Plenary Opening Session

The Plenary Opening session will be on Thursday September 4 at 9AM (or 9:00). The confirmed speakers are:

Dr. Asa Radix

Bio
Asa Radix, MD, PhD, MPH, FIDSA, FACP

Dr. Asa Radix is Executive Vice President of Research and Education at Callen-Lorde Community Health Centre and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Asa has over 20 years’ experience providing care to trans and gender diverse adults. He integrates clinical, academic, and policy expertise to advance equitable healthcare for trans populations globally. His research focuses on transgender health, HIV and STI prevention, and healthcare disparities, with particular emphasis on developing and implementing culturally competent care models to improve healthcare engagement among marginalized populations.

Asa has served on multiple national and international guideline development committees in transgender health, including as Co-Chair of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care Version 8. Since 2024, he has served as President of WPATH, with a goal to expand access to evidence-based, affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on transgender health and HIV care, making significant contributions to the evidence base that informs clinical practice. Asa’s work has been recognized with several awards, including the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute’s Dr. Linda Laubenstein HIV Clinical Excellence Award and the WPATH Gold Medal, the organization’s highest honour for lifetime contributions to transgender health. In 2024, Asa became editor-in-chief of Transgender Health.

Originally from the West Indies, Asa completed residency training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Connecticut, followed by doctoral training in epidemiology at Columbia University.

Dr. Marcus Altfeld

Bio
Prof. Marcus Altfeld is a Professor of Immunology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and serves as the director of the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV). His laboratory studies antiviral immune responses, and the mechanisms that enable the immune system to control viral infections. In particular, Prof. Altfeld’s research focuses on the mechanisms by which steroid hormones and genes encoded by the X and Y chromosome regulate innate and adaptive immunity during infections and autoimmune diseases. Prof. Altfeld studied Medicine in Cologne and Paris, did his post-doctoral training in London and Boston, and joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School in 2003. In 2013, he was recruited to the LIV in Hamburg. Since 2017, he serves as the director of the Institute of Immunology at the UKE and since 2024 as the scientific director of the LIV.