Board of Directors

Michael has a research interest in optimising antimicrobial prescribing in children. He is the joint Chair of Penta. He was the previous Chair of the ESPID Research Committee. In the UK, he Chairs the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Infection Committee. He is the Chief Advisor on anti-infectives to the Children’s British National Formulary. He also Chairs the Department of Health’s advisory committee, Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection, which advises the UK government on antimicrobial use and resistance. He has published 220 papers on the optimal use of antimicrobials in children.

Claire Thorne is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK. Claire’s research has focused on the epidemiology of viral infections with respect to maternal and child health, with a particular emphasis on HIV, viral hepatitis and Zika virus. Claire leads the UK and Ireland National Surveillance of HIV in Pregnancy and Childhood and hepatitis B and C surveillance and cohort studies in the UK and Ukraine, and co-leads the European Pregnancy and Paediatric HIV Cohort Collaboration and PENTAHep (an international paediatric HCV clinical network). She is an Advisory Board member of the International Antiretroviral Pregnancy Registry. Claire serves on technical working groups for WHO and UNICEF, and is a Member of the Regional Committee for Validation of Elimination of MTCT of HIV and/or syphilis in the WHO Region. She has been a member of the Scientific Committee for the International Workshop on HIV Pediatrics since 2009. Claire is a member of the International Advisory Board of Lancet HIV, Editorial Panel of Journal of Viral Eradication and Editorial Board of HIV Medicine.

Carlo is the President of Penta Foundation and Full Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Padua (Italy). Head of the paediatric HIV clinical trial unit of Padua Hospital, he is author of more than 220 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is the coordinator of several International research projects and scientific reviewer of international journals including The Lancet, AIDS, PIDJ, HIV Medicine, Paediatrics, and Member of the Editorial Board of the research journal “Infectious Diseases” and of “Journal of Virus Eradication”. In 2017 Carlo Giaquinto was given the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) Bill Marshal Award.

Diana is a paediatrician and Professor of Epidemiology and Clinical Trials at MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.  Over the last 30 years Di has set up and coordinated a network of clinical trials and cohorts across Europe, Thailand and South America mainly within paediatric HIV infection. This work expanded to Sub-Saharan Africa in the early 2000s where she has undertaken large multi-country trials to address strategy questions in adult and paediatric HIV, more recently expanding to India and South Asia, and into other diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and bacterial infections.

Di is a founder of Penta and vice-chair of the Penta Foundation Board. She has served on Wellcome Trust and MRC research boards as well as WHO advisory and guideline committees. In 2019 she was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of York and in 2020 was made a fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.

Paolo is an Immunologist and Professor of Paediatrics at the Children’s Hospital Bambino Gesù/ University of Rome Tor Vergata. He dedicated most of his career to congenital immunodeficiency pathogenesis. Particularly, in the field of HIV, he has performed significant research on MTCT mechanisms, HIV molecular diagnosis in infants, and analysis of immunological mechanisms correlating to early ART. Paolo coordinated the only HIV therapeutic vaccine trial conducted on HIV infected children. He has published more than 260 papers in peer-reviewed journals.