Managing acute respiratory virus infections: Where do we go?

Nationality: Dutch

Position: Founding Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research and Guest-Professor at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover

Research fields: Virus infections of humans and animals

Professor Osterhaus is the Founding Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, and cofounder/CSO of Viroclinics-DDL BV (currently part of CERBA) and ViroNative BV (both spin-outs of Erasmus MC) and CR2O. He was head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus MC Rotterdam until 2014.

He has a long track record as a researcher and project leader of numerous major scientific projects. At Erasmus MC, he has run a diagnostic virology lab with more than 40 staff and a research virology lab with over 150 personnel. His research programme follows an integrated “viroscience” concept, bringing together world-leading scientists in molecular virology, immunology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and intervention studies for human and animal virus infections.

Among his major accomplishments are the discovery of more than 80 viruses of humans and animals (e.g. human metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, influenza viruses), elucidation of the pathogenesis of major human and animal virus infections, and development of novel intervention strategies. This has enabled health authorities like the WHO to effectively combat disease outbreaks like SARS and avian influenza. The established spin-outs are among his other societally relevant successes, allowing effective testing and refining of diagnostic tools and other intervention strategies.

Professor Osterhaus has acted as mentor for more than 85 PhD students and holds several key patents. He is the author of more than 1360 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, together cited > 90,000 times with an H index > 145. He holds several senior editorships and has received numerous prestigious awards. He is a member of the Dutch and German National Academies of Sciences, member of the Belgium Academia of Medicine, and Commander of the Order of the Dutch Lion.

Alba Vilajeliu is a public health physician with extensive experience in vaccine research and immunization programmes across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. She currently serves as a Technical Officer in the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO Headquarters, where she works on evidence-informed policy guidance for life-course immunization and contributes to the development and implementation of vaccine-preventable disease guidance for outbreak and emergency response. Previously, she worked at the Pan American Health Organization in Washington, D.C., the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Geneva. Earlier in her career, she worked as a clinician and researcher at the Manhiça Health Research Centre in Mozambique and at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. Dr. Vilajeliu holds an MD, an MPH, and a PhD in maternal immunization from the University of Barcelona and has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications on vaccines, immunization, and public health.

Dr. Leis is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. With a background in both statistics and epidemiology, her research seeks to understand intersections between chronic diseases and viral infectious disease, with a particular focus on non-traditional risk pathways leading to the development of chronic disease following acute viral infection. 

Much of her work is clinical and epidemiological in nature, with the driving motivation of identifying the “hidden populations” at elevated risk of developing severe disease from or significant adverse sequelae after acute viral respiratory infection beyond our current understanding of these mechanisms. 

She received her PhD in Epidemiologic Science from the University of Michigan in 2022, her MS in Biostatistics from Drexel University in 2015, and her BS in Mathematics from St. Bonaventure University in 2013.

Dr Torres Marti is the Medical Doctor, of the Department of Pulmonology and Respiratory Allergy, Clinical Institute of Thorax, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona. He is also a Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain. 

He is the Chief of the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and Coordinator of all ICU’s at the Clinic Thorax Institute of Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. He is the Director of 33 PhD programs. Dr Torres is currently participating in 8 European Union projects and has participated in 29 research projects supported by public funding’s. His previous appointments include Head of the Department of Pneumology and Respiratory Allergy of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona (2004–2010). 

Professor Torres attained his degree in medicine from the University of Barcelona and his residency in Pneumology in the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. His other specialities include: internal medicine, laboral medicine and intensive care. Professor Torres also has a Masters in Hospital Management from the University of Barcelona. He is an active member in many medical societies; and was previously Vice President of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery and Chairman of the Respiratory Intensive Care Assembly of the European Respiratory Society. He was also nominated for the Vice-presidency of the European Respiratory Society in 2011 and 2012. 

Professor Torres has received many awards for scientific achievement, the most recent being a Fellowship of the European Respiratory Society in 2014 for his contribution to research in the respiratory field. 

