National Microbiology Focal Point & Head of Microbiology Cooperation, Jerusalem, Israel

Jacob Moran-Gilad is a Medical Doctor board-certified in clinical microbiology and  public health. As Head of Microbiology Cooperation & National Microbiology Focal Point for the Israeli Ministry of Health he oversees a range of national strategic and policy-making activities and works with stakeholders across government and public sectors. Under this capacity he is leading areas such as appraisal of genomic technologies and the National Programme for Legionellosis Control and involved in cross-cutting work relating to emergency preparedness, disease surveillance and outbreak control. His main research interest as a Professor of clinical microbiology at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel is development of molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics capabilities for application of genomic approaches in public health microbiology, focusing on water-borne, food-borne and antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Jacob is the Chairperson of the ESCMID Study Group for Genomic and Molecular Diagnostics (ESGMD) and an executive committee member of the and the ESCMID Study Group for Legionella Infections (ESGLI). Within the ESGLI board, Jacob is responsible for microbiology and NGS and is leading the ESGLI Working Group on WGS for legionella.