Dr Christian Schürch co-initiated the collaborative study of COVID-19 between the University of Basel and Stanford University, USA. He studied medicine and completed a PhD thesis in tumour immunology, followed by a board certification in general surgical pathology. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Nolan laboratory at Stanford, investigating cancer immunology using highly multiplexed tissue imaging technologies. Dr Schürch has 44 peer-reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on two patents. He has been awarded a Swiss National MD-PhD Scholarship, a Hagmann Foundation Scholarship, a Cloëtta Foundation Scholarship, an SNSF Advanced Postdoc Scholarship and an SNSF Postdoc Scholarship. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Best PhD Thesis, a Hemmi Foundation Award, a Stowell-Orbison Certificate of Merit, a Brupbacher Young Investigator Award, a Pfizer Research Award, a Lady Tata International Leukemia Award and an ASH Abstract Achievement Award, and he was also selected for the 2021 inaugural Arthur L. Irving Family Foundation Cancer Immunology Symposium.