He is Associate Editor of several journals including European Respiratory Journal, Thorax, Intensive Care Med, BMC infectious Diseases and Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is also on the editorial board of many journals including the American Journal of Respiratory, Critical Care, Chest, Critical Care Medicine and Journal of COPD. He has also authored or co-authored 420 original articles and 188 book chapters.

Dr Carolien van de Sandt is a Team Leader in the Cellular Immunology Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Her principal area of expertise is in viral and aging immunology.

Carolien completed her PhD in 2016 at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) where she investigated the longevity, cross-reactivity and immune evasion strategies of influenza-specific CD8+ T-cells, followed by two years of postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Profs Rimmelzwaan and Osterhaus. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious European Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Fellowship and the University of Melbourne’s McKenzie Fellowship to join the Kedzierska laboratory, where she led the Aging Immunity Research Program which aims to unravel the mechanisms that underly gain and loss of CD8+ T cell function across human lifespan and in high-risk populations. During the pandemic Carolien temporarily relocated to the Netherlands as part of her MSCA Fellowship (2020-2021) where she led her own research team at Sanquin Research studying SARS-CoV-2 immunity in healthy and autoimmune patients. In 2022 she was awarded the ARC-DECRA Fellowship and the NHMRC Investigator EL2 Fellowship in 2025, to continue her Aging Immunity and T-cell Development Research. In 2025 she established her own research group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Carolien has >70 publications including in leading scientific journals like Nature Medicine, Immunity, Nature Immunology and Nature Communications. The importance of her work has been recognized by 11 prestigious Awards including the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI)-Peter Doherty Medal (2024) and the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI)-Claude Hannoun Prize for Best Body of Work (2023). In 2023, she received the Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS)-Young Tall Poppy Award and ASI-Public Engagement Award for her contributions to public outreach and in 2024 she was shortlisted for the Nature Inspiring Women: Scientific Achievement Award (2024).

Dr Charlie Franck Amoia is a Lecturer-Researcher in Immunology at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University Alassane Ouattara, in Côte d'Ivoire. He holds a PhD in Veterinary Medicine, with a specialization in Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Vaccinology, from Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. 

His research focuses on vaccine development against viral pathogens. As a Visiting Scholar at the Weger-Lucarelli Laboratory at Virginia Tech (USA), he designed and developed a genotype-matched, adjuvanted DNA vaccine against Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), a highly contagious avian paramyxovirus that causes severe acute respiratory disease in poultry, with up to 100% mortality in unvaccinated flocks. This vaccine demonstrated strong protective efficacy in animal models. Most recently, as a Junior Research Investigator at the SACIDS Foundation for One Health in Tanzania, Dr. Amoia led the field evaluation of that same vaccine candidate. 

He is an active Early Career Researcher member of the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network and is deeply committed to translating cutting-edge immunology and vaccinology into practical, life-saving solutions for viral threats in Africa and beyond.

Nationality: American, British

Position: Professor of Applied Evolutionary Biology, University of Amsterdam Faculty of Medicine

Research field: Virus Evolution

ESWI member since 2019

Colin Russell is a professor at the University of Amsterdam School of Medicine. His research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of human respiratory viruses and the immune responses that control them. He has worked extensively on the within-and-between host evolution of influenza viruses, influenza virus vaccine composition, and issues related to diagnostic and sequencing resource allocation for virus surveillance. Professor Russell regularly advises a wide variety of international organisations, including WHO, on topics ranging from surveillance to pandemic preparedness, vaccine design, and test-to-treat programs. Colin is the Chair of the ESWI since 2023 and the Chair of the EU Steering Group on Influenza Vaccination since 2024.

