Awardees 2021


The 2021 awards went to Marit van Gils and Jason Trubiano for their outstanding scientific achievements

 

Marit van Gils, Amsterdam, Netherlands


Dr. Marit van Gils studied medical pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). She has performed her Ph.D. (2007-2011) at the University of Amsterdam in the lab of Dr. Schuitemaker on the humoral immune response after HIV-1 infection. She continued her career as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Sanders working on the development of an HIV protein vaccine at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. Dr. Van Gils has also performed part of her postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, United States) in the lab of Dr. Burton and in 2017 she started her own research group at the Amsterdam UMC studying the antibody and B cell responses after viral infection and vaccination. Antibody responses are vital in the protection against infectious diseases and the major goal in vaccine research is to induce potent antibodies. Gaining knowledge and control over the events needed to elicit these potent antibodies will be crucial to develop protective vaccines. Therefore, the lab of Dr. van Gils studies monoclonal antibodies from natural infection and vaccination for their phenotype, affinity, and specificity to guide vaccine design.


Dr. van Gils will receive her award during ECCMID 2021 (9 – 12 July 2021, Online) during the ESCMID Young Investigator Awards session and she will give a presentation entitled “Lessons learned from antibodies against SARS-CoV-2”.
 

 

 

 

 

Jason Trubiano, Victoria, Australia


Prof. Jason Trubiano is an Infectious Diseases Physician and NHMRC Research Fellow in Melbourne, Australia. He is the Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship (Austin Health) and Head of the Centre for Antibiotic Allergy and Research. Prof. Trubiano is a University of Melbourne Clinical Associate Professor and Emerging Leader of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. In 2017, he was awarded an NHMRC-supported PhD in antibiotic allergy testing in Antimicrobial Stewardship, and in 2020 completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the National Centre for Infections in Cancer exploring antibiotic allergy in immunocompromised hosts. His primary research remains in translational antibiotic allergy diagnostics, point-of-care tools and health services penicillin allergy testing programs. He has over 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and his work in the development of antibiotic allergy assessment tools, clinical prediction rules and whole-of-hospital penicillin allergy testing programs have been published in leading journals and cited in international guidelines and health policy.


Prof. Trubiano will receive his award during ECCMID 2021 (9 – 12 July 2021, Online) during the ESCMID Young Investigator Awards session and he will give a presentation entitled “The emerging role of antibiotic allergy programs in antimicrobial stewardship”.