Profile

Career:

In 1993, I was employed at the National Veterinary Institute (formerly Statens Veterinære Serumlaboratorium) as laboratory technologist working with prevention strategies of bovine mastitis. From 1995 when the issues related to the use of growth promoters in the food animal production emerged, the technical staff increased from one to 14 technicians for whom I became responsible for coordinating all daily duties. In 1999, our institute was appointed as WHO Collaborating Centre for antimicrobial resistance in foodborne pathogens and my duties and responsibility were transferred to building up laboratory capacity and developing teaching curricula around the world in relation to the WHO Global Foodborne Infections Network (WHO GFN). During those years, I became actively involved in several research projects and was in 2008 enrolled in a PhD-programme at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). January 2010, I defended my thesis “Global epidemiology of non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in humans”. In 2016, I managed to have our institute’s designation as WHO Collaborating Centre expanded to include also “Genomics”.

Currently, I work as senior scientist at the Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute (DTU Food), Division of Bacterial Genomics and Epidemiology, Research Group of Bacterial Genomics and Antimicrobial Resistance and act as deputy for reference centres; WHO Collaborating Centre and European Union Reference Laboratory (ranked among the top three best EURLs based on a EC evaluation) . I am responsible for additionally three scientists and two technicians.

Qualifications:

Since 1999, I have been involved in activities related to Technical University of Denmark, National Food Institute (DTU Food) role as WHO Collaborating Centre and European Union Reference Laboratory. I represent the National Food Institute as steering committee member (1999 - ) in the WHO Global Foodborne Infections Network (WHO GFN), steering committee member (2009 – 2014 - 2019) of the WHO Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (AGISAR) network and chair in working group 4, the Global Microbial Identifier; GMI developing proficiency testing for whole genome sequencing. Additionally, I have been appointed as INFOSAN and ECDC focal points as well as being on the scientific advisory board of PathoNGen-Trace and the Surveillance and Pathogenomics Israeli Centre of Excellence; SPICE programmes and an ECDC external expert.

Capacity building / Teaching:

I have facilitated and conducted more than 25 international laboratory training courses for more than 500 scientists from more than 50 countries; primarily in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China, Eastern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe and in antimicrobial susceptibility testing, detection of foodborne pathogens and molecular techniques including next generation sequencing. I am also responsible for conducting national and international (WHO / EURL) proficiency test programs (External Quality Assurance Systems (EQAS)) in antimicrobial susceptibility testing, serotyping of Salmonella and Shigella, identification of Campylobacter and mastitis pathogens.

Research:

My main focus is research in global epidemiology, surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, and population structure of mainly food and waterborne pathogens. Of personal scientific highlights were linking the cholera outbreak in Haiti to sources in Nepal using next generation sequencing published in Mbio; “Population genetics of Vibrio cholerae from Nepal, year 2010; An identical clone in Nepal and the Haiti outbreak” and the discovery of Ethiopian adoptees carrying ESBL producing Salmonella Concord published in Pediatr Infect Dis J. “Emergence of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Concord Infections in Europe and the United States in Children Adopted From Ethiopia, 2003-2007”. In addition, I am co-author of an invited review about “Typhoid Fever” published in Lancet.

I am author of 82 peer-reviewed published and accepted articles in international refereed journals (18/12-2016); 15 as first author and 23 as last author. In addition, editor of the book entitled “Applied Genomics of Foodborne Pathogens” (Springer).  I have conducted research with 362 scientists in 41 countries.