Nationality: Dutch

Position: Associate Professor, Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands

Research Fields: Pathogenesis of respiratory virus infections; Neurological complications; Systemic Inflammation; Influenza A viruses; SARS-CoV-2; Enterovirus D-68;

Short description:
Debby van Riel is an Associate Professor at the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands. After obtaining her MSc at the John Moores University in the UK, she continued her PhD studying the cell tropism of influenza viruses, which she defended in 2010. Since then her research focuses on the pathogenesis of extra-respiratory complications of respiratory virus infections, such as influenza A viruses (seasonal, pandemic and zoonotic influenza viruses), Enterovirus-D68, and SARS-CoV-2. These studies have revealed important new insights into the mechanism of systemic virus dissemination, routes of virus invasion into the central nervous system, systemic inflammatory responses, and the development of central nervous system complications. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals including Science, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Materials and Trends in Neurosciences and she received multiple prestigious personal grants (a.o. Veni, Vidi, Aspasia, EUR fellowship, Erasmus MC fellowships) and prizes (ESWI award, Beijerinck Premium).

I am a Respiratory Resident undertaking a Research Fellowship at Chelsea & Westminster and Imperial College London, where I contribute to prospective cohort studies, commercial trials and population-based research. I have a specific interest in infection and immunology, hence am excited to starting my PhD with the COPD group at Imperial College in September. I will focus on exacerbations and the longer-term sequelae of infection in this cohort. 

I am currently studying the impact of acute respiratory viruses (with a focus on hMPV) on cardiovascular morbidity.

Nationality: British

Position: Professor, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Research fields: Molecular biology of influenza viruses

ESWI member since 2015

Prof. Hutchinson received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was then a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford from 2009 – 2016. In 2016, he set up a research group at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, where he is now Professor of Molecular and Cellular Virology.

Hutchinson’s research looks at the factors that make influenza and other respiratory viruses infectious, including the morphology and composition of virus particles, the way in which viruses interact and spread within the host and how these factors shape the course of a respiratory infection. He was named ‘Young Microbiologist of the Year’ by the Microbiology Society in 2007 and has held fellowships including a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College Oxford (2010 – 2014) and an MRC Career Development Award (2016 – 2021).

Hutchinson has an ongoing interest in science communication, winning the 2008 Biosciences Federation’s New Researcher Science Communication Award and the 2021 Microbiology Society’s Microbiology Outreach Prize, and in the training of postgraduate research students and early-career researchers. As well as being a member of ESWI since 2015, he sits on the Microbiology Society’s Virus Division and leads the Steering Group for the UK’s Influenza Update Meetings.

Edoardo Colzani is a medical doctor and epidemiologist with a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD in breast cancer epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He has been assistant professor of public health at the University of Milano-Bicocca until 2015. 

He joined ECDC in 2011 where he has focused on the burden of communicable diseases in Europe, assessment of EU accession countries, evidence-based approaches for scientific advice, and vaccine-preventable disease. During the pandemic he acted as strategic analyst and led the scientific advice team. Since 2022, he has led the respiratory virus team at ECDC where he is currently Head of Section. 

He is also Deputy Head of Unit Directly-transmitted and Vaccine-preventable Diseases.

Elias studied biology at the University of Hamburg and molecular biology and physiology at the University of Greifswald. In 2025 he finished his PhD at the Institute of Virology in Freiburg, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kochs, working on tick-bore Orthomyxoviruses. 

He continues working in Freiburg as a postdoctoral researcher in the research group of Dr. Peter Reuther, mainly investigating mechanisms of non-cytolytic clearance and host-cell survival after RNA virus infection.

Emilie Karafillakis is the lead for European Research at the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP), with appointments at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as well as at the University of Antwerp (European office of the VCP).

She has around 10 years of experience as a social scientist, working in international research and teaching in academia. In her position at the VCP, Emilie leads and contributes to social science, qualitative research, systematic literature reviews and digital analyses to explore confidence in vaccination among parents, adolescents and healthcare professionals and assess effective communication and community engagement strategies. Her research has focused on confidence in HPV vaccination, maternal vaccines as well as influenza and COVID-19 vaccines.

