Speakers

Mário Morais-Almeida is the Head of the Immunoallergy Department of CUF-Descobertas Hospital (World Allergy Organization Center of Excellence) and CUF-Infante Santo Hospital, Lisbon, since 2003; apart from the supervision of the department activities, he dedicates more than twenty hours per week to clinical activity in the out-patient section of the Allergy Center.

He is co-coordinator of the Portuguese guidelines on Asthma management and Anaphylaxis registration, management and referral, being member of the work group responsible for the Portuguese Catalog of Allergies and Adverse Reactions.

Dr. Morais-Almeida was elected as a Member at Large to the WAO Board of Directors in 2018. He is currently the President-Elect of WAO.

Dr. Annick Barbaud is a renowned expert in dermatology and allergology, with a particular focus on skin and drug allergies. Her pioneering work in drug allergies, drug skin tests, contact dermatitis and the environmental toxicity of cosmetics has earned her international recognition. Notably, Dr. Barbaud is credited with publishing the first guidelines for skin testing in cutaneous adverse drug reactions (CADR) in 2001.. Dr. Barbaud is a leading figure in advancing knowledge and best practices in drug hypersensitivity and skin allergies. Her contributions continue to shape the future of dermatology and allergology in both clinical practice and research.

Jonathan Bernstein is Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and a partner of the Bernstein Allergy Group and Clinical Research Center.

Dr Bernstein is a DIA certified clinical trial investigator and conducting multicenter and physician initiated clinical therapeutic trials related to asthma, COPD, rhinitis, urticaria, atopic dermatitis, chronic cough, hereditary and ACE-induced angioedema.

He is the recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Clinician Awards from the AAAAI and World Allergy Organization (2019). Dr. Bernstein has been voted “Best Doctor” in Cincinnati from 1999 to 2024 by Cincinnati magazine and has been ranked by US News and World Report as being in the top 1% of doctors in his specialty.

Dr. Teresa Caballero has worked as a consultant in Allergy at HULP. Dr. Caballero since 1991 and has a long-standing interest in Chronic Urticaria and Hereditary Angioedema. She coordinates the National Reference Centre (CSUR) for Hereditary Angioedema and a certified ACARE center at HULP. She also chairs the Angioedema Committee of the Spanish Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC) and leads the U754 research group for the Diagnosis and Characterization of Disorders of the Complement System at CIBERER. In addition, she serves as a Scientific Assessor for AEDAF, the Spanish Patients’ Association on Hereditary Angioedema.

Dr Ellis is a Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University and Chair of the Division of Allergy & Immunology, a position she has held since 2010.

Dr Ellis has spearheaded a dual-themed research program which contains elements of both basic science research and important translational and clinical research. The flagship of this research program is the Environmental Exposure Unit (EEU), an internationally recognized and validated controlled allergen challenge model of allergic rhinitis.

She is the current President of the Canadian Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology and serves on the Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters for the AAAAI and ACAAI.

Adam is Professor of Paediatric Allergy & Consultant Paediatric Allergist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. He was founding Director of the KCL Allergy Academy, a postgraduate educational programme, which was a finalist at the BMJ Awards in 2018.

Adam was awarded ‘Paediatric Allergist of the Year’ from Allergy UK in 2007. His doctoral thesis on peanut allergy received the Raymond Horton Smith prize from Cambridge University in 2012 and he was included in The Times ‘Britain’s 100 Best Children’s Doctors’.  Adam received the William Frankland Award for Outstanding contribution to Allergy in 2015 and a Department of Health National Clinical Excellence award from the in 2016 and 2020. In 2024, Adam became only the second person to receive the BSACI Fellows Award in recognition of outstanding contribution to clinical allergy.

Professor Lene Heise Garvey is a specialist in Anaesthesiology with subspecialisation in Allergology. She is Head of the Danish Anaesthesia Allergy Centre at the Danish National Reference Centre for investigation of perioperative hypersensitivity. She is a Professor in Allergology with special focus on Anaphylaxis and Drug Allergy at the University of Copenhagen and a consultant in the Allergy Clinic, Gentofte Hospital, Denmark. She is vice chair of the International Suspected Perioperative Allergic Reactions Group (ISPAR) and member of the WAO drug hypersensitivity and drug allergy in general, with special focus on penicillin allergy de-labelling.

Professor Gennery works at the Northern National HSCT Unit for IEI, at Great North Children’s Hospital, Newcastle. He spent a year working at the Necker Hospital, Paris, involved in the discovery of Cytidine Deaminase – critical for class switch recombination and somatic hypermutation.

His research interests include immunoreconstitution following HSCT for IEI, long-term outcomes of transplantation for IEI, appropriate treatment of DNA repair disorders, and Di George Syndrome. He established ECP for treatment of paediatric GvHD, discovered mechanistic insights relating to ECP mode of action, and is exploring the use of defibrotide for treatment of non-VOD endothelial cell activation disorders post-HSCT.

Dr Golden did his medical training at McGill University, and his Allergy-Immunology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University where he is Associate Professor of Medicine. He directed a research program on insect allergy and anaphylaxis at Johns Hopkins for 30 years, and has published numerous research articles and review articles. Dr Golden established an acclaimed private group practice in Baltimore from which he is now retired. He also served as Allergy Division chief at 2 community teaching hospitals in Baltimore, where he developed an Allergy-Immunology teaching program for medical residents. He continues to contribute as a member of the Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters, and in chapters, reviews, editorial boards, and invited lectures.

