy and Immunology in 2021 , Allergy. 2021;00:1–3.
• 2022 Lyfetime Achievement Award – APAACI- Asian Pacific Association Allergy Clinical Immunology- Manila
• 2023 Lyfetime Achievement Award WAO- World Allergy Organization -Dubai

He has been serving as President international organizations as:

• President of WAO-World Allergy Organization
• President of Interasma-Global Asthma Association
• President of SIAAIC- Italian Society Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology
• President of SIMER-Italian Society Respiratory Medicine

Currently:

President 2022/24 of REG-Respiratory Effectiveness Group

• ExCom Member of ARIA-Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma
• ExCom Member of GA2LEN – Global Allergy & Asthma Excellence Network
• Chair of the EAACI Methodology Committee (2019-2024).
• Chair WAO Biologics in Allergy( 2023-2024 )
• International Advocate GINA-Global Asthma InitiAtive
• Member of the European Academy of Sciences
• Steering Committee Member of SANI-Severe Asthma Network Italy registry.
• GWC is Fellow of : ERS-ACAAI-AAAAI-EAACI

Topic of Research:

Asthma & Allergy: Mechanisms & Treatments, including Pharmacological treatments, Biologics and Allergen ImmunoTherapy in the context of Precision & Personalized Medicine H index 139; Citations >94.000 ; Peer-Reviewed Papers >900 orcid.org/0000-0001-8467-2557

Dr. Grace Chan is an allergist, clinical immunologist, and rheumatologist at Elim Rheumatic Centre. Prior to entering the private practice, Dr. Chan held the position of Senior Consultant at the Department of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). During her time there, she led the Allergy and Clinical Immunology service and served as the TTSH's Program Director for training in Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dr. Chan also held teaching positions as a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the NUS School of Medicine and a Clinical Teacher at the Lee Kong Chian (LKC) School of Medicine. Dr. Chan obtained her basic medical degree from the University Malaysia Sarawak in 2000 and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) in 2006. In 2010, she completed her specialist training in Rheumatology, Allergy, and Clinical Immunology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore. She is recognized as a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore, the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh), and the American College of Rheumatology (USA). Dr. Chan has a particular interest in drug allergy and desensitization. In 2015, she was awarded the National Health Group Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) to pursue specialized training in drug desensitization, focusing specifically on chemotherapy and biologics, at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Dr. Chan holds several leadership positions, including President of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society (Singapore) and Council Member of the Lupus Association of Singapore.

Dr. Hamad Al Hameli, a German board-certified consultant in General Pediatrics, Adolescent Medicine, and Allergy, currently serves as an allergy consultant at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. He is actively involved in establishing the Pediatric Allergy Service within the institution while also holding the position of President of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Group under the Emirates Thoracic Society.

Dr. Hamad pursued his residency training at Charité University Hospital in Berlin, Germany, followed by a fellowship in Allergy.

Prof. Dr. Harald Renz is Professor of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine at Philipps University Marburg, Germany, and Director of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine at the University hospitals in Marburg and Gießen. He serves currently as the President of the German Society of Laboratory Medicine. He is honorary and visiting Professor at the Kilimanjaro Christin Medical College KCMUCO and is Co-Director of the new founded Center of Excellence for Laboratory Medicine at KCMC in Moshi/Tanzania. This project is supported by the German Government and is executed as a PPP project. His research focuses on the development of Non-Communicable Disease (e.g. chronic lung disease, metabolic diseases etc.) and he is recently focusing on the impact of climate change and biodiversity on disease development. He published more than 350 original research papers. His current H Factor is 88 (01-2024). His D-index is 97, he ranks currently #387 in Medical Sience in Germany.

Dr. Hiroshi Chantaphakul completed his medical education at Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Medicine. Pursuing advanced studies, he undertook post-graduate training in the United States, earning board certifications in Internal Medicine, Allergy Immunology, and Rheumatology. He has since returned to his alma mater, where he now leads the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology within the Department of Medicine. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Dr. Hiroshi has the honor of serving as the current president of the Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Association of Thailand (AAIAT).

Dr. Inmaculada Cerecedo is a Consultant in Allergy currently working at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. She was trained as a fellow in the Allergy department at the Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, and completed her training at Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Most of her research has been focused on food allergy. Initially, she focused on the epitope mapping of food allergens aiming to differentiate tolerant and reactive patients and the socioeconomic cost of food allergy. She is currently the lead investigator of an early intervention multicenter study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of The Milk Ladder in babies recently diagnosed with milk allergy.

Dr Kiran Godse is professor of dermatology at D Y Patil University.He is past president of IADVL He has edited ten books and more than 150 publications His interests are urticaria and atopic dermatitis

Pediatric allergist

Kuan-Wen Su is a pediatric allergist, focusing on the research of food allergy and birth cohort study.

Datuk Dr. Kuljit Singh earned his Master’s in Otorhinolaryngology from University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur in 2002. Prior to that, he served at Hospital Kuala Lumpur & Hospital Kangar, as the ENT Clinical specialist in HKL [2002], Lecturer & ENT Specialist at University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and now Consultant ENT Surgeon at Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC) since 2007.