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Dr. Fiona Ecarnot works as a researcher at the Cardiology Department of the University Hospital of Besançon, France, and affiliated with the SINERGIES research laboratory at the University Marie & Louis Pasteur, Besqnçon, France. 

She received an MSc in biostatistics and epidemiology from the University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, and obtained a PhD at the same university in 2019 in the field of cardiovascular sciences, focussing on the use of qualitative research methods in the field of cardiology. 

She qualified as a director of doctoral research in 2024. Her research areas include vaccines, geriatrics and gerontology, ethics in healthcare, palliative care, and end-of- life issues. 

She has authored or co-authored over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, plus numerous book chapters.

Nationality: Austrian

Position: Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, USA) and Professor of Infection Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria)

ESWI member since 2022

Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines. 

In 2014 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently the endowed Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness (C-VaRPP). Furthermore, since 2024, Dr. Krammer is Professor for Infection Medicine at the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute at the Medical University of Vienna. 

Dr. Krammer's work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on coronaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses. He has published more than 400 papers on these topics. Since 2019, Dr. Krammer has served as principal investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC), which develops improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long-lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

Nationality: British and Cypriot

Position: Family Physician. National Immunisation Lead Royal College of General Practitioners. President British Global & Travel Health Association.

Research Fields: Primary Care Vaccinations

Dr George Kassianos is a GP and the National Immunisation Lead of the Royal College of General Practitioners of which he is a Fellow. He is also President and Fellow of the British Global and Travel Health Association (BGTHA) and Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG), the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS), The Academy of Medical Educators, and the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Kassianos is Chair of RAISE [Raise Awareness of Influenza Strategies in Europe], a Pan-European Group (20 countries) on influenza, and Board Member of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI). He has served as medical editor of four medical journals, currently serves on a number of editorial boards, and is Associate Editor (Primary Care) of ‘Drugs In Context’ international journal.

Dr Kassianos was the recipient of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Foundation Council Award (2018), the most prestigious award for services to the College and General Practice.

In October 2020, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr Kassianos Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to General Practice and Travel Medicine.

Nationality: German

Position: Head of Department, Leibniz Institute of Virology (Germany); and Professor of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany

Research fields: Interspecies transmission and pathogenesis of influenza A viruses; High-risk groups of influenza (pregnancy, asthma, obesity); New antiviral strategies against influenza

ESWI member since 2009

Gülşah Gabriel is head of the department Viral Zoonoses - One Health at the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV) in Hamburg and professor for Viral Zoonoses at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Her research focus is to understand the molecular basis of influenza A virus interspecies transmission from birds to humans as well as pathomechanisms in high-risk groups.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, her research group was among the first to identify key pathomechanisms that are currently discussed to contribute to long-term consequences after acute respiratory infections. These include SARS-CoV-2 replication in human adipose tissue (Zickler et al., Cell Metabolism 2022) and altered sex hormone metabolism in COVID-19 patients (Schroeder et al., Emerging Microbes & Infections 2021; Stanelle-Bertram et al., Cell Reports Medicine 2023).

In 2009, Gülşah Gabriel was the first winner of the ESWI Best Body of Work Award. She was elected Vice Chair of ESWI in 2014. She has received many prestigious awards for her research, e.g. the Robert-Koch Förderpreis awarded from the Robert-Koch Foundation, the Best Minds Award from the Leibniz Association and the DZIF Award for Translational Infection Research from the German Center for Infection.

Since 2024, Gülşah Gabriel is speaker of the newly established Leibniz Lab Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future that combines the expertise of 41 Leibniz Institutes from various disciplines with practical knowledge to develop evidence-based strategies that permanently strengthen the pandemic resilience of science and society.

Iacopo Del Panta is a Milan-based healthcare professional currently working as a Consultant in the Healthcare Area at The European House - Ambrosetti (TEHA Group) in Italy. He specializes in healthcare strategy, policy analysis, and strategic consulting for the healthcare sector

Irene González-Domínguez, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research focuses on the development of innovative preventive and therapeutic strategies against viral infections, with a particular emphasis on vaccine design and immunotherapeutics. 

