After studying medicine at the University of Basel (MD 1998 – 2004, PhD thesis 2006 – 2008) at the University of Basel, I went abroad for a Clinical Fellowship “Transplant Infectious Disease” as well as a Post-doctoral fellowship, Li Ka Shing Institute for Virology (2010 – 2011), both at the University of Alberta, Canada. Back
Biography
After studying medicine at the University of Basel (MD 1998 – 2004, PhD thesis 2006 – 2008) at the University of Basel, I went abroad for a Clinical Fellowship “Transplant Infectious Disease” as well as a Post-doctoral fellowship, Li Ka Shing Institute for Virology (2010 – 2011), both at the University of Alberta, Canada.
Back in Switzerland, I became a fellow in Clinical Microbiolgy (FAMH) (2012 – 2015) at the University Hospital of Basel. During the same time (11/2014 – to date) I became Research Group Leader Applied Microbiology Research” Laboratory in the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel. Finally, in November 2019, I became a Prof.
From September 2015 up to the present time, I am holding the position as Head of Department, Clinical Microbiology at the University Hospital of Basel. My main aims are:
(i) to develop new diagnostic for rapid detection of multidrug resistant and virulent pathogens;
(ii) to explore novel typing technologies such as whole genome sequencing (including long reads e.g. Pacbio, Minion) and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for clinical applications;
(iii) to combine phylogenetic tree structures on single bacterial colony levels from culture but also metagenomic approaches directly from patient samples using computational models;
(iv) to understand pathogens evolution within the host (e.g. during antibiotic treatment); (v) to finally understand pathogen evolution in the broad context of the host/pathogen/environment interaction.
This could lead to the identification of the most critical factors for pathogenicity and resistance development. Such information will allow the generation of novel intervention strategies to impact disease outcomes for a single patient but also the population burden of infections