Dr Robin Gore is a consultant respiratory physician at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

His main specialist clinical interest is in severe asthma and allergic airways disease. Addenbrooke’s Hospital is home to the east of England severe asthma network hub. The severe asthma team has built a region-wide inclusive holistic service for those with severe asthma – adopting, developing and sharing models of network care over the years.

He has research interests in local clinical trials delivery and in aeroallergen exposure. He studied the latter during PhD studies at the University of Manchester.

Dr Karabus is the Chairperson of the Allergy Society of South Africa (ALLSA) and is a co-director of the Allergy Foundation of South Africa.

She maintains the position of consultant and senior lecturer in Allergology in the Department of Allergy and Asthma at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, University of Cape Town. She is an associate at the Chest and Allergy Centre, Netcare Christiaan Barnard Hospital, a unique multi-disciplinary centre offering a combined allergy and pulmonology service.

Dr Karabus is a co -author of the ALLSA Handbook of Practical Allergy, as well as the book, Allergy Sense for families: a practical guide, and has published several articles in local and international medical journals.

Professor Mike Levin is head of the Division of Asthma and Allergy in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Cape Town.  He serves on the executive committee of the Allergy Society of South Africa and is the CEO of the Allergy Foundation of South Africa (www.allergyfoundation.co.za) where you can find huge amount of information for doctors and patients.

He teaches medical students, medical professionals and specialists in allergy and presents at national and international allergy congresses. He has a special interest in epidemiology of allergy in Africa, severe allergies and anaphylaxis, as well as patient support and education.  Current research includes rural and urban differences in prevalence of food allergy and mechanisms of meat-induced anaphylaxis.

Phoebe has been a children’s nurse for 20 years with experience in intensive care, clinical research, immunology specialist nursing and humanitarian aid work with MSF.

Phoebe has been working as an allergy specialist nurse since 2016. In her current role she is the Lead allergy nurse for Worcestershire. She runs independent clinics and is an independent prescriber, oversees all the oral provocation challenges and immunotherapy admissions, and chairs the MDT.

She is a member of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology and is on the national committee for both the Paediatric Allergy Working Group and the Nurses in Allergy Committee.

Professor Jonny Peter is a physician, specialised in internal medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. In February 2016, he was registered as the first adult allergologist in South Africa and is Head of the Division of Allergology and Clinical Immunology at Groote Schuur Hospital, University of Cape Town and the Allergy and Immunology unit, UCT Lung Institute. Current clinical and research interests include: i) immune-mediated adverse drug reactions ii) urticaria and angioedema, and iii) the aerobiology of South Africa. He has over 200 publications in high impact factor journals, and H-index of 51. His research work is supported by international and local grant funding from the NIH, EDCTP, SA NRF and MRC.

Dr. Rouadi is a professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery at the Eye and Ear University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon; and the director of the Allergy Laboratory. He also practices ENT/Allergy at Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Kuwait.

He has occupied several national, regional, and international key administrative positions in Allergy societies and organizations, including Presidency of the Lebanese Society of Allergy and Immunology and Presidency of the Pan Arab Society of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, in addition to membership in the House of Directors of the World Allergy Organization.

His areas of interest are chronic cough, pollution, immunotherapy, and respiratory allergic diseases.

Candice is a paediatrician and allergist in private practice at Royal Paediatrics and Allergy.  Here she manages children with complex allergic conditions from Cape Town, South Africa and beyond.  She is additionally a part-time consultant in the Allergy Department at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital where she is involved in training as well as service delivery in the public sector. Candice has a special interest in food allergy and is passionate about managing long-term health conditions in a holistic manner.

Maria is currently the head of the Allergy Department of Malaga Regional University Hospital where she also teaches and supervises resident allergists. She is also an Associated Professor at the medicine department in the University of Malaga. She has high level experiences in investigation, focusing on drug allergy, and is a member of a number of committees on drug allergy in the SEAIC and EAACI. She also works as an evaluator for ANEP projects and is the coordinator for the panel of evaluators for research projects for the Andalucian government in the area of respiratory illness and immunology. She is the coordinator of the Spanish National Network on Asthma and Allergy.

Dr Paul Turner is Professor of Anaphylaxis, Paediatric Allergy & Immunology at Imperial College London. Paul was a member of the recent Expert Consultation for the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) on food allergens, and recently stood down as a member of the UK Food Standards Agency’s Science Council. Paul leads the food allergy desensitisation programme at St Mary’s Hospital, London.

He is a consultant to the UK Health Security Agency, Chairperson of the WAO Anaphylaxis Committee and emeritus chair of the BSACI Paediatric Allergy 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 European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) work group on Immunomodulation and nutrition.

Professor Williams is President of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) and a practicing allergist in the US. In addition to clinical practice, Professor Willliams is also involved in Clinical Research, Teaching and publication in peer-reviewed journals. His roles in the AAAAI, in addition to being President and member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors have included Chair of the Advocacy Committee, Chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force Resource Committee.