Over the past decade, Dr. González-Domínguez has built extensive expertise in the molecular design of virus-like particles (VLPs), the generation of viral vector vaccines (including NDV-based platforms), and the establishment of animal models to evaluate vaccine efficacy. Her current work targets high-priority areas such as universal influenza vaccines and therapeutic strategies for persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals. Dr. González-Domínguez earned her PhD in Biotechnology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is inventor in multiple patents in vaccine innovation and has published extensively in high-impact journals such as Nature Communications, Molecular Therapy, Science Translational Medicine, and npj Vaccines. 

Beyond the lab, she serves as the General Secretary of the Spanish Association of Scientists in the USA (ECUSA) and is an active mentor to the next generation of biomedical scientists.

With over 30 years of global leadership in health and ageing, Dr. Jane Barratt is a trusted voice at the intersection of policy, practice, and purpose. As the former Secretary General of the International Federation on Ageing, she has helped shape major international frameworks—from the WHO Immunization Agenda 2030 to the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing—always championing systems that respect and respond to the dignity of older people.

Today, Jane works at the leading edge of global health reform—advising institutions, convening bold conversations, and speaking around the world on what ageing truly demands of us.

Her work bridges silos. Her words move rooms. And her focus is unwavering: evidence, equity, and action.

Dr Jarosław Waligóra is a Deputy Head of Unit in the Health Security unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety. In the same directorate he worked before on heath research, rare diseases, cancer, nutrition and physical activity policy. By training he is Medical Doctor, Paediatrician and specialist in Clinical Genetics. He obtained his PhD at the Medical University of Warsaw.

Dr. Kevin Ciminski is a junior research group leader at the Institute of Virology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany. His research focuses on virus-host interactions of emerging zoonotic viruses, including the elicited host immune response to viral infections, immunopathology, and transcriptional consequences. Kevin completed his PhD in 2020, studying the previously unknown bat-derived influenza A viruses H17N10 and H18N11 and assessing their zoonotic potential. In 2022, he received seed funding from the University Medical Center Freiburg through the Hans A. Krebs Medical Scientist Program to establish himself as an independent junior research group leader. Since 2023, Kevin is a visiting scientist at the Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology

Lotte Steuten is a health economist by training and primarily interested in health technology assessment and decision analytic modelling of health innovations. 

Alongside her position at OHE, Lotte is a Visiting Honorary Professor at City University of London, a member of the ISPOR Board of Directors and associate editor at Value in Health. She has published >100 peer-reviewed papers. 

Lotte’s current research interests include applied health economics, health policy and market access. She specializes in quantitative methods for estimating and comparing the expected health and economic benefits of new interventions across their lifecycle, and novel approaches to efficiently building the evidence for these.

Lucy Greenwood is an EPSRC-funded Health Data Science DPhil student at the University of Oxford, in which she is investigating the predictability of the evolution of influenza A H3N2 viruses. 

After an integrated master’s in mathematics at the University of Oxford, she undertook an MSc in Modelling for Global Health at the University of Oxford to apply the methods she had learnt to more real-life scenarios. 

During this course, she completed a research placement at the National University of Singapore investigating the impact of vaccination on Japanese Encephalitis transmission.

Nationality: Dutch 

Position: Intensivist, Spaarne Gasthuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Senior Scientist, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Research fields: Special interest in acute care and infectious diseases

ESWI member since 2016

Marco Goeijenbier completed his Ph.D. in virology, focusing on "Haemostasis and Virus Infection," at Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015. He currently serves as a specialist in acute internal medicine and critical care at Spaarne Hospital in Haarlem, The Netherlands. His expertise spans various aspects of infectious diseases, particularly in critical care medicine and viral infections. In addition to his clinical work, Goeijenbier holds a research position at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, where he mentors PhD students exploring critical care medicine and viral infections. His research interests focus on severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) pathogenesis, epidemiology, and their interaction with the coagulation system.

Some of Goeijenbier’s most published articles include:

1. Presence of procoagulant peripheral blood mononuclear cells in severe COVID-19 patients relate to ventilation perfusion mismatch and precede pulmonary embolism 
2.  Determinants of vaccination uptake in risk populations: A comprehensive literature review. 
3. Benefits of flu vaccination for persons with diabetes mellitus. 
4. Early Patient-Triggered Pressure Support Breathing in Mechanically Ventilated Patients with COVID-19 May Be Associated with Lower Rates of Acute Kidney Injury

Dr. Goeijenbier is ESWI’s lead member and Chair in the Influenza Diabetes Community (IDC). The IDC connects leading diabetes, patient, scientific, and professional organizations around the common aim of protecting persons living with diabetes from influenza and other viral respiratory diseases like COVID-19.

Starting January 2023, Dr. Goeijenbier has taken on the role of Chair of Medical Research and Education at Spaarne Hospital. Furthermore, since January 2024, Marco is the Editor in Chief for Nature Springer Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine, and Vaccines.

I am MISSA Kouassi Firmin. I hold a PhD in molecular microbiology from Félix Houphouët-Boigny University, and I am currently an associate researcher at Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS). 

My research focuses on the role of the respiratory microbiome in the development and modulation of respiratory tract infections, including those caused by SARS-CoV-2, rhinoviruses, influenza A and B, and respiratory syncytial virus. I am particularly interested in how host–microbiome interactions influence susceptibility to infection. In addition, my work explores immune biomarkers associated with respiratory infections. Specifically, I investigate the role of secretory IgA (sIgA) and cytokine profiles in mucosal immunity. I have been actively involved in genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in school-age children in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as dengue virus. 

I am also a member of a consortium working on vaccines to control respiratory pathogens and antimicrobial resistance across Africa. My work ultimately aims to bridge microbiome research, viral genomics, and vaccine strategies to enhance respiratory health in resource-limited settings.

Nationality: Finnish

Position: Clinical Lecturer and Adjunct Professor, Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Turku

Research Fields: respiratory tract infections, especially acute otitis media

ESWI member since 2022

Dr. Tähtinen received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Turku in 2004. After graduating, she worked as a GP and resident in paediatrics in Central Finland and then as a PhD student at the University of Turku. In 2012, she successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Treatment of acute otitis media”. The same year, she received the ESPID Young Investigator Award and was selected as a Researcher of the Year by the National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation. After obtaining her PhD degree, Dr. Tähtinen continued her specialisation in paediatrics at the Turku University Hospital, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

In 2013-2015 and in 2017 Dr. Tähtinen moved to the United States to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. During her time in Boston, Dr. Tähtinen also studied at the Harvard Medical School Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program in which she graduated in 2015.

Currently, Paula Tähtinen is an Adjunct Professor and Clinical Lecturer at the University of Turku, Finland. She is also working as a paediatrician at Turku University Hospital. She is leading her own research group with the main focus on prevention and treatment of respiratory tract infections. Dr. Tähtinen has been actively involved in the development of scientific and professional education at the University of Turku. She has also served as a Young ESPID (European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases) country representative and a committee member at the ESPID Research Networking Committee. In 2022, Dr. Tähtinen received the Helena and Niilo Hallman Prize for the best young researcher in the field of paediatrics.

Nationality: British 

Position: Respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, Professor of Experimental Medicine, Imperial College, London

Research fields: Lung immunology, RSV, received a lifetime achievement in work on RSV research (Chanock prize, US, in 2012)

ESWI member since 2008 

Peter Openshaw MD PhD CBE is Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London, UK. A respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, his research focuses on how the immune response both protects against viral infection but also causes disease.

