Team - University Hospital Bonn
About Us
With a tradition going back almost 200 years, a student body numbering 30,000 and an excellent reputation at home and abroad, Bonn is one of the leading universities in Germany. What's more the university is at home in a city and region where life has always been that little bit better. The character of Bonn University is, of course, shaped by the people who teach, learn and research here. And all of them, in turn, benefit from a clear and carefully developed institutional profile. Bonn is a research-oriented university that operates internationally while remaining conscious of its traditions. It cooperates with numerous universities and research establishments all over the world. It has developed teaching and research specialisations that enjoy worldwide recognition.
Some facts and figures:
Relevant experience of the group
The laboratory is a hospital and academic laboratory involved in research on epidemiology and immunology of respiratory viruses, the development of diagnosis methods for these viruses The group detected a new variant of the human metapneumovirus that was related to an acute asthma exacerbation. The laboratory has biosafety facilities up to level 3 (for gene-technology up to biosafety level S2) and collect clinical samples (e.g. sera, naso-pharyngeal aspirates) from all groups of patients. Currently, around 30.000 clinical samples are collected every year, samples are retrospectively available for the last 9 years (i.e. around 270.000 samples in total, of these we estimate up to 40.000 samples relevant for the study). For the majority of these samples clinical data are also available. The group also has extensive experience in the diagnosis and isolation of human respiratory viruses including Influenza viruses (including the emerging avian variant H5N1). The team consists of molecular biologists, physicians, veterinaries, and technicians. All standard techniques are established and the group is fully equipped.
Short CV Oliver Schildgen (Coordinator)
Priv. Doz. Dr. rer. nat. Oliver Schildgen, married, born 23.07.1974 in Nuremberg, Germany, studied biology at the University of Cologne. His diploma thesis was on the pathogensis of the picornavirus ECHO9 in newborn mice and was performed in the Institute of Virology in Cologne under the guidance of Prof. Dr. H.J. Eggers and Priv.-Doz.in Dr. B. Nelsen-Salz. Following his diploma thesis Oliver Schildgen worked at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Genetics and the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne and studied the Baculovirus model before performing his PhD thesis on the woodchuck hepatitis virus in the lab of Prof. Dr. M. Roggendorf at the University of Essen. Since 2002 Dr. Schildgen works at the University of Bonn and meanwhile leads a small research group that focuses on the epidemiology of new respiratory pathogens. Since December 2006 he is “Privat-Dozent” (qualified lecturer) for Virology at the Bonn University. His major research interests are new or emerging respiratory viruses and the development of hepadnaviral resistance against antiviral drugs.
Objectives
Establishement of the knowledge base for therapy and vaccine guidelines related to elderly and high risk patients
Description of work
Our team
With a tradition going back almost 200 years, a student body numbering 30,000 and an excellent reputation at home and abroad, Bonn is one of the leading universities in Germany. What's more the university is at home in a city and region where life has always been that little bit better. The character of Bonn University is, of course, shaped by the people who teach, learn and research here. And all of them, in turn, benefit from a clear and carefully developed institutional profile. Bonn is a research-oriented university that operates internationally while remaining conscious of its traditions. It cooperates with numerous universities and research establishments all over the world. It has developed teaching and research specialisations that enjoy worldwide recognition.
Some facts and figures:
- approx. 530 professors
- approx. 3,000 other academic staff
- approx. 5,200 non-academic staff
- approx. 31,500 students
- about 5,200 foreign students
- about 80 degree programmes
- Total expenditure: approx. 289 million euros
- Funds attracted from third-parties: approx. 73.2 million euros
- 7 collaborative research centres, 10 postgraduate collegia, 7 research groups and clinical research groups
- partnerships with 56 universities in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
- University clinics: 3,200 non-academic staff, budget: 472 million euros, about 30 clinics, 1,314 beds
Relevant experience of the group
The laboratory is a hospital and academic laboratory involved in research on epidemiology and immunology of respiratory viruses, the development of diagnosis methods for these viruses The group detected a new variant of the human metapneumovirus that was related to an acute asthma exacerbation. The laboratory has biosafety facilities up to level 3 (for gene-technology up to biosafety level S2) and collect clinical samples (e.g. sera, naso-pharyngeal aspirates) from all groups of patients. Currently, around 30.000 clinical samples are collected every year, samples are retrospectively available for the last 9 years (i.e. around 270.000 samples in total, of these we estimate up to 40.000 samples relevant for the study). For the majority of these samples clinical data are also available. The group also has extensive experience in the diagnosis and isolation of human respiratory viruses including Influenza viruses (including the emerging avian variant H5N1). The team consists of molecular biologists, physicians, veterinaries, and technicians. All standard techniques are established and the group is fully equipped.
Short CV Oliver Schildgen (Coordinator)
Priv. Doz. Dr. rer. nat. Oliver Schildgen, married, born 23.07.1974 in Nuremberg, Germany, studied biology at the University of Cologne. His diploma thesis was on the pathogensis of the picornavirus ECHO9 in newborn mice and was performed in the Institute of Virology in Cologne under the guidance of Prof. Dr. H.J. Eggers and Priv.-Doz.in Dr. B. Nelsen-Salz. Following his diploma thesis Oliver Schildgen worked at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Genetics and the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne and studied the Baculovirus model before performing his PhD thesis on the woodchuck hepatitis virus in the lab of Prof. Dr. M. Roggendorf at the University of Essen. Since 2002 Dr. Schildgen works at the University of Bonn and meanwhile leads a small research group that focuses on the epidemiology of new respiratory pathogens. Since December 2006 he is “Privat-Dozent” (qualified lecturer) for Virology at the Bonn University. His major research interests are new or emerging respiratory viruses and the development of hepadnaviral resistance against antiviral drugs.
Objectives
Establishement of the knowledge base for therapy and vaccine guidelines related to elderly and high risk patients
Description of work
- retrospective determination of serological parameters related to new and emerging viruses in elderly patients in up to 40.000 samples (e.g. HMPV, HCoV-NL63, Bocavirus, Influenza viruses including H5N1)
- prospective determination of new and emerging viruses serological parameters in elderly patients
- seroprevalence studies concerning new or emerging respiratory viruses in defined elderly patients groups with background diseases (e.g. transplant recipients, AIDS patients, cancer patients)
- Determination of EBV serological parameters and viral load in immunosuppressed patients (HTX, NTX) and elderly patients and comparison to an immunocompetent, young control group.
- development of new (non-commercial) diagnostic tests for the detection of neutralizing antibodies against new or emerging respiratory viruses (e.g. cell culture based neutralisation assays)
- practical testing of the software tool from workpackage 1 and collection of clinical data relevant to the retrospective and prospective investigations planned for workpackage 2
- practical testing of diagnostic assays from WP5
Our team
Research Scientist
Dr. rer. nat. Verena Schildgen
- Project Management, Scientific Research
- Project Management, Scientific Research
Technican
Ramona-Liza Tillmann
- Cell culture, Culturing of viruses, PCR's (hBoV, hCoV, hMPV,
Influenza A + B, RSV), Sequencing, establishment
of neutralisationtest for hCoV-NL63 and hMPV
- Cell culture, Culturing of viruses, PCR's (hBoV, hCoV, hMPV,
Influenza A + B, RSV), Sequencing, establishment
of neutralisationtest for hCoV-NL63 and hMPV
Ph.D student
Vanessa Ditt
- Characterization of newly identified respiratory viruses, e.g. hMPV,
Corona-NL63 and Boca
- establishment of a neutralisation test for hMPV and Corona-NL63
- testing of various siRNAs directed against different viral RNAs of
hMPV and Corona-NL63
- Characterization of newly identified respiratory viruses, e.g. hMPV,
Corona-NL63 and Boca
- establishment of a neutralisation test for hMPV and Corona-NL63
- testing of various siRNAs directed against different viral RNAs of
hMPV and Corona-NL63
