Understanding the Pandemic

Amaro Nunes Duarte Neto is an infectious diseases physician and pathologist, and Associate Professor at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (FMUSP). After graduating in medicine from the Universidade de Pernambuco in 1999, he moved to São Paulo, in the south-east of Brazil, to complete a fellowship in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP from 2000 to 2004. He also worked in the Intensive Care and Emergency Department at the University of São Paulo. After obtaining his PhD. in the field of leptospirosis pathology, he studied anatomical pathology and completed residency at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Centre in São Paulo from 2011-2014. Since then, he has been involved in autopsy and infectious disease pathology, with numerous publications on the pathology of COVID-19, yellow fever, AIDS, tuberculosis, and fungal infections. He is currently leading a project on preparedness in anatomical pathology for rapid response to future epidemics in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Marco Cascella, MD, is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Intensive Care, and Pain Medicine at the University of Salerno. He graduated with honors in Medicine and Surgery in 1997 from the University “Vanvitelli” of Naples and later pursued postgraduate studies in anesthesia and intensive care in 2001. Prof. Cascella is actively engaged in research, with a particular focus on automatic pain assessment using AI techniques. He serves as an editorial board member for several medical journals and has delivered lectures at numerous conferences and conventions. With an extensive academic background, he has authored approximately 250 scientific publications, books, book chapters, etc., covering various medical domains ranging from anesthesia, pain treatment, and oncology to palliative care. Prof. Cascella plays a leadership role and actively participates in various research projects, showcasing his commitment to advancing medical knowledge and technology.

Dr. Anand Viswanathan is the Director of Telestroke Services at Partners Healthcare and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He is a staff neurologist in the Stroke Service and in the Memory Disorders Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Viswanathan is an executive member of the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Research Center (MADRC). His research program at the J. Philip Kistler Stroke Research Center focuses on the contribution of stroke and vascular risk factors to dementia. His group has engaged in numerous multidisciplinary interactions and collaborations, including with economists, artists, and writers, in order to further understanding of mechanisms of disease and foster humanism in medicine.

Aravind Ganesh is a Vascular and Cognitive Neurologist. He completed his MD at the University of Calgary, followed by a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia as a Rhodes scholar. He completed his neurology residency in Calgary, followed by a combined fellowship in stroke and cognitive neurology, funded by Alberta Innovates and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Stroke Consortium and is actively involved in the development of best-practice guidelines for stroke and dementia care. His clinical research is focused on understanding the natural history, risk stratification, prevention, and treatment of stroke and cognitive impairment using multidisciplinary methods including neuroimaging, clinical epidemiology, artificial intelligence, mixed-method research, and clinical trials. His lab also leads the development and testing of innovative applications and devices for the diagnosis and treatment of dementia and stroke. He has received New Investigator Awards from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Alzheimer Society of Canada, as well as the Henry J. M. Barnett Scholarship and the Brain Canada Future Leaders in Brain Research award for outstanding contributions as a researcher in the field of dementia and stroke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a coinvestigator in the Alberta HOPE COVID-19 trial, led the linked Alberta Neuro-COVID cohort study, and led studies examining pandemic-associated changes in stroke care and presentations.

Ching-lung Lai is the Emeritus Professor and was the Simon K Y Lee Professor in Gastroenterology and the Chair Professor of Medicine and Hepatology at the Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, where he has been working since his graduation with honors at the University of Hong Kong. For the last four decades Dr. Lai has been extensively involved in research on various aspects of the hepatitis B virus, including molecular virology, natural history, treatment and its prevention. Professor Lai has published over 520 peer-reviewed papers and reviews in international journals. His publications have been widely cited and he is one of top scientists in the field of chronic hepatitis B infection.. Dr. Lai’s group has been extensively involved in studying the immune responses to COVID-19.

Giuseppe Remuzzi, MD, FRCP, is Director of Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research IRCCS and Chiara Fama Professor of Nephrology and the University of Milan. From 1996 until 2013, he was Director of the public-private Department of Immunology and Transplant Medicine (a collaboration between the Ospedali Riuniti of Bergamo and the Mario Negri Institute) and from 1999 until 2018, he was also the Head of the Division of Nephrology and Dialysis. From 2011 until 2015, he was Director of the Department of Medicine of the Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII (formerly the Ospedali Riuniti) of Bergamo. In June 2015, he was nominated Chiara Fama Professor of Nephrology at the University of Milan. Prof. Remuzzi was President of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for the biennium 2013-2015. From 2019, he has been the Vice President of the Italian Institute for Planetary Health (IIPH). He has been a member of the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità since February 2019.

Prof. Remuzzi’s main research interests include the causes of glomerulonephritis and the mechanisms of progression of kidney diseases. He has also conducted many studies in the field of transplant rejection. In recognition of his achievements, he received many national and international awards, among them the ISN Jean Hamburger Award in 2005 during the World Congress of Nephrology in Singapore, the John P. Peters Award (American Society of Nephrology 2007, San Francisco), the ISN AMGEN Award (World Congress of Nephrology: WCN 2011, Vancouver), the International Award "Luis Hernando" (Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo Renal Foundation FRIAT: Madrid, Spain) and the “Lennox K. Black International Prize for Excellence in Medicine” (Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia). ). Prof. Remuzzi was honored by the Italian President of the Republic with the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce in 2022. Prof. Remuzzi is the author of more than a thousand publications in international medical journals and has written 24 books.