He has published widely on vaccinology, the immunopathogenesis of pulmonary viral diseases and lung inflammation. He is especially known for his work on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and COVID-19, and for the development of human challenge in volunteers. He has co-authored over 400 publications and has an h-index of 105 (Google Scholar accessed Aug 2024). See also: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7220-2555. 

He was the first clinical President of the British Society for Immunology (2013-18) and served on many grant committees and Advisory Boards, becoming an Honorary Lifetime Member of the British Society for Immunology (2019). He has received prizes for his lifetime contribution to RSV research (Chanock Award, 2012), the European Federation of Immunological Societies Award (2014) and the Per Brandtzaeg Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award in mucosal immunology (2024).

He has built strong connections with journalists in print, radio and TV and used social media to promote accurate reporting of science stories, especially in relation to vaccines and respiratory disease. For example, he appeared over 100 times on national and international TV and radio between March 2021 and March 2022, explaining the complexities behind the COVID-19 pandemic response.

He advised the UK government on pandemics (SAGE, 2009-12; Chair/Vice-Chair of NERVTAG, 2015-2022). He was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to Medicine and Immunology in the 2022 UK New Year’s Honours and received the 2024 Imperial College Medal for his work as a Consul, supporting the development of the university’s Ethos, Values and Behaviours (Respect, Collaboration, Excellence, Integrity and Innovation).

Nationality: Czech

Position: Professor of Epidemiology, Charles University, Prague; and Chair, School of Public Health, Postgraduate Medical School, Prague 

Research fields: Preventive medicine, clinical development of new vaccines (pneumococcus; rotavirus; measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); and human papillomavirus)

ESWI member since 2013

Professor Roman Prymula holds the position of Professor of Epidemiology at the Charles University in Prague, School of Medicine Hradec Kralove, Department of Preventive Medicine and Chair of the School of Public Health, Postgraduate Medical School Prague at the same time.

He received his medical degree from Charles University, Prague in 1988 and his PhD from Purkyne Military Medical Academy, Hradec Kralove in 1999. Prof. Prymula also studied at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he completed an International Certificate in Hospital management in 1995. In 1996 he became associate professor of epidemiology.

He has been involved in various research activities in preventive medicine, including clinical development of new vaccines, such as those for pneumococcus; rotavirus; measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); and human papillomavirus. In addition to his active research and teaching activities, he has served as a member of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) management board, Chairman of the Central European Vaccination Awareness Group, and Chairman of the Czech Vaccinological Society JEP.

Prof. Prymula is on the editorial board of several scientific journals and serves as a consultant for several national and international organisations. He is the former Minister of Health in the Czech Republic.

I am born in India where I did my bachelors. I moved to the Netherlands in 2016 (ten years ago) for my masters. I did the research master infection and immunity at Erasmus MC. Following that, I did my PhD at the lab of Reno Debets at Erasmus medical center, Rotterdam in Identification of EBV specific TCRs and immune evasion mechanisms for immunotherapy treatment of EBV positive head and neck cancer patients. 

I am currently working at the Dutch Institute of public health and environment (RIVM) on understanding the short and long term impact of vaccination for Influenza and applying those findings to generate awareness on childhood vaccination policy. My greater vision now for the future is to build scientific collaborations between EU and India in the future in infectious disease immunology.

Nationality: Italian

Position: Research Director, CNR Ageing Branch, Neuroscience Institute, Padova (Italy)

Research Fields: Clinical epidemiology and geriatrics. Main focus on lifelong approach to healthy ageing

ESWI member since 2022

Dr. Stefania Maggi received her degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Padua, Italy in 1983. She also attended the Graduate School of Geriatrics and Gerontology from the same University until 1987 and in 1988 she received her Master in Public Health from John Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA). Dr. Maggi also holds a PhD in Clinical Pathophysiology from the University of Padua, which she received in 2000.

