MVIF thrives thanks to the dedication of many individuals who contribute their expertise in academia, research, and science communication. Their commitment is essential to advancing our mission. You can learn more about the people involved below.

Organizational Structure

Board of Directors

President: Serena Manara
Vice President & Secretary of the Board: Moreno Zolfo
Treasurer: Edoardo Pasolli
Founding Members: Levi Waldron, Nicola Segata

Organizing Committees

Atlantic Committee – Leads programming and event coordination for Atlantic-first events.
Pacific Committee – Leads programming and event coordination for Pacific-first events.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors ensures the smooth operation of the MVIF Association and contributes to its scientific direction, in close collaboration with the local committees, who play a key role in shaping the forum’s programming.

Serena Manara - President
MVIF manager and Scientific Advisor, Italy
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Moreno Zolfo - Vicepresident and Board Secretary
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan
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Edoardo Pasolli - Treasurer
Associate Professor at the University of Naples Federico II
Department of Agricultural Sciences, Italy
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Levi Waldron - Founder
Professor at City University of New York (CUNY)
School of Public Health, USA
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Nicola Segata - Founder
Professor at the University of Trento
Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Italy
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Organizing Committees

The two local Organizing Committees play a central role in shaping MVIF’s scientific program. They design and lead live meetings in their respective time zones, support speakers and session chairs both technically and logistically, and curate themed sessions that reflect their regional interests and expertise.

Atlantic Organizing Committee

in alphabetical order

Nadia Andrea Andreani - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Assistant Professor, Sapienza University of Rome
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Francesco Asnicar - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Trento
Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Italy
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Luigi Borruso - Atlantic Organizing Committee

Assistant Professor at Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences
Free University of Bozen - Bolzano, Italy
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Antonia Bruno - Atlantic Organizing Committee

Assistant Professor in Microbiology at the Biotechnology and Biosciences
Department of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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Maria Carmen Collado - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku, Finland
Research Scientist at Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology-Spanish National Research Council (IATA-CSIC), Spain

Adeshile Oluwatosin Dorcas - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Devops Engineer, Software Developer, Biochemist, Nigeria
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Mohsen Hegab - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Senior Biomedical & Microbiome Scientist; Experienced Med. Sci. Educator & Member of the IAMSE; Alumnus, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany
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Christian Hoffmann - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Assistant Professor at University of Sao Paulo
Department of Food Sciences and Experimental Nutrition, Brazil

Khalid Ibrahim - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Assistant Professor at the University of Zakho,
Faculty of Sciences, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Christina Pavloudi - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC)
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Victoria Poromon - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Microbiome Study Curator, Nigeria
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Roberta Raffaetà - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Associate Professor of Socio-Cutural Anthropology, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice.
PI of the ERC Starting grant HealthXCross

Kate Rasheed - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Microbiome Study Curator, Nigeria
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Alessandro Rossi - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at Humanitas University, Italy
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Felix Salim - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Fellow, EMBL, Germany

Muhammad Shahzaib - Atlantic Organizing Committee
SEMM, PhD Student in the CIBIOCM Lab at the University of Trento, Italy
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Svetlana Ugarčina Perović - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Trento, Department of Cellular and Computational Biology (CIBIO), Italy
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Tommi Vatanen - Atlantic Organizing Committee
Senior Research fellow, Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand
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Pacific Organizing Committee

in alphabetical order

Samuel Aroney - Pacific Organizing Committee
Centre for Microbiome Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
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Jose Caparros Martin - Pacific Organizing Committee
Research Fellow, Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre
The Kids Research Institute, Australia
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Anna Cusco - Pacific Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at Big Data Biology Lab, Fudan University
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, China
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Pamela Ferretti - Pacific Organizing Committee
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago, USA
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Serena Fraraccio - Pacific Organizing Committee
Scientist & Microbiology Lab Manager at Oath Inc., USA
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Lisa Karstens - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University
Departments of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA
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M Nithya Kruthi - Pacific Organizing Committee
PhD Candidate at Centre for Microbiome Research, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
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Yiting Liu - Pacific Organizing Committee
PhD candidate at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Sayaka Mizutani - Pacific Organizing Committee
JSPS Research Fellow at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Hein Tun - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and
JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Hong Kong SAR

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Takuji Yamada - Pacific Organizing Committee
Associate Professor at The Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

Tenghao Zheng - Pacific Organizing Committee
Clinical Data Analyst, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Australia
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