Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, and Pediatric Pulmonary Unit Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUCRS) Porto Alegre, Brazil

Professor Erick Forno is a pediatric pulmonologist and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Prof. Forno's overarching research interests include the epidemiology and genomics of asthma; studying the effects of obesity on childhood respiratory health; the use of "omics" approaches to identify predictive and response biomarkers in pediatric pulmonary diseases; and the development of AI technology to improve respiratory health for children. His research is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF).

Christian Rosas-Salazar, MD, MPH, is a pediatric pulmonologist and clinical translational investigator at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Rosas-Salazar received his medical degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara. He then completed a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Michigan and a pediatric pulmonary fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. He is also a graduate of the Master of Public Health Program of the University of Pittsburgh. His current scientific program focuses on 1) examining genetic, environmental, sociodemographic, and lifestyle factors that shape the early-life respiratory microbiome, 2) evaluating the role of the early-life respiratory microbiome in the programming of the immune response, the severity of acute viral respiratory infections in infancy, and the origins of pediatric asthma phenotypes, and 3) developing novel interventions to manipulate the early-life respiratory microbiome with the ultimate purpose of preventing acute and chronic lung diseases in children. His contributions to research have been recognized by honors from the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Chest Physicians, the Society for Pediatric Research, and the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, among others. His scientific program is supported by funds from the Parker B. Francis Fellowship and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Jose A. Castro-Rodriguez, MD, PhD, ATSF. He was born in Peru and graduated in Medicine from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru (1982-1987), where he also completed his residency in Pediatrics (1988-1991). He was trained as a Fellow in Pediatric Respiratory Diseases (graduated summa cum laude) at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile (1994-1996). Later, he took a position as a visiting research scientist and Fellow in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson, US (1997-2000). One of his significant contributions was the creation of the Asthma Predictive Index (PMID: 11029352) with more than 1,850 citations and incorporated into several asthma guidelines. He was designed as an “ATS Fellow” (2020) and “Master of Latin American Pediatric Pulmonology” by the Latin American Pediatric Pulmonology Society (2018). He was awarded the “Worldwide Scientific Prize” from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (2002), the “Pediatric Year in Review Paper” at ATS (2001) with more than 1,370 citations (PMID: 10954761), and the “Peruvian Scientific Prize” from CONCYTEC (1993). Currently, he is a Full Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Research at the Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago, Chile). His main areas of interest are acute bronchiolitis, recurrent wheezing, respiratory infection diseases, and asthma in children (phenotypes, treatment, epigenetic, and fetal programming). He is frequently invited to give keynote presentations in more than 30 countries at international meetings. His research and vision are well-detailed in more than 210 papers: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=castro-rodriguez+ja&size=200. His H-Index is 59.

Mauricio Caballero is a distinguished Argentine pediatrician and scientific researcher, currently serving as the Director of the Infant Center for Translational Medicine at the National University of San Martín. In addition, he is an esteemed researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET). His groundbreaking research focuses on prevalent pediatric respiratory diseases, including bronchiolitis, asthma, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia.