Debra M Foster is currently affiliated with Spectral Medical Inc. The majority of her career has been focused on clinical research in the area of sepsis, specifically endotoxemic sepsis. Her achievements in this realm are that she ran a multicenter, multinational clinical study for the EAA (endotoxin activity assay), the results of which were submitted to the FDA and other regulatory authorities for approval. To follow, she was the project lead of a multicenter, North American study for an anti-endotoxin therapy, the polymyxin-B hemoperfusion cartridge. This work led her to become Vice-President of clinical development for Spectral Medical. Currently, she is overseeing a second study for the polymyxin-B cartridge. The results of this study may become a disruptor for clinical research in sepsis.

John A Kellum is a distinguished professor at the University of Pittsburgh and holds an Endowed Chair in Critical Care Research in the Department of Critical Care Medicine. He also holds secondary appointments in Medicine, Bioengineering, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the Director of the Center for Critical Care Nephrology at the University of Pittsburgh and also serves as an intensivist at UPMC. He serves as Chief Medical Officer for Spectral Medical, a late-stage theranostic company advancing therapeutic options for sepsis and septic shock. His work spans various aspects of critical care medicine but centers on sepsis and acute organ dysfunction. He has organized multidisciplinary teams of investigators to study novel approaches to the treatment of sepsis and to the understanding of the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury. Since 2017 he has been the #1 Expert in the World for Acute Kidney Injury by Expertscape (www.experscape.com) and ranks among the top 0.1% of researchers in the world based on citations analyzed by Clarivate (www.clarivate.com). He was awarded the Life Sciences Award, Carnegie Science Awards in 2017.