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

Research fields: Emerging virus infections of humans and animals

Professor Osterhaus is 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 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 70 new 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 80 PhD students and holds several key patents. He is the author of more than 1300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, together cited more than 75,000 times with an H index of 120. 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.

Nationality: American, British

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

Research field: Virus Evolution

ESWI member since 2019

Professor Russell was a member of the University of Cambridge from 2002 to 2017; first as a PhD student, then postdoctoral research associate (2006) and junior research fellow (2008), and finally as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (2009). From 2008 to 2011, he was also a research fellow at the US National Institutes of Health. In 2017, he moved to AMC (Academic Medical Center, university hospital and Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam) to head the Laboratory of Applied Evolutionary Biology.

Prof Russell’s research focuses on connecting processes at the within-host, between-host, and population scales, to understand the dynamics of influenza viruses and other respiratory pathogens. His research uses a combination of wet-lab and computational tools to study the interactions of processes at each of these scales. In addition to his research activities, he has been an advisor to the WHO influenza vaccine strain selection committee and he is the chair of the Infection Program of the Amsterdam Institute of Infection and Immunity.

Prof Russell has published extensively in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, and eLife. He is also the recipient of substantial research funding including grants from the Royal Society (UK), the US National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust. He is a current ERC and NWO Vici laureate.

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 has been a long-standing member of the Dutch Influenza Foundation, the Dutch Pneumococcal Foundation and different local, regional and national GP organisations. 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 is a member of the board of several leading healthcare institutions, including the Supervisory Board of Dimence, a large mental healthcare institution in Overijssel

Position: Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Research Fields:

He received his advanced training in biotechnology and applied virology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Mentor: Dr. Reingard Grabherr), where he gained extensive experience with expression and purification of recombinant (glyco-) proteins and influenza virus-like particles. He established various expression systems for these proteins using insect cells/baculovirus, mammalian cells, bacteria, yeast and plants. Furthermore, he worked on a novel influenza virus rescue system based on baculovirus transduction of mammalian cells and a novel bioassay to measure inhibition of the influenza virus polymerase complex by cap-snatching inhibitors. He graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna in 2010.

Prof. Krammer’s post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York focused on the development of broadly neutralizing anti-hemagglutinin stalk antibodies and the design of an universal influenza virus vaccine. The results of these studies have been very promising: After successful testing in animal models (mice, ferrets), studies with this universal influenza virus vaccine are now advancing to human clinical trials.

Currently Prof. Krammer holds a position as a Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has published more than 100 papers, is member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Virology, Plos One and Heliyon and is a peer reviewer for more than 30 journals. Dr. Krammer is also member of the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Society Young Investigator Program. In addition he is a scientific adviser for enGenes and PathSensors.

Since 2019, Prof. Krammer is the Principal Investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC). Our CIVIC aims to develop improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

The Krammer laboratory – which is also part of the NIH-funded Centers for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) – focuses on understanding broadly-reactive immune responses against the surface glycoproteins of RNA viruses such as influenza with the goal to develop better vaccines and novel therapeutics.

Accomplishments:

2019: Endowed Professor of Vaccinology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

2014-2017: Member of the Vaccine and Edward Jenner Vaccine Society Young Investigator Program (YIP)

2014: ESWI Young Scientist Travel Award and ‘Young Scientist Co-Chair’

2013: Options for the Control of Influenza VIII Promising Investigator Scholarship

2013: American Society for Virology 32nd Annual Meeting Postdoctoral Travel Award

2012: Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) Training Grant

2011: Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship (Austrian Science Fund/FWF)

2010: INiTS – Innovation into Business Award, First Prize in the category Life Science, Vienna, Austria

https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/krammerlab/dr-krammer/

Nationality: German

Position: Professor Virology, Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute of Virology, 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

Dr. Gabriel is head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. Professor Gabriel’s main research interest is to understand how avian influenza viruses cross species barriers and transmit to humans causing large epidemics and eventually pandemics. Herein, a special focus lies on influenza virus pathogenesis in high-risk groups, such as pregnant women.

Dr. Gabriel studied Biology at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, and obtained her PhD in 2006. Afterwards, she moved to the United Kingdom where she held the position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford until 2009. In 2009, Dr. Gabriel moved back to Germany where she received the prestigious Emmy-Noether Research Award funded by the German Research Foundation to lead a junior group at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg.

