Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Symposium, 2026

Delaney Ding is an M.D.-Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida College of Medicine and a National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases F30 pre-doctoral fellow. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in epidemiology, and his research integrates epidemiology, data science and clinical medicine to improve outcomes for patients with complex diseases. He is an active member of the UF Health Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Clinic, assisting with data collection and clinical care.

Kartik Cherabuddi, M.D., is a professor of medicine at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. He serves as the Chief Epidemiology Officer and the Associate Chief Quality Officer at Tampa General Hospital. He is a faculty member and infectious diseases specialist at TGH providing inpatient consultation. Cherabuddi's current research interests focus on antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial stewardship, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, infection prevention and clinical trials of novel infectious disease diagnostics and therapeutics.

Juan Campos Krauer, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville. His research focuses on zoonotic infectious diseases. His laboratory is focused on M. leprae infection among the Florida native nine-banded armadillos, and the complex transmission cycles of this pathogen.

Norman L. Beatty, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is a practicing infectious diseases specialist at UF Health Shands Hospital and the Associate Hospital Epidemiologist. He co-manages the UF Health Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Clinic with Kiran Motaparthi, M.D. They are currently researching the epidemiology, transmission dynamics and clinical outcomes of those with locally acquired M. leprae infection in Florida.

Kiran Motaparthi, M.D., is a professor of medicine in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is the department's Vice Chair of Education and serves as an attending physician for dermatology and dermatopathology. His research interests include autoimmune blistering disorders, inflammatory dermatopathology and dermatological infectious disease. Motaparthi co-manages the UF Health Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Clinic with Norman Beatty, M.D.

Jessica Fairley, M.D., is a professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases. She is the director of Emory’s Hansen’s Disease Program, which is a satellite clinic for the National Hansen’s Disease Program. Her research centers on the epidemiology, host-pathogen interactions and impact of neglected, tropical or emerging infectious diseases across unique and/or vulnerable populations globally and locally. She is currently researching M. leprae infection among household contacts in the southeast United States, Ethiopia and Brazil.

Charlotte Avanzi, Ph.D., holds a Pharm.D and a master’s degree specialized in in vitro diagnostics from Grenoble. She completed her Ph.D. at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where her research focused on the genomics and evolution of leprosy bacilli, and subsequently carried out a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mycobacteria Research Laboratories at Colorado State University. There, Avanzi studied mycobacterial genetics and developed molecular methods to assess the viability of leprosy bacilli. She is the principle investigator of the Avanzi Lab, where she and her team investigate the evolution, transmission and drug resistance of the leprosy bacilli through a One Health framework.

Bettina Broeckling, Ph.D, is a research scientist at the Mycobacteria Research Laboratories in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at Colorado State University. She attained her doctoral degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where she studied regulation of microtubule motor proteins. Previously, Broeckling has worked on the biochemistry of plant natural products, sucrose-regulation in plants, biomass mutants of rice and briefly headed the SARS-CoV-2 screening lab at Colorado State. In the Avanzi Lab, Broeckling is focused on applying the ribosomal synthesis ratio as a measure of the physiology of M. leprae.