Pediatric Fellow - Free University of Brussels

Medical Student at the University of Southampton, currently intercalating on the MMedSci programme at the University of Southampton. Currently lead for a study describing the health-related quality of life of children with congenital cytomegalovirus in the UK. Previously carried out a service evaluation of a midwife-led antenatal vaccination clinic at a tertiary centre in the UK.

Dr. Mika Rämet, Professor of Paediatrics, received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Oulu, Finland. Dr. Rämet’s research centres on the basic mechanisms of the immune response, vaccine development against Tuberculosis and elucidating genetic and molecular determinants of spontaneous preterm birth. Dr. Rämet has received several honours in recognition of his research including the Anders Jahre Prize for young scientists. He has published more than 110 papers in peer reviewed journals, with an h-index of 42 and more than 7,800 citations.

I am a paediatric registrar with a passion for improving the management and outcome of critically ill children in the resource poor setting, with a specialist interest in paediatric infections, particularly involving the brain. An intercalated undergraduate M.Phil at Alder Hey catalysed my interest in research. Since graduating, I have always had an academic component within my clinical training. Firstly, as an academic foundation doctor with the Liverpool brain infections group, I published research focused on acute encephalopathy among Nepali children. This sparked my focus on paediatric non-traumatic encephalopathies; it became clear many questions surrounding aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment are inadequately answered. I returned to the UK to undertake specialist training in paediatrics, working clinically in tertiary level infectious diseases and neurology posts and as an academic clinical fellow (ACF) within the same research group. I conducted research investigating new commercial diagnostics for severe childhood infections and non-invasive tools to monitor cerebral function, with future potential to guide treatment of acute encephalopathy. Thereafter, I successfully obtained a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Fellowship. I am currently investigating the aetiology, pathogenesis and outcome of febrile encephalopathy in Malawian children. For the last 2.5 years I have been based full time in Malawi. My time is split between clinical duties as acting consultant on the acute paediatric research ward and high-dependency unit, within the largest government referral hospital in the country and principal investigator within the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust. This work in the resource poor setting has stoked my enthusiasm to pursue a life-long academic career. I relish the opportunity undertake a formal collaboration with the Wilson laboratory, University of California San Francisco, exploiting powerful methodologies, such as next generation sequencing and phage display antibody discovery technologies to improve early diagnosis and better understand the pathogenesis of febrile encephalopathy. Long term, I aim to run pragmatic clinical trials in resource poor settings to identify diagnostics, treatments and supportive management that reduce mortality in critically ill children. Examples of such interventions could include early application of syndromic diagnostics and physiologically tailored fluid interventions.

After my pediatric residency in Olgahospital, Klinikum Stuttgart, Germany, a tertiary care pediatric hospital, I specialized in pediatric intensive care medicine in the same hospital. During this time I started my further education in pediatric infectious diseases. Since 2016 I lead the Pediatric Interdisciplinary Emergency Department and consult for pediatric infectious diseases. Since 2019 I organize the pediatric antibiotic stewardship program. In 2021 this program was expanded further and now cares for all pediatric and adult patients in Klinikum Stuttgart.

I am a second year paediatric resident at the Hospital Infanta Sofía in Madrid, Spain. Wishing to become a better paediatrician and a better researcher day by day.

Ralf René Reinert is Vice President and Medical Lead of International Developed Markets for the Medical Development Group and Scientific Affairs for Pfizer Vaccines. Ralf René earned his MD from the University of Cologne in Germany. From the early 1990s, his scientific work was focused on streptococcal infections, and he held the position of Head of the German National Reference Center for Streptococci for more than 10 years and worked as a Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Aachen, Germany. Ralf René has published more than 140 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is the editor of 2 books on streptococcal diseases.

I am a medical student currently intercalating at Imperial in Reproductive and Developmental Sciences (iBSc). I first heard about MIS-C in a lecture last year and since then my interest in this rapidly developing area of paediatric infectious disease has grown. I am fortunate to be undertaking my research project under the supervision of Professor Levin and his team, from who I have learnt so much over the past few months. My research aims to propose variables that might distinguish MIS-C from other infectious or inflammatory diseases in children.