ESCMID Young Investigator Awards 2012


The 2012 awards went to Andrea Endimiani and Christian Giske for their outstanding scientific achievements.

Andrea Endimiani, Berne, Switzerland
Andrea received his MD board certification in Medical Microbiology and PhD in Immunopathology at the University of Insubria (Varese, Italy). He worked at the University of Pittsburgh (2006–2007) under the supervision of David Paterson and then at the Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland (2007–2010) under the direction of his mentor Robert Bonomo.
Andrea Endimiani received his award during the ESCMID Young Investigator Awards Session on 3 April 2012. During the session, he gave his talk: ‘Antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative organisms of animal origin: an emerging problem for human health’.


Research Interests
Andrea Endimiani has constantly managed to combine basic microbiology, epidemiology, pharmacology, biochemistry and molecular tools for
investigating and improving the outcome of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Gram-negative infections. Currently, he works as a clinical microbiologist at
the Institute for Infectious Diseases of the University of Bern, Switzerland. He focuses on biochemistry, molecular biology and epidemiology of ESBLs, AmpCs and carbapenemases detected in Gram-negatives of human and animal origin. He is also developing novel diagnostic techniques to rapidly detect MDR organisms responsible for bacteraemia and is implementing an animal model
of infection to evaluate new antibiotic strategies against MDR Gram-negatives.

Christian Giske, Stockholm, Sweden
Christian started his career in clinical microbiology approximately nine years ago as a resident at Karolinska University Hospital while also doing his PhD studies there. He is now a consultant physician and associate professor in Clinical Microbiology, and leader of a research group at Karolinska Institutet.
Christian Giske received his award during the ESCMID Young Investigator Awards Session on 3 April 2012. During the session, he gave his talk: ‘Dissemination of acquired carbapenemases in Gram-negative bacilli: a story of successful clones’.

Research Interests
The research of Christian Giske focuses on multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli, mostly K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa, including population biology studies using MLST. Several clinical studies are ongoing – one study of the
 duration and dynamics of fecal carriage of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae, and another project exploring patient and bacterial factors decisive in clinical outcome in K. pneumoniae bloodstream infections. Among the major findings
of his research group are the description of the highly epidemic K. pneumoniae clone ST258, and several epidemic clones of P. aeruginosa (CC111 and CC235). His research group played a key role in the detection of the carbapenemase NDM-1, and is at present involved in next-generation sequencing of ESBL-plasmids.