Seminar 04 June 2025 – Feasibility and economics of improved child deworming with albendazole-ivermectin

Profile

Prof Jennifer Keiser heads the Helminth Drug Development Unit at Swiss TPH, which maintains a large and unique set of helminth-rodent models. She is also a Professor of Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Faculty of Science at the University of Basel. Her team’s research objectives include in vitro and in vivo evaluations of the biological activities of chemical compounds, assay development, preclinical studies such as pharmacokinetics and metabolism and clinical trials in helminthiasis-endemic countries, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Russia and Tanzania. Prof Keiser holds a five-year ERC Advanced Grant and is leading a five-year multi-partner EU grant to develop new drugs against neglected helminth infections.

Prof Jennifer Keiser leads the BRCCH project: FACEIT: Feasibility and Economic Evaluation of Improved Child Deworming. Read more here.

Profile

Dr Peter Steinmann is a trained epidemiologist and public health specialist and holds a habilitation (associate professorship) at the University of Basel. His research interests include the epidemiology and sustainable control of intestinal helminth and schistosome infections; the impact of intestinal parasite infections on child health, nutrition and well-being; the transmission of Mycobacterium leprae and post-exposure prophylaxis for contact and the elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). He has a track record of work related to NTDs and public health in over two dozen countries over the last 15 years, including four years in China. He is currently deputy head of unit. His technical expertise includes NTD research and control programme implementation in China, Central and South-East Asia, Africa and Brazil, public health, WASH, health systems, data quality and surveillance and epidemiological surveys.

Prof Peter Steinmann co- leads the BRCCH project: FACEIT: Feasibility and Economic Evaluation of Improved Child Deworming. Read more here.

Profile

Prof Fabrizio Tediosi leads the Health Systems and Policies group in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and is a professor at the University of Basel. He holds a degree in economics and management from the University of Pavia, Italy, an MSc in health economics from the University of York, UK and a PhD in international public health from the University of Basel. He is an economist specializing in health policy analysis, the economic evaluation of priority setting, healthcare costing, the organization and financing of health systems, the economics of drugs, the economics of ageing and international development cooperation. His research interests also include universal health coverage, the economic and social implications of the elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases and global health governance.

Prof Fabrizio Tediosi co- leads the BRCCH project: FACEIT: Feasibility and Economic Evaluation of Improved Child Deworming. Read more here.

Seminar 03 March 2025 – OptiThyDose: Intelligent Digital Decision Support Tool to Personalise Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases

Where: Seminarraum U1.191– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel

Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Prof Marc Pfister (University Children's Hospital Basel, Switzerland)
  - Keynote by Prof Gabor Szinnai (University Children's Hospital Basel, Switzerland): "The clinical problem with thyroid diseases in children"
  - Keynote by Dr Britta Steffens (University Children's Hospital Basel, Switzerland): "The pharmacometric approach to solve the problem"
  - Keynote by Freya Bachmann (University of Konstanz, Germany): "The combination of pharmacometrics with optimal control theory"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Prof Marc Pfister, MD, is a Professor of Pharmacometrics and Pharmacology in the Medical Faculty at the University of Basel, Chair of the Paediatric Pharmacology Department at University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB) and Head of SwissPedPha, the Swiss Platform for Pharmacology and Pharmacometrics Research in Paediatrics. He co-founded the American Conference on Pharmacometrics (ACoP) and the International Society of Pharmacometrics (ISoP). In the paediatric pharmacology research centre at UKBB, he leads a research group containing mathematicians, statisticians, engineers, pharmacologists and clinicians applying innovative pharmacometrics, control theory, machine learning and other AI-based approaches in order to develop clinical decision support systems with the goal of enhancing and personalizing treatments in neonates, infants, children and adolescents.

Prof Marc Pfister co-leads the BRCCH project: OptiThyDose: Intelligent Digital Decision Support Tool to Personalise Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases. Read more here.

Profile

Prof Gabor Szinnai is Head of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology at University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB) and a research group leader in the Department of Clinical Research at University Hospital Basel. He trained in paediatric endocrinology in Basel and at L’Hôpital Necker – Enfants Malades in Paris, France. He is a board member of the National Committee for Rare Diseases (KOSEK) in Switzerland. His longstanding research interests are thyroid diseases in childhood with a special focus on genetic thyroid diseases and individualized pharmacotherapy for patients with thyroid diseases from birth to adulthood. He is a member of the Consensus Guideline Group for Congenital Hypothyroidism of the ENDO-European Reference Network (ERN) Initiative endorsed by the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) and the European Society for Endocrinology (ESE). In 2012, he was awarded a Visiting Professorship Grant for Rare Endocrine Diseases by the ESPE.

Prof Gabor Szinnai co-leads the BRCCH project: OptiThyDose: Intelligent Digital Decision Support Tool to Personalise Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases. Read more here.

Profile

Dr. Britta Steffens studied mathematics at the University of Konstanz, Germany, specializing in statistics. She has more than 12 years of university-based experience in statistical modelling, pattern recognition and data analysis, as well as (undergraduate) teaching. In 2020, she joined the Paediatric Pharmacology Department at University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB) as an interdisciplinary scientific researcher. Her main research topics are the analysis and modelling of clinical data in the context of developing decision support tools by applying mathematical-statistical methods and approaches from pharmacometrics and machine learning.

Dr. Britta Steffens is a researcher in the BRCCH project: OptiThyDose: Intelligent Digital Decision Support Tool to Personalise Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases. Read more here.

Profile

Freya Bachmann is a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Konstanz, Germany. In collaboration with University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB), she applies techniques from optimal control theory and numerical optimization to pharmacometric models in order to compute optimal individualized dosing regimens. In 2019, she received the American Conference on Pharmacometrics Trainee Award for outstanding research and gave an oral presentation of her work entitled “Computing the Optimal Individual Dosing Regimen with Constraints on Model States to Include Side Effects” at the main conference in Florida.

Freya Bachmann is a researcher in the BRCCH project: OptiThyDose: Intelligent Digital Decision Support Tool to Personalise Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases. Read more here.