From 2014-2018, she was the head of the research group influenza pathogenesis at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Lübeck. Since 2018, she is the head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover.

In 2009, Dr. Gabriel was the first winner of the ESWI Best Body of Work Award. She was elected Vice Chair of ESWI in 2014. Dr. Gabriel received many prestigious awards, among them the Robert Koch Förderpreis (2012), the Best Minds Award from the Leibniz Association (2018) and the Prize for Translational Infection Research of the German Research Center for Infection (2019).

Nationality: Dutch 

Position: Intensivist,  Spaarne Gasthuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Research fields: Special interest in acute care and infectious diseases

ESWI member since 2016

Marco Goeijenbier graduated from medical school at the University of Amsterdam in 2010. During his internships he did research on rodent-borne hemorrhagic fever. Goeijenbier received his PhD in virology (“Haemostasis and Virus Infection”) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015. He was previously a specialist in acute internal medicine and started a fellowship in intensive care at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. He currently holds the position of intensivist at Spaarne Hospital in Amsterdam.

Some of Goeijenbier’s most recent published articles include ; “Thrombocytopenia in Virus Infections. (J Clin Med, feb 2021)” “Determinants of Vaccination Uptake in Risk Populations  (Vaccines, Aug 2020)” 

And Benefits of flu vaccination for persons with diabetes mellitus (Vaccine, Sep 2017).

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

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

Short description:

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: 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 is a respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, studying how the immune system both protects against viral infection but also causes disease. He has worked on RSV and influenza since the mid-1980s, leading a large Wellcome Trust funded national collaboration: Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium MOSAIC (2009-12), recruiting cases of severe influenza during the influenza pandemic of 2009-2010.

He has run studies of human experimental infection of volunteers for over 12 years and is Director of the MRC-funded HIC-Vac consortium established to promote the use of human experimental infection to accelerate vaccine development for pathogens of high global impact. Furthermore, he served as President of the British Society for Immunology (2013-18) and is a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences–British Society for Immunology expert taskforce on the immunology of COVID-19.

He has been a member of SAGE (2009-12), Chair and now vice-Chair or NERVTAG, a Department of Health committee horizon-scanning for emerging respiratory threats. He is a member of the UK Vaccine Network and several committees and Boards that oversee research on the immunology of respiratory infection.

He is Theme Lead for Infection at the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Respiratory Infections Section Head within the National Heart and Lung Institute and an NIHR Senior Investigator. He co-leads ISARIC4C, a UK-wide consortium established in 2020 to study the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nationality: Czech

Position: Professor of Epidemiology, Charles University, 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. 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.

Nationality: British

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

Research fields: Molecular biology of influenza viruses

ESWI member since 2015

Dr. Hutchinson received his PhD in 2009 at the University of Cambridge. He was 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.

He was named ‘Young Microbiologist of the Year’ by the Microbiology Society in 2007, was awarded the New Researcher Science Communication Award by the Biosciences Federation in 2008, and has held a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College Oxford (2010 – 2014) and an MRC Career Development Award fellowship (2016 – 2021).

Hutchinson’s work looks at the variations among influenza virus particles, particularly in their sizes and shapes and in the types of protein they contain, and seeks to understand how this diversity combines to shape the course of an influenza infection.

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: Finnish

Position: Clinical Lecturer, Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Adjunct Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine

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, Dr. Tähtinen moved to the United States to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Boston University School of Medicine. 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. During the  summer of 2017, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The ESPID Fellowship Award allowed Dr. Tähtinen to continue her post-doc project in collaboration with the researchers from Boston University and Harvard University.

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. Her research focuses on respiratory tract infections, especially acute otitis media.

Currently, Paula Tähtinen is setting up her own research group with the main focus on prevention and treatment of respiratory tract infections. She is the author of 30 scientific publications, several book chapters and UpToDate articles. 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.

Dr. Hannoun’s education includes a Ph.D. in Microbiology, which he earned in Paris, France.

