Editor profiles

Cecilia has a BSc in biology from Imperial College, UK and an MSc in medical parasitology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.  She then studied the function of genes involved in malaria transmission for a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from Imperial College, UK. Having spent several years working on tropical diseases affecting developing countries, she became acutely aware of the importance of open access to peer reviewed scientific research.  In 2004, after completing her PhD she joined BioMed Central and was involved with raising awareness of open access publishing, which in those days was a novel concept. She was also involved with recruiting and maintaining relations with editorial board members across the entire BMC series of journals. She then spent several years copy-editing for non-native English speakers on a freelancing basis, before returning to BioMed Central in 2016. 

Sexually transmitted diseases

Stefan Baral is a physician epidemiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (JHSPH).  Stefan completed his certification in Community Medicine as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Family medicine with the Canadian Council of Family Physicians.

 Stefan has also been involved in HIV epidemiology, prevention, and implementation research focused on the epidemiology, human rights contexts, and effective interventions for gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender women, and female sex workers across Western and Central, and Southern Africa and parts of Asia with support from USAID, CDC, NIH, amfAR, and the Global Fund.  In addition, Stefan has led or supported the implementation and evaluation of HIV prevention studies globally characterizing effective combination HIV prevention packages for key populations across multiple low and income countries.  Stefan acts as the Director of the Key Populations Program for the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the JHSPH

HIV and co-infections

Andrea De Luca is an Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Siena, Italy. After graduating in medicine Andrea De Luca specialized in infectious diseases at the Catholic University of Rome, Italy. His research has focused on the clinical application of laboratory research achievements in the HIV and hepatitis fields. He has contributed to the clinical validation of the use of HIV-1 drug resistance testing, and of the interpretation of genotypic drug resistance to different antiretrovirals. He has conducted, as PI, several sponsored or independent clinical trials evaluating antiretroviral strategies, including salvage therapy and treatment switch and simplification. He has coordinated epidemiological studies on HIV-1 drug resistance in treatment naïve and experienced patients, including European multi-country collaboration studies. In addition he has performed several cohort studies in Italian and European cohorts on the impact of co-morbidities in HIV, toxicity of antiretrovirals, impact of hepatitis virus co-infections. Andrea also has an interest in epidemiological studies on the impact of antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings. He is a consultant of the HIV Drug Resistance Network at WHO, Geneva, since 2003, and a member of the core group since 2013. He is also a member of the Ethics Committee of Central Tuscany and a member of the Therapeutic Commission, Tuscan Region Health Care System. Andrea joined the Editorial Board of BMC Infectious Diseases as Section Editor in February 2016.

Viral Diseases

Jodie McVernon is a Medical Graduate with subspecialty training in Paediatrics, Public Health and Vaccinology. She has extensive expertise in clinical vaccine trials, epidemiologic studies and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, gained at the University of Oxford, Health Protection Agency London and University of Melbourne. She is Director of Epidemiology at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital, and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellow. She leads an NHMRC-funded nationally distributed Centre of Research Excellence in Policy Relevant Infectious Diseases Simulation and Mathematical Modelling (www.prism.edu.au). Her research group uses mathematical and computational models to advance understanding of infectious disease epidemiology, and consider the likely impacts of interventions to limit infection spread and burden. She became an Associate Editor for BMC Infectious Diseases in 2009, and Section Editor in 2014.

Healthcare-associated infection control

Dr Holly Seale, PhD is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She joined as an Associate Editor of BMC Infectious Diseases in 2014 and then moved to Section Editor in 2017. Dr Seale completed her PhD in epidemiology at the University of Sydney in 2008. During her PhD she worked at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance and then pursued her postdoctoral training in infectious disease social science research at UNSW, Sydney. Holly’s research focuses on the factors that impact on engagement and compliance with both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical infection prevention strategies including immunisation, the use of respiratory protection and hand hygiene. Her research uses a broad range of qualitative and mixed methods, and focuses on examining the issue from the system, provider and consumer prospective.

Viral Diseases

Julian Tang is a physician/clinical virologist by training and is therefore interested in all aspects of all viruses that cause human disease, particularly, respiratory viruses, bloodborne viruses and viral infections of children, pregnant women and in the immunocompromised. His research interests have been in the diagnosis, molecular epidemiology, seasonality and transmission of influenza mostly, but also in other respiratory viruses, including enteroviruses and adenoviruses, as well as vectorborne viruses, such as dengue and chikungunya. He also has a strong clinical interest in the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of HIV, HBV, HCV, herpesviruses and other emerging or re-emerging viruses. He also has many ongoing research collaborations in the area of viral epidemiology and sequencing/genomics, as well as aerosol/airborne transmission within the context of hospital infection control and prevention, for which he collaborates extensively with various engineering teams around the world.

Bacterial and fungal diseases

Dr. Kelvin To is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of the Department of Microbiology, the University of Hong Kong, and an Honorary Associate Consultant at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. He has received BSc in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and MBBS from the University of Hong Kong. He has completed his postgraduate training in clinical microbiology and infection at Queen Mary Hospital. He is now a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologist and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Dr. To’s research is focused on respiratory tract infection. In particular, he is interested in host genetic susceptibility, inflammatory response to severe respiratory virus infection, and novel antivirals and vaccine strategies. He also developed strategies in improving the microbiological diagnosis of respiratory tract infection.

Sexually transmitted diseases

Dr. Joseph D. Tucker, MD, PhD, AM is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of UNC Project-China at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an infectious diseases physician with a focus on sexually transmitted infections in Asia. He received training at UNC (MD), UCSF (internal medicine), Massachusetts General Hospital (infectious diseases), Harvard (regional studies), and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (public health).  His research focuses on using social forces to promote sexual health.  He has a special interest in crowdsourcing as a tool for improving public health.  He is the PI on two NIH R01 studies examining how crowdsourcing can be applied to improve HIV services. He is a member of the International Diagnostics Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  He has been a BMC Infectious Diseases Associate Editor since 2014 and a Section Editor since 2016.