Inaugural Lecture 25 November 2024 – Recent Advances in the Molecular Understanding and Diagnostics of Bone Tumours

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Zentrum für Lehre und Forschung, Kleiner Hörsaal, Universitätsspital Basel (Centre for Teaching and Learning, Small Lecture Theatre, University Hospital Basel), Hebelstrasse 20, 4031 Basel.

See map

Zoom Registration: HERE

In Person Registration: HERE

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Prof Georg Hollander, Director of the BRCCH
  - Lecture delivered by Prof Daniel Baumhoer, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland: "Recent advances in the molecular understanding and diagnostics of bone tumours"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Prof Daniel Baumhoer

University Hospital Basel, Switzerland

Talk: "Recent Advances in the Molecular Understanding and Diagnostics of Bone Tumours"

Profile: Prof Dr Daniel Baumhoer is the BRCCH Professor in Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. He is also a consultant pathologist with special expertise in bone and soft tissue, as well as head and neck pathology. At the University Hospital in Basel, he leads the Bone Tumour Reference Centre and the DÖSAK Reference Registry through which he receives 800-1000 consultation cases a year, mostly from Switzerland and Germany but also from other countries. Prof Baumhoer contributed to several fascicles of the WHO classification of tumours as the responsible first author and has contributed to more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. His research focuses on elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of bone and soft tissue tumours, with a particular focus on methylation classifiers.

Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day – Video Release

On 19 April 2024 the BRCCH hosted its Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day in Basel, Switzerland. This one-day seminar and networking event brought together researchers across disciplines with a common focus on improving child and adolescent health.

This event included talks from BRCCH Postdoctoral Excellence Programme researchers about their paediatric health research progress over the last two years. Each of these fellows also invited an established researcher from their field to deliver a keynote address.

Videos of the day's presentations are now available to watch on YouTube. See the links below.

Profile

19 April 2024 – Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day

Update: Thank you to all who attended.

The BRCCH cordially invites you to our Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day on 19 April 2024 in Basel, Switzerland. This one-day seminar and networking event will bring together researchers across disciplines with a common focus on improving child and adolescent health.

This event will include talks from BRCCH Postdoctoral Excellence Programme researchers about their paediatric health research progress over the last two years. Each of these fellows has also invited an established researcher from their field to deliver a keynote address. During the lunch break, attendees will have the opportunity to attend a workshop about nurturing research teams.

In Person Registration: HERE

Schedule:

- 9.00-9.30 – Arrival and coffee
- 9.30-9.40 – Welcome by Daniel Müller, Co-Director, BRCCH
- 9.40-12.15 – Talks by BRCCH Postdoctoral Excellence Programme researchers and their invited speakers on paediatric health
- 12.15-12.45 – Lunch (Break until 14.00 if not attending the workshop)
- 12.45-13.45 – Workshop: Nurturing Research Teams
- 14.00-17.30 – Talks by BRCCH Postdoctoral Excellence Programme researchers and their invited speakers on paediatric health
- 17:30-17:35 – Closing Remarks by Georg Holländer, Director, BRCCH
- 17.35-18.00 – Networking & Apéro

Profile

Creativity, innovation and collaboration within research teams are prerequisites for knowledge creation and transfer, and for individual and team performance. Positive research leadership that encourages team productivity, motivation and development is crucial in fostering such conditions. But what does leadership mean and entail exactly? What makes a good leader? What leadership styles are there, and what type of leader are you?

This session offers an opportunity to learn, reflect and exchange perspectives on the skill- and mindset required to optimise dynamics and workflows within research teams, and to enable oneself and colleagues to fully develop and express their individual and collective potential.

Profile

Seminar 21 March 2024 – Lessons from the Deceased to the Living and Back

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Seminarraum U1.197– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In Person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Prof Danny Jonigk (University Medical Center of RWTH Aachen University, Germany)
  - Keynote by Dr Jasmin Haslbauer (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland): "Cardiovascular Manifestations of COVID-19"
  - Keynote by Prof Maximilian Ackermann (RWTH University Clinics & Helios University Clinics, Germany): "COVID-19 – A Systemic Vasculo-inflammatory Disease"
  - Keynote by Prof Alexandar Tzankov (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland): "COVID-19 Insights from Non-Cardio-Pulmonary Organ Pathology"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Prof Danny Jonigk is a surgical and molecular pathologist, the Chair of Pathology and the Head of the Department of the Institute of Pathology at the University Medical Center of RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Prof Jonigk received his doctoral degree from Hannover Medical School in Germany. He is also the Head and Founding Principal Investigator of the National Central Pathology Platform within the German Centre for Lung Research and the Head of the Pathology Platform at the German Centre for Lung Research. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, has received numerous research grants, including the first ERC consolidator grant to a pathologist and authored or co-authored 302 peer-reviewed papers.

Profile

Dr Jasmin Haslbauer is a resident at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology at University Hospital Basel (USB). She executes autopsies and is responsible for tissue collection, and also provides histopathological examinations, immunohistochemical examinations and data consolidation. She received her undergraduate medical degree from Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and an MSc in molecular pathology and genomics from the Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Her current research deals with COVID-19-associated immunological and cardiovascular pathology.

Dr Haslbauer is a researcher on the BRCCH project: Lessons From the Deceased to the Living and Back. Read more here.

Profile

Prof Maximilian Ackermann is a professor and pathologist within the Institute of Pathology at RWTH University Clinics and the Institute of Pathology and Molecular Pathology at Helios University Clinics in Germany. His research focuses on angiogenesis, inflammation and vascular remodelling in disease. PD Dr Ackermann received his medical and doctoral degrees from Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz located in Germany. He has received a number of prestigious awards including the Rudolf-Virchow Award from the German Society of Pathology.

Profile

Prof Alexandar Tzankov is a surgical pathologist and Head of the Department of Histopathology and Autopsy at the Institute of Medical Genetics and Pathology at University Hospital Basel. He currently chairs the European Bone Marrow Working Group and is a joined expert in the field of pathology for the Swiss Accreditation Authority. His major interests and diagnostic expertise lie within haematopathology and mediastinal pathology. Alongside current intensive tissue-based research activity on the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the human body in COVID-19, his research group has long been involved in translational investigations and precision medicine of lymphomas and myeloid neoplasms. He has authored or co-authored more than 460 papers.