Dr. Hannoun is an expert at the WHO (viral diseases). His former positions include: Director of the National Influenza Reference Centre, Professor at the Pasteur Institute, Associate Professor at the Université of Paris VII, Scientific Director of GROG systems (Groupes Régionaux d’Observation de la Grippe), Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for influenza and other respiratory viruses, Honorary Professor at the Pasteur Institute and Vice-President of ‘Société Française de Microbiologie’. He was Co-Founder and Chairman of ESWI from 1992 until 1998. He was Co-Organiser of the Conference ‘Options for the control of influenza II’ Courchevel in December 1992, the Conference “Options for the Control of Influenza IV” in Crete in 2000 and of the “First European Influenza Conference” (ESWI) in Malta in 2002. He was also Editor-in-Chief of the ‘European Journal f Epidemiology’.

Dr. Hannoun’s scientific activities are mainly oriented towards virological and epidemiological studies on arboviruses and influenza. The activity of several arboviruses so far unknown in France has been demonstrated as having occurred between 1960 and 1975, the most important being the West Nile virus. During the following years, national and international development of surveillance networks (GROG) for early detection of influenza epidemics and applications in the field of control of influenza (vaccines and antivirals) and other respiratory viral infections have been major subjects of interest, together with research programmes on virus structures. He pays special attention to infections caused by influenza virus type C and on the characteristics of this little known virus. Further studies in the field of influenza include evaluation of immunisation adjuvants, antiviral screening and tissue culture vaccines in addition to the epidemiological surveillance of respiratory viral infections.

Formal education
05/2000: Habilitation, University of Vienna
March 1995: Graduation
10/88-01/95: Medical school, University of Vienna
1976-1988: Elementary and secondary school, Vienna

Professional experience
since 02/2001: Associate Professor, Institute of Social Medicine, Center for Public Health, Medical University Vienna
11/96-09/2000: Research Assistent, Institute of Social Medicine, University of Vienna
04/1995-11/96: Research Assistent, Institute of Tumorbiology&Cancer Research, Department of Epidemiology, University

Areas of Expertise:
Public Health in general, Public Health and vaccinations with specific focus on influenza and tick-borne encephalitis, pandemic planning, social marketing and public health, epidemiology of infectious diseases

Publications
approx. 100 scientific publications
numerous contributions in medical und lay press

Further Activites
Teaching activity at the Medical Universtiy Vienna
Membership of several oranisations and association, e.g. secretary general of the Austrian association of the promotion of education in vaccination matters

Nationality: French

Position: Head of unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses, Department of Virology, Institut Pasteur

Research fields: Epidemiological and virological surveillance of human influenza viruses and of other respiratory viruses

ESWI member from 1998 – 2022

Associate Member since 2022

Professor Sylvie van der Werf has a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry Agrégation (National Teaching Degree), a Doctorate in Microbiology with an option in Virology at the University of Paris, and a Doctorate in Natural Sciences specialising in Virology, also at the University of Paris.

She heads the unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses which associates three research groups on influenza viruses (Epidemiology and evolution of respiratory viruses / Influenza virus-host cell interactions / Virus interactomics and one research group on hepaciviruses (Hepacivirus / host interactions). Professor van der Werf is also Director of the coordinating center of the National Reference Centre for influenza viruses and WHO National Influenza Center (NIC) for Northern France as well as WHO Reference Laboratory for H5 influenza viruses and for the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV).

Past research positions include: Deputy-Director of the Fundamental Virology Course, Deputy-Chairman of the Department of Virology, Director of the URA 1966 CNRS Molecular Virology Unit. She is the author of 70 original scientific papers and more than 30 other scientific publications.

Nationality: German

Position: Professor of Pulmonary Infections Universities Giessen & Marburg Lung Center, and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Giessen University Hospital, Giessen, Germany

Research fields: Influenza Viruses , pneumonia and coronaviruses

ESWI member from 2016 – 2022

Associate member since 2022

Professor Susanne Herold studied medicine at the University of Giessen from 1995 to 2002. She received her doctorate in 2003 with a thesis on monocytes in the lungs and acquired her PhD 2008 at the University of Giessen. Since 2013, she has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University in Chicago for the Department of Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine.

In 2018, Susanne Herold took over the professorship for infectious diseases of the lungs at the University of Giessen and at the same time became head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Giessen University Hospital.

She has been a member of numerous specialist societies, including the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt and the German Center for Infection Research since 2017. She is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Robert Koch Institute and deputy chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases. Since 2016, Prof. Herold has been leading a DFG- funded clinical research project on lung damage caused by viruses.