All speakers are listed in alphabetical order.
ASRH Keynote | The Kirby Institute
Does the 4CMenB meningitis B vaccine prevent gonorrhoea? Lessons learned from the GoGoVax trial
Our GoGoVax randomised trial showed that 4CMenB meningococcal B vaccine does not prevent gonorrhoea in high-risk gay and bisexual men. This was despite multiple previous observational studies suggesting a preventive effect. This discrepancy highlights the importance of randomised trials in the assessment of efficacy of pharmaceutical interventions. Ongoing trials will report soon on the effect of vaccination in women and other people at lower gonorrhoea risk.
Scientia Professor Andrew Grulich is Head of the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales. He has worked in HIV/STI prevention in gay and bisexual men for more than 3 decades and sits on the Governing Council of the International AIDS Society
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Ragon Institute of MGB, MIT and Harvard
The global quest for durable immune control of HIV
Less than 1% of persons living with HIV have the extraordinary ability to control HIV without medications, making them essentially functionally cured. Emerging data support the hypothesis that the immune system may be trained to do this in persons on ART.
Dr. Walker is a physician-scientist, the founding and current Institute Director of the Ragon Institute of Mass General Brigham, MIT and Harvard, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His laboratory studies T cell immune responses to chronic viral infections, using HIV as a model system.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Macquarie University
Critical care in the future HIV response: what can we learn from the history of nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis?
The story of how nurses and their unions worked in partnership with the gay community to respond to HIV and AIDS in Australia is an inspiring example of care and solidarity, and can help us think critically about how we respond to HIV today and into the future.
Dr Geraldine Fela is an award-winning historian and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at Macquarie University. Her research traverses histories of gender and sexuality, labour, social movements and medicine.
Her first book, Critical Care: Nurses on the frontline of Australia’s AIDS crisis was published by UNSW Press in July 2024. In 2025, Critical Care was awarded the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in the category of Australian history, and was shortlisted in the NSW History Awards.
“The story of how nurses and their unions worked in partnership with the gay community to respond to HIV and AIDS in Australia is an inspiring example of care and solidarity, and can help us think critically about how we respond to HIV today and into the future.”
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
PrEP implementation in Malaysia: Lessons for the region
Malaysia’s implementation of PrEP offers a distinctive case study in advancing evidence-based HIV prevention into real world practice. This presentation explores how cultural, religious, and health system considerations shape programme design and delivery, highlighting contextually grounded, scalable strategies and transferable lessons for the region.
Dr. Iskandar Azwa is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and the Clinical Lead for the HIV service in the Infectious Diseases Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
He is also the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in Infectious Diseases & AIDS (CERIA), Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya.
His research interests include HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) implementation research, HIV resistance and evaluation of novel HIV treatment strategies in resource-limited settings.
He is the site Principal Investigator (PI) for several international collaborative HIV clinical trials that have shaped HIV guidelines both locally and globally. Much of his recent work has focused on increasing community access to HIV prevention biomedical interventions and implementation differentiated service delivery models of HIV care and prevention, including m-health and pharmacy-led service delivery models. He has been a member of several WHO guidelines development groups on HIV treatment and prevention since 2020.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Ministry of Health and Medical Services - Fiji
From Emergency to System: Building Fiji’s HIV Response in Real Time
Fiji’s HIV epidemic is a reminder that outbreaks do not wait for systems to catch up. Our challenge is not simply to control transmission, but to build the governance, workforce, partnerships, and community trust needed to sustain a national response for decades to come. This presentation is about what it takes to build that system in real time, while the epidemic continues to evolve around us.
Dr Jason Leo Iane Mitchell is a Fijian public health leader working at the intersection of HIV, sexual health, and health systems transformation in the Pacific. With over two decades of experience, his work spans policy development, programme design, and institutional strengthening across national and regional responses.
He currently leads Fiji’s HIV epidemic response, bringing together government, communities, and partners to deliver evidence-informed, culturally grounded solutions. Jason’s work is driven by a commitment to equity, dignity, and rethinking sexual health beyond disease control, with a focus on building responsive systems that reflect the realities of Pacific peoples.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | Patsin/napwha
Our Mob, Our Health: Centring Aboriginal Voices in the HIV Response: Lessons From 21 Years of the Positive Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Network (PATSIN)
The impacts of HIV on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are different from those of the broader positive community. We have higher rates of heterosexual transmission than non-indigenous communities. We have higher rates of transmission through injecting drug use. And since our communities experience much higher rates of incarceration, this creates a whole lot of problems around testing, confidentiality, access to treatment both in and out of custody, and safe access to clean injecting equipment…. And these challenges don’t sit in isolation. They sit right on top of every other challenge facing Aboriginal people and their communities- housing instability, chronic illness, early death, intergenerational disadvantage that goes back generations. Our people don’t just have HIV. So there is a need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living with HIV having a seat at the table, at every level so their voices continue to be amplified in Australia’s response to eliminating HIV for everyone.
Michelle Tobin is an Aboriginal woman of the Yorta Yorta Nation and a descendant of the Stolen Generation. She is a mother to two daughters and 6 grandchildren and lives on the Central Coast NSW with her partner of 20 years. She has lived with HIV for over 36 years, lost her husband to HIV in 1992 and experienced many levels of stigma and discrimination. This drove Michelle to become a passionate, vocal advocate for HIV issues.
Michelle worked with the HIV Speakers Bureau for many years and served on several state-and national-level HIV boards and committees. She sits on the Board of the Anwernekenhe National HIV Alliance. (The ANA) as the representative living with HIV and is a community member and Convener of the Positive Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Network (PATSIN). Michelle is a director on the board of NAPWHA and a member of the National Association of People with HIV Australia’s Femme Fatales network and one of two women across Australia who advocate for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people living with HIV. She represents the positive voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, especially women, on several advisory committees.
Recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion -Social Emotional Wellbeing at Sydney University and worked with Positive Life NSW in developing The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Living With or at Risk of HIV Health Co-Designed Project is a needs assessment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) community of NSW, regarding and with consideration to: accessing and engaging with services (including health and social determinants of health-related services); accessing pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral medication (ART); lifestyle choices, including transience; rates of incarceration/custody; and public health orders.
HIV&AIDS Keynote | University of California, San Francisco
Clinical trial data characterising a promising combination immunotherapy strategy for functional HIV Cure
Rachel Rutishauser, MD, PhD is an Infectious Disease physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Division of Experimental Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. The Rutishauser laboratory studies immunologic mechanisms of HIV control.
ASRH Keynote | Care and Public Health Research Institute at Maastricht University, the Netherlands Centre for Infectious Disease Control at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, the Netherlands
Chlamydia screening – a real-world policy change: experience and impact of reducing asymptomatic testing
The Netherlands has stopped routine asymptomatic chlamydia testing, one of the first large-scale, nationwide cases of de-implementation in STI care. At its core, it is a story of diagnostic stewardship: testing the right people, not everyone. Through complementary lenses of process and impact, tracked across the first year of implementation, this presentation examines how de-implementation was achieved in practice and what other settings can learn from it.
Alexiou’s work sits at the intersection of infectious disease epidemiology and implementation science. She focuses on how emerging evidence, guidelines, and diagnostic innovations can be integrated into STI care, with a particular interest in antimicrobial overuse. Her current research examines how targeted chlamydia testing translates into practice, using mixed methods to capture effects across the health system.
More speakers will be announced soon...