An active member in Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) since 1996 and he has contributed and engaged himself in various roles at state and national level of MMA where he also served as the Honorary General Secretary from 2013 – 2014. In terms of networking and foreign collaborations; he has conducted meetings and presented in all the ASEAN countries and has a great networking with all the leading ENT doctors within the region and many other parts of the world.

He has served the Malaysian Society of Otorhinolaryngologist [ENT] as President in 2007 and awarded meritorious awards by the society.

He leads the way on minimal invasive sinus surgery and recently using Imaging Guidance System in navigating sinus surgery. Currently, he serves the position of Medical Director at PCMC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is also the President of Association Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM). His passion is to serve towards the healthcare of the people of this country.

Dr Lee Bee Wah is an Adjunct Professor at the National University of Singapore. She is a Paediatrician specializing in clinical paediatric immunology and allergy at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre and Visiting Senior Consultant Paediatrician at the Children’s Medical Institute, National University Hospital, Singapore.

Professor Zhang leads Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology and departments of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at Beijing Tongren Hospital as an innovative rhinologist and allergist. Research from his group has resulted in more than 340 peer reviewed publications. Over the last decade Professor Zhang’s research has focused on the pathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis, the regulation of airway ciliary activity, mechanisms of specific-allergen immunotherapy of allergic rhinitis, and surgical techniques of endoscopic sinus surgery.

Menno van Zelm obtained his PhD from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2007) and held postdoc positions at the University of California San Diego (USA) and the Erasmus MC (the Netherlands), prior to becoming Lab Head at the Erasmus MC (2010). Since 2015, he heads the Allergy and Clinical Immunology laboratory from Monash University and the Alfred Hospital, where he founded the JMF Research and Diagnostic Centre for Immunodeficiency Diseases in Melbourne, and was Deputy Head of Department (2017-2023). He was recruited to Erasmus MC in 2023 to head the Humoral Immune memory laboratory. He is currently responsible for the careers of 14 people with research lines into Allergy, Primary Immunodeficiency and Vaccination Responses.Prof. van Zelm has received continuous research grant support in the Netherlands and Australia. In 2010, he received the Heineken Young Scientists Award from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Menno van Zelm is President of the Human Cell Differentiation Molecules (HCDM) council (2023-) that assigns CD Nomenclature. He runs a Translational Immunology program, has published >175 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, and is named inventor on multiple patent applications.

Professor Michaela Lucas, Dr Med MD, FRACP, FRCPA Clinical Professor Michaela Lucas is an Immunologist/Immunopathologist and Clinician-Scientist with conjoint appointments at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, PathWest, the Perth Children’s Hospital, and The University of Western Australia. She is the immediate past President of the Australasian Society of Immunology and Allergy, co-director of the National Allergy Council (NAC) and co-chair of the Drug Allergy Stream for NAC and the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.

Dr Hide graduated Hiroshima University and obtained MD, Ph.D degrees in 1988. He worked as post doc in research with Dr MA Beaven about intracellular signal transductions of mast cells at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland until 1990, then moved to St Thomas’s Hospital, London and demonstrated the presence of IgG autoantibody against -subunit of the high affinity IgE receptor (FcRI) in chronic spontaneous urticaria. He came back to Japan in 1993 and was appointed for a chairman professor of the Department of Dermatology in 2011, Dean of Medical School of Hiroshima University from 2016 to 2020, and moved to Hiroshima City Hiroshima Citizens Hospital as the director. He is working both in clinical and basic research of dermatology and allergy, especially urticaria, angioedema and atopic dermatitis.

He has published more than 300 scientific papers in English, played roles as an editorial board member of English journals, and a delegate of medical organizations, such as Japanese Dermatological Association, and Japanese Society of Allergology in the committees of many international clinical guidelines.

Pulmonologist, Sleep Specialist, Instructor Department of Physiology

He currently is an Associate Professor and Chief of Center of Research Excellence in Allergy & Immunology of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University. He had served as Assistant Director of Thailand Research Fund (TRF) during 2017-2019, which is the largest research-granting agency of Thailand. He is a board member of the International Society of Infection and Allergy of the Nose (ISIAN) since 2016. His special interests are : allergen immunotherapy, nasal inflammation, minimally invasive rhinologic procedures, mucosal immunity of nose & paranasal sinuses and pathophysiology of rhinosinusitis.

My main interest are specific immunotherapy & evaluating recurrent infections.

Trained at St. Thomas & Guy's Hospitals, London. Consultant Paediatrician for 29 years. Performed more than 8,000 Skin Prick tests.

Professor Leung graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1992, and obtained Doctor of Medicine degree at his alma mater in 2004. He received Immunology and Allergy subspecialty training in The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto, Canada in 1997-98. Professor Leung is currently a professor in Department of Paediatrics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Visiting Professor of the Central South University in mainland China. Professor Leung is a Co-Chair of Microbiome and Biodiversity Committee of Asia Pacific Association of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology and Immediate Past President of Hong Kong Society for Paediatric Immunology, Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has published more than 430 articles in peer-reviewed journals and his main research interests include natural history, novel diagnostics, genetics and host-microbe interactions of allergic diseases