Prof Tzankov co-leads the BRCCH project: Lessons From the Deceased to the Living and Back. Read more here.

Seminar 28 November 2023 – Evolving Perspectives in Improving Cleft Lip and Palate Care

Update: Thank you to all who attended. For those who could not make it, the presentation videos are available for viewing below.

The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar about evolving perspectives in improving cleft lip and palate care. Prof Andreas Mueller (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland) and Dr Baran Gözcü (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) will share their BRCCH consortium’s research progress in developing a digital pipeline to reduce the treatment burden and cost of cleft lip and palate care. Assoc Prof David Chong (Royal Children's Hospital, Australia) will present his work pursuing the best way to treat children who require facial surgery for cleft lip and palate.

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Seminarraum U1.197– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In Person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Dr Adelita Sommacal (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland)
  - Keynote by Prof Andreas Mueller (University Hospital Basel, Switzerland): "Reducing the Burden in Cleft Care: The Knife is not Enough"
  - Keynote by Dr Baran Gözcü (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): "Cleft Care in the 21st Century: Can AI Revolutionize?"
  - Keynote by Assoc Prof David Chong (Royal Children's Hospital, Australia): "Global Cleft Care: A Personal Journey"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Seminar 23 October 2023 – The Gut Microbiome as a Tool for Individualised Medicine

Update: Thank you to all who attended. For those who could not make it, Dr Zimmermann's presentation is available for viewing below.

The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar about the gut microbiome and individualised medicine. Prof Randall Platt (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and Prof Andrew Macpherson (University Hospital Bern, Switzerland) will share their BRCCH consortium’s research progress in using engineered bacteria as a non-invasive diagnostic tool to survey the gastrointestinal tract and support child health worldwide. Dr Michael Zimmermann (EMBL - Heidelberg, Germany) will highlight his work investigating how interpersonal differences in the gut microbiome influence bacterial drug metabolism, activity and toxicity.

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Seminarraum U1.197– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In Person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Dr Katie Guzzetta (ETH Zurich & BRCCH Postdoctoral Researcher)
  - Keynote by Prof Randall Platt (ETH Zurich & BRCCH Lead Researcher): "Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions"
  - Keynote by Prof Andrew Macpherson (University Hospital Bern & BRCCH Lead Researcher): "An Update on the University of Zimbabwe Birth Cohort Study"
  - Keynote by Dr Michael Zimmermann (EMBL - Heidelberg): "Identifying Gut Microbiome Contributions to Drug Metabolism and Carcinogen Toxicity"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Dr Katie Guzzetta is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof Randy Platt at ETH Zurich. Her research focuses on developing bacteria-based technologies to diagnose nutritional deficiencies and other health disruptions related to the gut microbiome. Prior to this, Katie completed her PhD in Neuroscience and Anatomy at the APC Microbiome Institute in Cork, Ireland, where she studied how the gut microbiota influences neurodevelopment and behavior under the mentorship of Prof John Cryan and Dr Olivia O’Leary. Outside of the lab, Katie enjoys spending time hiking and camping in the mountains, skiing, and exploring diverse countries and cultures.

Profile

Prof Randall (Randy) Platt holds associate professorships at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE) at ETH Zurich and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel. Prof Platt studied biomedical engineering and chemistry at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, USA. In 2011, he obtained an MPhil in material science from Imperial College London, UK, and in 2016 he received a PhD in biological engineering from MIT, USA. After a joint postdoctoral fellowship between MIT, Harvard University, and the Broad Institute, he was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor at ETH Zurich and the University of Basel in October 2016.

Prof Platt co-leads the BRCCH project: Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions. Read more here.

Profile

Prof Andrew Macpherson is a Professor of Medicine at Inselspital Bern. His laboratory has worked on immune and non-immune mechanisms of host-microbial mutualism using animal models and translational work in human subjects. He has set up collaborations with Zimbabwean and Kenyan colleagues in order to address the problem of dysbiosis that triggers intestinal dysfunction and stunting in young children in low- and middle-income countries.

Prof Macpherson co-leads the BRCCH project: Living Microbial Diagnostics to Enable Individualised Child Health Interventions. Read more here.

Profile

Michael Zimmermann is a group leader at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. Michael received his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Basel University and his Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie (ESBS) in Strasbourg. Michael performed his PhD work at ETH Zurich in metabolomics and Systems Biology and he pursued his postdoctoral training at Yale University to investigate metabolic host-microbiome interactions. His research group at EMBL employs bacterial genetics, metabolomics, gnotobiotic mouse work, and mathematical modeling to systematically map metabolic microbiota-host interactions. Among several honors and scholarships, Michael was awarded the Daimler Benz Scholarship, Agilent’s Steve Berger Award, the 2021 FEBS Anniversary Prize, and an ERC Starting Grant.

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute- Open House June 17

visual: Swiss TPH

Seminar 27 Apr – Digital Support Tools for Paediatric Health

Image: Daniel Mäusezahl and Stella Hartinger Peña

Image: Ebby Shaban and Magali Rochat/ DYNAMIC

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar about advancing child health using digital health support tools and systems. Prof Günther Fink (Swiss TPH, Switzerland) will share his BRCCH consortium’s research progress on supporting the development of children in low-resource settings through the use of novel digital health technology. Prof Valérie D’Acremont (Unisanté, Switzerland) will highlight her work on an e-health system intervention aimed to improve paediatric clinical care, to promote sustainable resource use in a constrained setting and to enhance the detection of outbreaks.

When: Thursday, 27th April 2023, 16:00 - 17:15 CET, to be followed by an apéro

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Seminarraum U1.191– Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, 4056 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In-person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Dr Gillian Levine (Swiss TPH & BRCCH PEP Fellow)
  - Keynote by Prof Günther Fink (Swiss TPH & BRCCH Lead Researcher): “Digital Support Systems to Improve Child Health and Development in Low-Income Settings”
  - Keynote by Prof Valérie D’Acremont (Unisanté): “DYNAMIC: An e-Health System Intervention to Improve Clinical Care for Children, Promote Sustainable Use of Resources and Enhance Outbreak Detection”
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Seminar 18 Nov – Importance of the Microbiome in Paediatric Health

Visual: Ronja Rappold

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar addressing the importance of the microbiome in paediatric health. Prof Emma Slack (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) will share her work on the development of novel intervention strategies for inborn errors of metabolism and neonatal sepsis using advancements in microbiota bioengineering. Prof Mathias Hornef (University Hospital Aachen, Germany) will highlight his research on the postnatal microbiotic colonisation in the intestines and the development of the mucosal adaptive immune system after birth.

When: Friday, November 18th, 2022 from 16:00-17:15 CET, to be followed by an apéro

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Room HIL E7 – Hörsaal, ETH Zurich Hönggerberg Campus, Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5, 8093 Zurich

Zoom Registration: HERE

In-person Registration: HERE
Directions and location information

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Prof Sai Reddy (Vice Director, BRCCH)
  - Prof Emma Slack (ETH Zurich): "Precision Microbiota Engineering for Child Health"
  - Prof Mathias Hornef (University Hospital Aachen, Germany): "Ontogeny of the Host-Microbial Interaction in the Intestine"
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Talk Takeaways

At birth, it is the moment when we start to become exposed to high amounts of microbes in our environment. During our first years of life, we accumulate a diversity of microbes into our microbiota through different exposures. It is known that many aspects can influence the development of the microbiota in early life, both vertically and horizontally. There is a big shift in microbiome composition once young children start to be weaned and then later, we see its composition and density becoming more and more like that of an adult, with something in the order of 500 different species.

We know that the shaping of the microbiome in early life is very important in influencing health in early and adult life. For example, the microbiome has been linked to influencing neurodevelopment and the risk of developing diseases such as allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Therefore, the key question is how we can use the microbiota to influence health? A major challenge here is that we have limited understanding of the mechanisms by which the microbiota influences health and the development of diseases.

Our BRCCH consortium’s research focuses on two diseases with an established link between the microbiota and the disease phenotype, which manifests in children:

Inborn errors of metabolism (urea cycle disorders - Ammonia)
Necrotizing Enterocolitis and sepsis (overgrowth of opportunistic pathogens and systemic spread, typically in very low birthweight infants)

Inborn errors of metabolism:

To date, we know a lot about how the microbiome influences metabolism and the generation of energy from our diet. In our work, we studied mice with different levels of microbiome composition, from being completely germ-free to those that have a complete microbiome. We found that mice lacking a microbiome (germ-free) lose almost twice as much energy in feces per day and correspondingly are eating 30-40% more food than those with a complete microbiome. Germ-free mice also have an altered metabolic profile, over the entire circadian rhythm, which can be partially recovered by colonization with selected gut microbes. This work shows that the microbiome is key to enabling us to digest food effectively and for energy production and storage.

We are now looking at how nitrogen metabolism is affected by the microbiome. Based on current data, it is thought that the breakdown of amino acids and urea by the microbiota creates an additional ammonia burden for the host. This burden is influenced by bacteria in the microbiota producing an enzyme complex referred to as urease.

We are now studying the influence of microbiome composition in mice carrying a genetic mutation that generates a mild urea cycle disorder. Preliminary results indicate that an adult-like microbiome positively influences the health of these mice. We are currently looking into how a neonatal-like microbiota, which typically produces more urease, will influence disease, in order to understand how we can use microbiota engineering to influence disease outcomes. By promoting the growth of microbiota species that sequester ammonia into amino acids, i.e by acting as a sink, and suppressing those net-producing ammonia, there is a clear potential for microbiota engineering in urea cycle disorders.

The long-term goal is to develop microbiota-based tools to influence health outcomes in children suffering from inborn errors of metabolism.

Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) and sepsis in the gut is characterised by an overgrowth of opportunistic pathogens systemic spread such as drug resistant E.coli. To avoid babies from developing these diseases it would be useful to decrease drug-resistant E.coli transmission and to increase control of E.coli in the neonatal gut. Secretory antibodies can be used to exert a selective pressure on a targeted strain, allowing us to replace one strain with another in the gut. The way we do this is by using rationally designed oral vaccines, that target the most common evolutionary trajectories of the targeted bacterium. Such oral vaccines induce specific secretory antibodies in the gut and/or breast milk, which the targeted species cannot easily escape from by mutation. Secretory IgA-targeted bacteria therefore become aggregated in the gut lumen, leading to faster clearance in gut content flow, and decreasing their competitive fitness. This allows a newly introduced beneficial bacteria to outcompete the IgA-targeted microbe.

Looking forward in the next 3-5 years, we will be working on vaccines to eliminate Salmonella risk in livestock rearing and first-in-human trials for oral vaccines. In the next 10 years, microbiota engineering strategies will be developed to prevent/ameliorate diseases of known etiology such as, neonatal sepsis and inborn errors of metabolism and eventually food allergy, obesity and autoimmunity.

Profile

Talk Takeaways

Since the early 2000’s, we started to study host-microbial interaction with particular emphasis on the situation of the neonate in a number of animal models. Our goals have been to understand how the microbiome develops after birth, whether and how the host contributes to shape the composition of the microbiome, how it influences the mucosal immune system and whether age-dependent differences in the mucosal immune system are responsible for the particular susceptibility of the neonate host to infection with enteropathogenic microorganisms.

We decided to work in neonates for three reasons. First, because if one looks at global mortality caused by infection, neonates and infants in their first year of life are disproportionally affected compared to other age groups and have a very high risk of dying. Second, epidemiological studies in humans and various animal models demonstrate that early life represents a non-redundant priming period, the so-called window of opportunity that determines the susceptibility to immune-mediated and metabolic diseases later in life. Third, a more conceptual argument, it remains largely unclear how the immune system after birth is established. How does the host adapt to this immediate and rapid microbial exposure and how is a self-controlled immune system installed?

What we learnt is that neonates are not small adults. They are actually physiologically very different and we need to understand their physiology in order to understand the fetal-postnatal transition of host-microbial interaction. Also, the neonatal immune system is not ‘’immature’’ or ‘’deficient’’. It is specifically optimized to the needs and requirements of the neonate and hence we also need to study the metabolic and developmental conditions.

Despite some reports during the last years that were mainly based on nucleic acid detection and sequencing, we believe that the neonate is born sterile. But with birth, bacterial colonization occurs rapidly and represents quite a dramatic process. It can be subdivided in four aspects. First, bacterial density, i.e. the number of bacteria per volume, which increases within hours to days to reach threshold levels at some body sites such as the small intestine or oral cavity. Second, microbial diversity, i.e. the number of different taxa within the microbiota increases more slowly and takes weeks (in mice) to years (in humans) to reach adult-like levels of something like 200 to 500 different taxa in the intestine. Diversity is important since it provides colonization resistance and thus protects to infection with enteropathogenic microorganisms. Third, the least well-understood aspect, is composition. It still remains largely unknown which factors determine the composition and this is particularly the case for the neonatal microbiota that undergoes a number of major but transient compositional changes during the first weeks/months of life. During these changes individual bacterial taxa may bloom and reach high abundancy and exert an important influence on the host. Finally, fourth, the fact that whereas early after birth the microbiota at different body sites looks very similar, it starts to diversify at different sites throughout the body over time.

An interesting aspect of the neonatal microbiota is the fact that it is to some degree still accessible to modification. The adult, highly diverse microbiota is quite resistant to exogenous changes like for example the colonization by orally administered probiotic bacteria. This explains their low efficacy in adults. In contrast, neonates can be transiently colonized by probiotic bacteria and here they can exert a potent beneficial effect. For example, they can prevent necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating microbiota-driven inflammatory disease in preterm born neonates.

Seminar 20 Oct – Malaria Prevention: Progress and Prospects

Visual: Swiss TPH, fairpicture

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar addressing the progress and prospects of malaria prevention. Prof Simon Draper (University of Oxford, UK) will highlight the challenges, successes and future developments of vaccine-based solutions. Then, Prof Melissa Penny (Swiss TPH) will share her work on data analytics and modelling as product development support. Finally, Prof Evelyn Korkor Ansah (University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana) will provide insights into vaccine implementation and equitable distribution.

When: Thursday, October 20th, 2022 from 15:00-16:30 CET

Where: Hybrid Zoom / Kollengienhaus, Hörsaal 116, Petersgraben 50, 4051 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In-person Registration (encouraged but not mandatory): HERE

Schedule:

- - Welcome by Prof Marcel Tanner (Swiss Academy of Arts and Sciences and Swiss TPH)
  - Prof Simon Draper (University of Oxford, UK): Malaria Vaccines – Recent Advances and Future Challenges (20 min)
  - Prof Melissa Penny (Swiss TPH): Data Analytics and Modelling Supporting Novel Malaria Prevention (20 min)
  - Prof Evelyn Korkor Ansah (University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana): Lessons from Malaria Vaccine Implementation in Ghana (20 min)
  - Q&A and Closing
  - Networking Apéro

Profile

Talk Takeaways

Malaria can occur repeatedly even if you have immunity to it. The immune response is also extremely complex; it appears that both antibody- and T-cell-based responses are active and regulate the parasite load in the blood following natural infection.

The development of a vaccine against malaria has proven to be highly difficult, and all current vaccination techniques aim to avoid parasite infection rather than mimic naturally-acquired immunity. Whilst, current vaccine strategies seek to prevent parasite infection – none of these vaccines seek to mimic natural malaria immunity. At this time, there are different types of vaccines at different stages of development. i.e, anti-sporozoite vaccines are in advanced clinical development (Phase 3 or beyond), while blood-stage and transmission-blocking vaccines and monoclonal antibodies are currently in Phase 1/2 trials.

The following are the primary difficulties in creating a malaria vaccine:

The need to identify antigen targets that are conserved, functionally essential and immunologically susceptible
Lack of precise methods to correlate immunological responses to malaria with in vivo protection levels
Need for vaccine delivery technologies that can induce extremely strong immune responses in order to protect, whilst prioritising patient safety

While the following are the additional problems of an evolving vaccination landscape:

Defining the best deployment strategies for first generation anti-sporozoite interventions
Assessing and utilizing multi-stage interventions combining vaccines around the parasite’s complex lifecycle
Achieving long-lasting immunity by vaccination i.e., more than 2 years’ high-level efficacy without the need of annual boosting
Means to manufacture cost-effective vaccines at scale

We can also assume that multi-stage approaches to combatting malaria could synergize to improve efficacy outcomes. For example:

Reducing sporozoite burden in mosquito could lead to easier ways to prevent infection
Reducing sporozoite dose could lead to an easier and more efficient way to clear fewer infected liver cells
Reducing liver parasitic burden, could make it easier to prevent blood infection
Reducing blood parasitemia could lead to easier ways to block fewer gametocytes and onward transmission

Profile

Talk Takeaways

Profile

Talk Takeaways

The WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030 sets out a number of key goals including:

Ensuring universal access to Malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment
Accelerating efforts towards elimination and attainment of malaria-free status
Transforming malaria surveillance into a core intervention

In the last 20 years, remarkable progress in combatting malaria was made: the global case rate reduced by approx. 36%, global mortality rate reduced by approx. 60% while malaria spending increased 300%.

However, in the last couple of years, progress has started to stall and current analyses show that 78 out of 88 malaria endemic countries providing data for 2010-2020 have detected resistance to at least one insecticide. Over 30% of endemic countries have detected resistance to pyrethroids and three others classes of insecticides. Currently, African countries account for 95% of malaria cases worldwide and we are currently off-track by 40% (cases) and 42% (mortality).

These staggering statistics confirm that there is certainly a need for new tools, and an even a greater need to strengthen the implementation of existing tools.

The pilot implementation of the vaccine revealed challenges related to caregivers, communities and the health system. These challenges give us an insight into some of the implementation challenges the earlier preventive tools have faced and continue to face. There is therefore a need to pay attention to these challenges as we strive to maximize the impact of existing tools/strategies and introduce new ones.

One of the main challenges in the affected communities is the normalization of malaria in endemic countries where a sense of ‘’We live with it’’ is widely spread and accepted. The perception of risk from this disease is low and it is a real issue. Additionally, vaccine hesitancy due to social media-based information, rumors and beliefs, limited health system capacity, supply chain challenges, inadequate community engagement, and limited healthcare worker training including in leadership are also current issues that are being faced locally.

Most importantly, we must pay attention to the social determinants of malaria burden. We need to make sure that the interventions we put in place are going to achieve maximum impact in the community. This can only happen if community members are engaged in finding and implementing the solution to the problem of malaria in their locality. While people should not be left behind in benefiting from interventions, they need to be part of and contribute to the fight against malaria as well.

BRCCH Seminar 6 July: Refining Paediatric Treatments for All

Visual: Kiran Kuruvithadam

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join our seminar looking at Refining Paediatric Treatments for All. This event will highlight the research progress of Prof Thomas Erb (UKBB) on how to reduce the risk associated with the use of mechanical ventilation in children, and the efforts to improve competence in paediatric anaesthesia in Switzerland. Then, Dr Marianne Schmid Daners (ETH Zurich) will provide an overview of the challenges of paediatric hydrocephalus treatment. Finally, Prof Kokila Lakhoo (University of Oxford) will present her work in low- and middle-income countries on providing surgical treatments to children in need.

When: Wednesday, July 6th, 2022 from 16:00-17:30 CET

Where: Hybrid Zoom / UKBB seminar room, Spitalstrasse 33, 4056 Basel

Zoom Registration: HERE

In-person Registration (encouraged but not mandatory): HERE

Schedule:

- - Welcome by BRCCH Director Prof Georg Holländer
  - Prof Thomas Erb & his team (UKBB): "Safety first in children undergoing anaesthesia and sedation!" (25 min)
  - Dr Marianne Schmid Daners (ETH Zurich): "Challenges of paediatric hydrocephalus" (20 min)
  - Prof Kokila Lakhoo (University of Oxford): "Addressing the global health challenges for children with surgical needs in low- and middle-income countries" (40min, online)
  - Closing

Prof Kokila Lakhoo

Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford

Prof Kokila Lakhoo is a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Children’s Hospital in Oxford and the University of Oxford. She is also Chair of the International Forum for the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons and the President of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS). She is developing paediatric surgery through a link in Tanzania and has collaborative research projects in Malawi and South Africa. Besides general paediatric surgery and ambulatory surgery, her special interests are global health, fetal counselling, neonatal surgery, paediatric tumour surgery, paediatric thoracic surgery and specialist gastrointestinal surgery.

Prof Thomas Erb

University Children's Hospital Basel

Prof Thomas Erb completed his medical training with board examinations in anaesthesiology and critical care. Subsequently, he moved to Durham, North Carolina, USA, where he worked in the Pediatric Cardiology Program at Duke University. There, he also obtained a master of health sciences in clinical research. Returning to Switzerland in 2000, Prof Erb started his clinical research programme in the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University of Basel and University Children’s Hospital Basel (UKBB). In 2010, he became Titular Professor of Anaesthesiology, and in 2011 he was made Head of the Division of Paediatric Anaesthesia at UKBB. His clinical interests and research are focused on the effects of anaesthetic conditions on airway and lung mechanics in children. He is currently leading the BRCCH-funded COVent project aiming to develop practical solutions that reduce the risks associated with the use of mechanical ventilation, especially those associated with low-cost/do-it-yourself ventilators and off-label use that are now available in many resource-limited settings.

Dr Marianne Schmid Daners

Institute of Design, Materials and Fabrication, ETH Zurich

Dr Marianne Schmid Daners graduated from ETH Zurich as a mechanical engineer. She then completed her doctorate on the topic of “Adaptive Shunts for Cerebrospinal Fluid Control” at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control. Dr Schmid Daners heads the institute’s Biomedical Systems Group as a senior scientist. At the interdisciplinary interface of clinical research and engineering, her passion is the pathophysiological understanding of the dynamics of the intracranial and cardiovascular systems. Her research focuses on the modelling, control and testing of biological systems, as well as on the development and control of biomedical devices for the treatment of heart failure and hydrocephalus.

Takeaways from Panel Discussion: Impact of COVID-19 on Global Paediatric Health

On May 24^th 2022, a panel of experts highlighted several important facets of the consequences that COVID-19 pandemic has on the global paediatric health situation:

- decreased access to vital child healthcare services like newborn care and immunisation
- increased poverty
- more nutritional and physical activity deprivation
- mental impairment
- compromised learning and loss of a caregiver

Moderator: Prof Julia Dratva, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) & University of Basel, Switzerland

Panel members: Prof Yvonne Maldonado, Stanford University, USA; Prof Alan Stein, University of Oxford, UK; Dr Marc Birkhölzer, University of Basel, Switzerland; Prof Thomas Berger, Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor at NEO FOR NAMIBIA

More about the event here.

Find out more about our speakers and read about their takeaways below

From left to right: Prof Julia Dratva, Dr Marc Birkhölzer, Prof Yvonne Maldonado, Prof Thomas Berger. (Prof Alan Stein joined remotely, not pictured)

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Impact of COVID-19 on Global Paediatric Health – Panel Discussion

Impact of COVID-19 on Global Paediatric Health

Join us during an interactive debate with a panel of experts on the topic: How the COVID-19 Pandemic has affected Global Paediatric Health. The discussion will mainly focus on: i) mental health in young people, ii) disruption to life-saving paediatric health services such as immunisation and antenatal care.

Tuesday, May 24^th 2022 (16.00-17.15 pm CET)

Moderator: Prof Julia Dratva, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) & University of Basel, Switzerland

Panel members: Prof Yvonne Maldonado, Stanford University, USA; Prof Alan Steiner, University of Oxford, UK; Dr Marc Birkhölzer, University of Basel, Switzerland; Prof Thomas Berger, Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor at NEO FOR NAMIBIA

Find out more about our speakers below

Prof Yvonne Maldonado
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics
Department of Epidemiology and Population Health Stanford University School of Medicine, USA

Yvonne Maldonado is Professor of paediatrics, epidemiology, and population health, and Chief of the division of paediatric infectious diseases at the School of Medicine, Stanford University. She also currently serves as Stanford Medicine’s Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity. Prof Maldonado's research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of viral infectious diseases such as paediatric HIV, polio, measles and Ebola. Her work on mother-to-child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa is credited for preventing hundreds of thousands of newborns from acquiring HIV. She also leads research on the development and implementation of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries.

Visual: Stanford University

Prof Julia Dratva
Institute of Public Health, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Medical Faculty, University of Basel, Switzerland

Prof Julia Dratva is a public health expert with a focus on child and adolescent health and early life factors of health and disease. She is the Head of the Public Health Research Unit at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and an Assistant Professor in the Medical Faculty at the University of Basel.

Prof Dratva is a medical doctor by training with a background in internal medicine. She also holds a Master degree in Public Health and a Specialist Certification (FMH) for "Prevention and Public Health". She has a particular interest in the life course approach to health and disease in research and teaching, addressing vulnerable groups and vulnerable time spans. She also has research interests in cardiovascular health, health monitoring, health literacy and digital health.

Prof Alan Stein
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK

Alan Stein is Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, Honorary Professor in the School of Public health at the University of Witwatersrand and a member of the faculty of the African Health Research Institute, South Africa. His main area of research concerns the development of children and adolescents in the face of adversity. Ultimately the priority is to develop interventions. He has led three Lancet series on: i) The mental health of internally displaced and refugee children, ii) Perinatal mental health, iii) The communication of life-threatening conditions to children.

Prof Thomas Berger
Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor at NEO FOR NAMIBIA - Helping Babies Survive

Prof Thomas Berger is a paediatrician specialised in neonatology and intensive care. With more than 25 years of experience in neonatology in various high-income countries, he decided to share his knowledge with physicians and nurses in less privileged countries. Therefore, he and his wife founded the non-profit organisation NEO FOR NAMIBIA – Helping Babies Survive in 2017. The team has just launched their 14^th mission in Rundu State Hospital to improve neonatal and paediatric care in Namibia.

BRCCH Early-Career Programme

The BRCCH endeavours to foster the development of aspiring young researchers who will pioneer the next frontiers in global paediatric medicine and health. The BRCCH’s Early Career Programme aims to provide unique opportunities for its community members to gain know-how in research areas at the heart of the Centre’s mission and to grow their global network.

This upcoming year (late 2021-mid 2022), the BRCCH invites its early-career community members to join local and international speakers in a series of interactive workshops on topics across the Centre’s mandate.

Webinar: Community-based COVID-19 Testing in Lesotho and Zambia

Visual: SolidarMed & Swiss TPH

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join us online for a webinar looking at Community-based COVID-19 testing in Lesotho and Zambia. This event will highlight research progress of the collaborative project between Dr Kwame Shanaube (Zambart) and Dr Klaus Reither (Swiss TPH) on the effects of community-led interventions in mitigating the COVID-19 epidemics in Lesotho and Zambia. The BRCCH and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) partnered on a joint initiative to support multi-national collaborations for research to mitigate COVID-19, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

When: Wednesday, April 27th, 2022 from 15:30-17:00 CET

Where: Online, Zoom seminar

Registration: HERE

Schedule:

- - Welcome by BRCCH Director Prof Georg Holländer
  - Keynote lecture by Dr Kwame Shanaube (Zambart), Dr Klaus Reither (Swiss TPH) & their research teams:

1. 1. 1. 1. Overview of the joint BRCCH-EDCTP project: Improving Access to SARS-CoV-2 Screening and Testing through Community-based COVID-19 Case-Finding and the Use of Digital Solutions in Lesotho and Zambia
        
        Comparing different approaches of community-based SARS-CoV-2 testing in Lesotho and Zambia
        
        Barriers and facilitators to SARS-CoV-2 testing at community-based testing sites
        
        Evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 tests and testing approaches

- - Plenary discussion
  - Closing

Dr Kwame Shanaube

Zambart & School of Public Health, University of Zambia

Dr Kwame Shanaube is Deputy Director of Research (Quantitative) at Zambart, a multidisciplinary research organisation that conducts a range of studies including clinical trials, epidemiological studies and laboratory-based diagnostic studies. She is a clinician with a Master’s degree in public health and a PhD in TB clinical epidemiology. She is also an honorary lecturer at the University of Zambia School of Public Health. Her research interests cover a wide range of disciplines, including TB/HIV epidemiology, community-based cluster randomised trials, operational research through evaluation of field diagnostics and adolescent health. She is also the country’s Principal Investigator for a large international TB consortium (the TREATS Project) and the overall Principal Investigator for the TREATS-COVID study, both funded by the EDCTP.

Dr Klaus Reither

Clinical Research Unit, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Dr Klaus Reither is Head of the Clinical Research Unit and the leader of the Clinical TB Research Group at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). He oversees and coordinates clinical research projects conducted by Swiss TPH and his research responsibilities comprise the set-up, implementation, coordination and supervision of clinical research projects, with an emphasis on TB clinical trials at Swiss TPH’s international partner organisations such as the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania, the National Centre of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Georgia and SolidarMed in Lesotho.

Dr Reither is Lead Investigator of the BRCCH COVID-19 project: MistraL - Mitigation Strategies for Communities with COVID-19 Transmission in Lesotho Using Artificial Intelligence on Chest X-rays and Novel Rapid Diagnostic Tests. Together with Dr Kwame Shanaube, he also co-leads a BRCCH-EDCTP collaborative project on Improving Access to SARS-CoV-2 Screening and Testing through Community-based COVID-19 Case-Finding and the Use of Digital Solutions in Lesotho and Zambia.

Webinar: Future of COVID-19 Research

visual: background image courtesy of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Description: The BRCCH cordially invites you to join us online for a webinar looking at The Future of COVID-19 Research. This event will highlight significant research progress and the roadmap ahead related to immunology, epidemiology and bioengineering. Gain insights from our keynote speakers and engage with them during the Q&A panel discussion.

When: Thursday, October 21st, 2021 from 15:00-17:00 CET

Where: online, livestream Zoom seminar

Schedule:
Welcome by BRCCH Vice Director Prof Sai Reddy
Keynote lecture by Prof Teresa Lambe OBE (University of Oxford)
"Development and testing of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine"
Keynote lecture by Prof Benjamin Murrell (Karolinska Institutet)
"Neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 variants"
Keynote lecture by Prof Sai Reddy (ETH Zurich and BRCCH)
"Identifying prospective variants of SARS-CoV-2 by deep mutational learning"
Q&A Panel Discussion
Closing

Prof Teresa Lambe OBE
The Lambe Group for Emerging Pathogens
The Oxford Vaccine Group and the Jenner Institute Laboratories
Dept of Paediatrics, University of Oxford

Assoc Prof Lambe will share her research insights into the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and its vaccine. Her research group is part of the Covid-19 vaccine trial in the UK and has co-designed the vaccine and led the development and testing of the immune response after vaccination.

Prof Lambe’s research investigates the establishment of protective immune responses following vaccination and the formation of adaptive immune memory. She is particularly interested in delineating the immune response post vaccination and also post natural infection to help develop vaccines and define correlates of protection. At the University of Oxford, her group uses platform technologies to develop vaccines against emerging and re-emerging pathogens. The group is currently developing vaccines against a number of outbreak pathogens including Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, Lassa virus, Nipah virus, Influenza, Ebolavirus and coronaviruses.

Visual: John Cairns/University of Oxford

Prof Benjamin Murrell
Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology
Karolinska Institutet

Prof Murrell will speak about his work on the H2020 CoroNAb project, studying antibodies and isolating nanobodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Prof Murrell's previous research interests surrounded the evolution of the HIV envelope protein, and antibodies against it. Recently, he has applied this expertise to SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Together with colleagues, he has identified nanobodies from immunized alpacas that may be potential SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics, and has conducted preclinical immunization studies attempting to boost responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants. This work is part of the CoroNAb consortium research project, funded under Horizon2020 as part of the EU’s emergency funding call for COVID-19.

Visual: Karolinska Institutet

Prof Sai Reddy
Laboratory for Systems and Synthetic Immunology
Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zurich
And Vice Director BRCCH

Prof Reddy shares his recent work on developing a simultaneous diagnostic and genomic surveillance method for SARS-CoV-2 based on targeted deep sequencing. He will also present new data from his group related to identifying variants of SARS-CoV-2 using a novel method called deep mutational learning.

Prof Reddy’s research is focused on the emerging field of systems and synthetic immunology, with an aim towards developing technologies relevant to immunotherapy and biotechnology. He has developed a number of methods in systems immunology to improve our understanding of adaptive immunity, with a particular focus on immune repertoire sequencing. Recently, he founded two spin-off companies, deepCDR Biologics and Engimmune Therapeutics, which are both based on technologies developed in his research group on engineering antibodies or T cells.

Webinar: Insights Into COVID-19 Research

Description: The pandemic is placing the world in a stress test that is unprecedented. In response, organizations across sectors from research to nonprofit are mobilizing resources and taking action. This 3-part webinar series will highlight the BRCCH's ongoing collaborative research efforts in Switzerland, as well as dip into the global conversation about the current challenges and latest developments in the race to respond to the pandemic, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.

Sept 2nd & 9th: We will take an in-depth look into recently launched research projects focused on diagnostics and the immunology of COVID-19, as well as others focused on novel medical interventions for COVID-19. The projects are part of our recent Fast Track Initiative for COVID-19.

Sept 16th: During the panel discussion, we will hear first hand from international experts about the current landscape of public health and how technology and partnerships spanning borders could meet current challenges in the pandemic.

Register: closed. In case you missed the webinars, you can now watch them here (scroll down) or on our Youtube channel
More: Download our programme below for info on the talks and speakers

Inaugural BRCCH Spotlight Day

The inaugural Spotlight Day of the BRCCH marked the start of our initiative to build a community, both locally and globally, around the central mission of improving the health and well-being of children and adolescents worldwide. This event was an opportunity for local and international community to meet, start new dialogues and enable fruitful collaborations.

More than 200 visitors joined the BRCCH at the inaugural Spotlight Day on January 30, 2020 – a great turnout to the Centre's first public event. After inspiring welcome addresses by Andrea Schenker-Wicki and Detlef Günther, four new BRCCH Multi-Investigator Projects showcased their vision for the next 5 years. Three international keynote speakers gave new perspectives on how research can be applied and translated. With this event, the BRCCH welcomed our new research projects at the Centre and the start of their research activities at the BRCCH.

Seminar 04 June 2025 - Feasibility and economics of improved child deworming with albendazole-ivermectin

Speakers:

Seminar 03 March 2025 -Personalising Dosing for Children with Thyroid Diseases

Speakers:

Inaugural Lecture, 25 November 2024 - Recent Advances in the Molecular Understanding and Diagnostics of Bone Tumours

Speaker:

Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day - Video Release

Speakers:

19 April 2024 - Future of Paediatric Health Research Spotlight Day

Speakers:

Workshop: Nurturing Research Teams

Seminar 21 March 2024 - Lessons from the Deceased to the Living and Back

Speakers:

Seminar 28 November 2023 - Evolving Perspectives in Improving Cleft Lip and Palate Care

Speakers:

Seminar 23 October 2023 - The Gut Microbiome as a Tool for Individualised Medicine

Speakers:

Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute Invites the Public to New Headquarters

Seminar 27 Apr - Digital Support Tools for Paediatric Health

Speakers:

BRCCH Seminar 18 Nov - Importance of the Microbiome in Paediatric Health

Keynote speakers:

BRCCH Seminar 20 Oct - Malaria Prevention: Progress and Prospects

Keynote speakers:

BRCCH Seminar 6 July: Refining Paediatric Treatments for All

Seminar Archive

Keynote Speakers:

Takeaways from Panel Discussion: Impact of COVID-19 on Global Paediatric Health

Prof Yvonne Maldonado

Dr Marc Birkhölzer

Prof Alan Stein

Prof Thomas Berger

Prof Julia Dratva

Impact of COVID-19 on Global Paediatric Health

Programme Speakers:

BRCCH's Early-Career Events 2021-2022

For more information and registration, contact Dr. Amandine Bovay, BRCCH Scientific Officer and Development Manager (amandine.bovay@brc.ch)

Webinar: Community-based COVID-19 Testing in Lesotho and Zambia

Keynote Speakers:

Webinar: Future of COVID-19 Research

Webinar Archive

Keynote Speakers:

Webinar: Insights Into COVID-19 Research

Webinar Archive

Webinar: Insights Into
COVID-19 Research