Prof. 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 Cantional University Tongren Hospital (China), Wuhan University (China), Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China) Bursa Uludag University (Turkey), Peking University, China and Harvard University (USA). He is a Senate Member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. Cezmi Akdis has published more than 800 peer-reviewed articles. His h-index is 173 (Scholar one) 138 (Web of Science). Cezmi Akdis acted as the President of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (20’000 members) between 2011-2013. He is a senate member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences. He was the editor of Global Atlases of Allergy, Asthma I-II, Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Allergic Rhinitis, Planetary Health, and Co-Editor of Pediatric Allergy. He was the founder and organizer of the World Immune Regulation Meetings, Davos I-XX. He was the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Allergy journal. Cezmi Akdis’s current research is the continuation of his epithelial barrier theory development of allergic and autoimmune diseases. He has recently identified 80 diseases linked to Epithelial Barrier Damage and Microbial Dysbiosis overall are responsible for more than 2 billion patients. Cezmi Akdis is currently focused on development of AI solutions to better understand the mechanisms of diseases linked to epithelial barrier defect caused by environmental changes. His major contributions include immune tolerance to allergens, understanding of Type 2 immunity, discovery or first time demonstration of many human immune system cells and cell subsets and many articles at the early stages of Covid including the first human to human infection paper. Website: www.epithelialbarriertheory.com en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cezmi_Akdis

Dr. Hae-Sim Park is the Professor of the Department of Allergy & Clinical Immunology at Ajou University Medical Centre, South Korea. In clinical science, she has been recognized as a top-ranked allergy specialist and devoted as national and regional principal investigators in early clinical trials, and real-world studies for asthma, chronic urticaria and comorbid conditions, including chronic rhinosinusitis. Regarding translational research activities, she has concentrated on three fields, 1) the pathogenic mechanisms and biomarker validation for severe asthma, and N-ERD/NSAID hypersensitivity, 2) development of novel immunomodulators for severe asthma and chronic urticaria. She has published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, and is a leading author of major textbooks including Middleton’s textbook of allergy. In addition, she has served on reviewers/editors of leading allergy journals and had devoted as an editor-in-chief of Allergy Asthma Immunol Research for 7 years (2014-2020) to promote this journal to international scale.

Dr Akdis is working in the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), University Zurich since 1995 and received her PhD in Immunology. She worked as a postdoctoral scientist and became a group leader at SIAF, where she has established her own research group in 2003. Dr Akdis made her habilitation in Zurich University Medical Faculty on Experimental Immunology in 2005 and became a professor in 2016. She has published 389 peer-reviewed articles, sum of times cited: 33'143 and her h-index: 99 (135- Google Scholar). She has received honorary professorships from Beijign Cantional University Tongren Hospital (China), Wuhan University (China), Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), Bursa Uludag University (Turkey), and Harvard University (USA). She has received research grants and collaborative grants from the Swiss National Foundation, European Union (6 consortium grants) and Stanford University Sean Parker Seed Grant. She received numerous awards, including International Distinguished Fellow Award of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI. European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology EAACI, Paul Ehrlich Award for Experimental Research, Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) Datta Lecture and Medal, Kanton Graubünden Scientific Recognition Award, Sedat Simavi and Bulent Eczacibasi Medical Science Awards. She is currently scientific program co-chair of the EAACI. Her major contributions are on mechanisms of immune tolerance to allergens, viral infection responses of B cells, human B regulatory cells, mechanisms of allergen Immunotherapy and the role of antigen-specific B cells, immune tolerance to food antigens, regulation and subsets of IgG4 memory B cells.