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Debra Woods is a Senior Principal Scientist in the Veterinary Medicine Research and Development group at Pfizer Animal Health, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. She currently heads the Endoparasiticides Discovery Research team, with responsibility for delivering novel anthelmintic lead molecules for progression to clinical development. She has worked in veterinary antiparasitic discovery since 1991, initially involved in the development of mechanism-based screens, then progressing to in vitro and in vivo parasite model development and project management of ecto- and endo-parasiticide discovery programs. In recent years, she has spear-headed investment in academic research directed towards applying molecular parasitology approaches to antiparasitic target identification and validation. In addition, she is the Pfizer Animal Health coordinator for the Pfizer/WHO-TDR collaboration, aimed at identifying novel leads for neglected parasite diseases and is one of the contributors to the WHO Helminth Initiative.

Simon Croft is Professor of Parasitology and Head of the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK. He trained as a parasitologist at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and, after post-doctoral periods in the laboratory researching anti-parasite drug mechanisms and in the field working on the transmission of African trypanosomiasis, he moved to research on drug discovery and development. His expertise and knowledge on anti-protozoal chemotherapy was developed while working for 5 years with the Wellcome Research Laboratories, Beckenham, UK in the 1980s. Following his return to academia, Simon focused his research on the identification and evaluation of novel drugs and formulations for the treatment of leishmaniasis, malaria, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and South American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease). This research included projects on miltefosine, AmBisome and topical paromomycin, all of which reached clinical trials for the treatment of leishmaniasis. His work on anti-malarials has included several MMV supported discovery and pre-clinical projects, with industrial and academic partners. Other research interests include drug – immune response interactions and PK PD relationships in leishmaniasis and malaria.  From 2004 to 2007 Simon was the first R & D Director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Geneva.

Wayne has almost 30 years experience in synthetic and medicinal chemistry both in academia, government and industry. Wayne obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Organic Chemistry from The University of Western Australia. He then spent two years at Imperial College in the UK where he obtained a DIC, followed by a year at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Wayne then took up a position with ICI Australia's Research Group in Melbourne where he designed and synthesised compounds including agrochemicals. He worked for six months at ICI Agrochemicals' Jealott's Hill Research Station in the UK designing a novel herbicide target. Following ICI, Wayne returned to Western Australia and spent the ten years preceding Epichem at the Chemistry Centre (WA) where he was responsible for the formation and running of the Medicinal & Biological Chemistry Section which undertook collaborative R&D into drug discovery and contract synthesis for the drug discovery and pharmaceutical industries.

Wayne is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and currently holds appoinments as an Adjunct Associate Professor at both Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia.