ESCMID/bioMérieux Awardee 2007
In recognition of excellence and major contributions to progress in clinical microbiology by a young scientist from Eastern Europe, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and bioMérieux are proud to announce the recipient of this Research Grant in Clinical Microbiology in 2007:
Anna Skoczynska
born 1968 in Warsaw, Poland; PhD, researcher at the National Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Microbiology, Warsaw (currently on her post-doctoral fellowship at the Neisseria Unit, Institute Pasteur, Paris) in recognition of her outstanding contributions to our understanding of the aetiology of bacterial meningitis and the molecular and conventional characterisation of several pathogens involved in this disease.
Research Interests
Anna Skoczynska’s research interests have mainly focussed on the molecular characterisation of the three main pathogens associated with bacterial meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae) and their role in invasive diseases. She contributed to setting up a national surveillance system for community-acquired invasive bacterial infections in Poland based on laboratory-confirmed cases and to establishing the National Reference Centre for Bacterial Meningitis. She has introduced a broad panel of molecular techniques, including non-culture methods, to assist in epidemiological investigations of these pathogens at local and national levels and to allow global comparisons. She has also been involved in other projects, e.g. looking at mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and the nationwide investigation of invasive pneumococcal disease in children as a basis for the deployment of a vaccine. Currently she is investigating the pathophysiological effects of different meningococcal strains with altered susceptibility to penicillin on their virulence.
