ESCMID Young Investigator Awards for Research in CM and ID

Dr. Pardi obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of Szeged, Hungary. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 2011 he joined Dr. Drew Weissman’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. He explored the development of a novel, versatile vaccine delivery platform using nucleoside-modified mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles. He played an instrumental role in the development of potent new generation mRNA-based vaccines against various important pathogens including HSV-2, Zika and influenza viruses. Additionally, Dr. Pardi’s studies significantly contributed to understanding the mechanism of action of this novel vaccine type. Currently, Dr. Pardi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania and has been working on the development of universal influenza vaccines using his mRNA-based vaccine platform. Dr. Pardi has built up an extensive collaborative network including more than 20 laboratories in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Dr. Miotto is a Research associate at the IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan (Italy) working on tuberculosis. He holds an MSc in Molecular biology of the Cell from the University of Milano and a Ph.D. in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Siena. Dr. Miotto’s interest in biological sciences motivated his decision to take the first steps in the field of research and join the scientific community. After working on drug resistance mechanisms and diagnosis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the challenge to better understand the biological reasons behind the success of this pathogen lead him to approach host-pathogen interaction studies. Despite the different themes considered in the field, the shared motif underlining his research interests is the attempt to translate basic research findings into clinically useful information.

Dr. Buetti studied medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. In 2013, he started his career in infectious diseases as a resident at the Bern University Hospital, Switzerland. He subsequently worked as a consultant at the Bern University Hospital and was deputy-head of research and development of Swissnoso (National Center for Infection Control, Switzerland). In 2019, he obtained a Master degree in clinical epidemiology and healthcare research from the Sorbonne University of Paris, France. He is currently working at the IAME laboratory (Infection Antimicrobials Modelling Evolution, Team “Decision Science in Infectious Disease prevention, control and care”) in Paris. Dr. Buetti’s research interests lie primarily in the epidemiology of community-acquired and hospital-acquired bloodstream infections as well as in the development of preventive measures and management strategies for intravascular catheter-related infections and multi-drug resistant microorganisms (e.g. vancomycin-resistant enterococci).