Dr. Maggi has a specific interest in the epidemiology of ageing and in the analysis of factors promoting health ageing in a lifelong approach. From 1983-1985, Dr. Maggi worked as an attending physician at the Internal Medicine Department for the University Hospital in Padua before she spent the years of 1988-1989 as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), for the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland (USA). From 1989-1993, she worked as the Coordinator for the WHO Program on Ageing, before she moved on to work as a researcher in the Ageing branch at the Institute of Neuroscience, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR), Padua. Dr. Maggi worked as a researcher from 1993-2007 before becoming Research Director for the same branch and institute, in 2007, a position she currently holds. In this position, she coordinates several national and international research projects on nutrition, vaccines and lifestyle as key factors for promoting healthy ageing. Dr. Maggi is also an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Schools of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Padua, which she has been since 2000.

Moreover, Dr. Maggi is the Editor in Chief of “Ageing Clinical and Experimental Research” (Springer) and has more than 800 publications, both in peer-reviewed journals and many book chapters.

Nationality: Dutch

Position: Retired General Practitioner and vocational trainer, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

Research fields: Clinical aspects of influenza vaccination

ESWI member since 2001

Dr. van Essen became a General Practitioner in 1976 and Vocational Trainer in 1981 based in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. He was also Assistant Professor (since 1992) at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht. Dr Van Essen obtained his degree at the University of Groningen (M.D. and G.P.) and at Utrecht University where he received his Ph.D.

He is chair of the Dutch Immunisation Foundation. From 2000-2004, he was also the President of the Dutch College of General Practitioners. From 1996 to 2000 he was editor of Bijblijven, a Dutch CME-Journal.

Known on TV as Dr Ted, he is well known in The Netherlands for his work as a TV doctor, providing his medical insights for a wide and varied national audience. He was a member of the board of several leading healthcare institutions, including the Supervisory Board of Dimence, a large mental healthcare institution in Overijssel. 

I am a Senior Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), specialising in the development and validation of immunological assays for vaccine evaluation and clinical trials. My work focuses on high-throughput pseudovirus neutralisation assays for emerging and high-consequence pathogens, including avian influenza, Nipah virus, and filoviruses, within regulated environments. 

I completed my PhD in Infection and Immunity at the University of Edinburgh, where I used CRISPR–Cas9 screening and next-generation sequencing to study host–virus interactions. 

I have expertise in molecular biology, assay development, and data analysis, and I am particularly interested in advancing scalable tools to support pandemic preparedness.

Dr. Biering-Sørensen holds a distinguished academic background, having obtained his medical degree in 2011 and his Ph.D. degree in 2015 from the University of Copenhagen. He furthered his education with a Master of Public Health from Harvard University in 2018 and a Master of Science in Clinical Trials from the University of Oxford in 2023. 

He is the Founding Head of the Center for Translational Cardiology and Pragmatic Randomized Trials (CTCPR), a collaboration between Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev-Gentofte and the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. Furthermore, he is the Founding Head of the Cardiovascular Non-Invasive Imaging Research Laboratory (CIRL), which is world-renowned for its innovative research in cardiac imaging. 

Together with his research group at CTCPR and CIRL which consists of more than 50 affiliated researchers, Dr. Biering-Sørensen conducts extensive investigations into the efficacy of cardiovascular imaging techniques to enhance individualized risk prediction. Moreover, he has initiated several large-scale pragmatic randomized trials utilizing the resources of the nationwide Danish registries, thereby contributing significantly to the advancement of pragmatic trial methodologies. 

Additionally, in his capacity as an academic leader, he has been awarded some of the most prestigious research awards in Denmark but also internationally, he has published more than 350 scientific publications and he provides mentorship to numerous medical students, PhD students, and postdoctoral researchers, offering guidance in various aspects of clinical research, with a particular focus on cardiovascular imaging, randomized trials, heart failure, and the effects of infections on cardiovascular outcomes. 

Research topics 

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Heart Failure
• Infections effect on cardiovascular outcomes
• Randomized clinical trials