Christian Drosten

Christian Heinrich Maria Drosten (German: [ˈkʁɪs.ti̯an ˈdʁɔs.tn̩] (listen), born 1972 in Lingen/Emsland) is a German virologist whose research focus is on novel viruses (emergent viruses). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Drosten came to national prominence as an expert on the implications and actions required to combat the outbreak in Germany.[1]

Christian Drosten
BornChristian Heinrich Maria Drosten 
12 June 1972  (age 48)
Lingen 
EducationDoctor of Medicine 
Alma mater
OccupationVirologist, university teacher 
Employer
WorksThe coronavirus update with Christian Drosten 
Awards
  • Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2005)
  • German Radio Award (2020, )
  • Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2020) 

Early life and education

Drosten was born in Lingen and grew up on a farm in Groß Hesepe, Emsland.[2] After graduating from the episcopal college Gymnasium Marianum in Meppen, Drosten initially studied chemical engineering and biology in Dortmund and Münster. From 1994, he studied Medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and completed his third state examination in May 2000. He did his doctorate at the Institute for transfusion medicine and immunohaematology of the German Red Cross (DRK) blood donation service Hessen in Frankfurt am Main. His dissertation (Dr. med.) on the establishment of a high-throughput system for testing blood donors was rated summa cum laude.

Career

From June 2000, Drosten worked as an intern in the laboratory group of the physician Herbert Schmitz in the virology department of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg, where he headed the laboratory group Molecular Diagnostics and established a research program for the molecular diagnostics of tropical viral diseases. From 2007, Drosten headed the Institute of Virology at University Hospital Bonn. During this time he worked with Isabella Eckerle, who would go on to lead the department of emerging viruses at the University of Geneva.[3] In 2017, he accepted a call to the Charité in Berlin, where he heads the Institute of Virology.[4]

From 2017 until 2019, Drosten was a member of the German Ministry of Health’s International Advisory Board on Global Health, chaired by Ilona Kickbusch.[5]

COVID-19 pandemic

On 23 January 2020, Drosten, along with other virologists in Europe and Hong Kong, published a workflow of a real-time PCR (RT-PCR) diagnostic test,[6] which was accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO) who sent test kits to affected regions.

During the COVID-19 pandemic,The Guardian described Drosten as "the [German] country's real face of the coronavirus crisis", and also noted that the Süddeutsche Zeitung had described Drosten as "the nation's corona-explainer-in-chief".[1] He was a counterpart to Lothar Wieler, head of the State's Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, in consulting to German federal and state authorities.[1] In March 2020, he was appointed to the European Commission's advisory panel on COVID-19, co-chaired by Ursula von der Leyen and Stella Kyriakides.[7][8]

Research

Drosten is one of the co-discoverers of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Together with Stephan Günther, a few days after identification and before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, he succeeded in developing a diagnostic test for the newly identified virus in 2003. Drosten immediately made his findings on SARS available to the scientific community on the internet, even before his article appeared in New England Journal of Medicine in May 2003.[9] Among others, this was honoured by the journal Nature.[10]

From 2012, the research group led by Drosten also researched the Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

For the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which first appeared in December 2019, the research group led by Drosten developed a test that was made available worldwide in mid-January 2020.[11] The group also published the sequenced genome from samples obtained in Germany. In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Drosten advised politicians and authorities and was invited as an expert in the media, among others in the podcast Das Coronavirus-Update mit Christian Drosten (English: The coronavirus update with Christian Drosten), initially published daily during the week since 26 February 2020 in Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR),[12][13][14] the frequency of the podcast having been gradually reduced from April 2020 until becoming weekly from 15 June 2020.[15]

Drosten is committed to the transparent distribution of scientific data and therefore, publishes in specialist journals such as Eurosurveillance, where all articles are freely available online.[12]

Recognition

At the end of 2003, Drosten, together with Stephan Günther, was awarded a €8,000 prize by the Werner Otto Foundation for the Promotion of Medical Research for the identification of the SARS coronavirus and the establishment of a rapid diagnostic test system.[16]

In 2004, Drosten received the GlaxoSmithKline funding award for clinical infectiology, the Abbott Diagnostics Award of the European Society for Clinical Virology, the bioMérieux Diagnostics Award from the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology, and the post-doctoral award for virology from the Robert Koch Foundation.

In 2005, he was awarded the "Verdienstkreuz am Bande" (Cross) of the Federal Cross of Merit, 2020 he received the "Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse" (Officer's Cross) for his civil service in time of COVID-19.[17]

Other activities

Government agencies
  • Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG), Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board (since 2020)[18]

Nonprofit organizations
  • National Research Platform for Zoonoses, Member of the Internal Advisory Board[19]
  • World Health Summit, Member of the Scientific Committee[20]

Editorial boards

References
  1. Henley, Jon (2020-03-22). "Coronavirus: meet the scientists who are now household names". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-03-22.
  2. Bartsch, Matthias; Buse, Uwe; Eberle, Lukas; Fahrion, Georg; Friedmann, Jan; Grolle, Johann; Hackenbroch, Veronika; Hujer, Marc; Müller, Martin U.; Schaap, Fritz (2020-02-21). "Gerät Covid-19 außer Kontrolle? Neue Erkenntnisse zum Coronavirus". Der Spiegel (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
  3. Semmler, Ilia. "Drosten Lab". Institute of Virology. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  4. "Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten" (in German). Institut für Virologie der Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  5. Four new members complete the International Advisory Board on Global Health Federal Ministry of Health, press release of July 2, 2018.
  6. Corman, Victor M; Landt, Olfert; Kaiser, Marco; Molenkamp, Richard; Meijer, Adam; Chu, Daniel KW; Bleicker, Tobias; Brünink, Sebastian; Schneider, Julia; Schmidt, Marie Luisa; Mulders, Daphne GJC; Haagmans, Bart L; van der Veer, Bas; van den Brink, Sharon; Wijsman, Lisa; Goderski, Gabriel; Romette, Jean-Louis; Ellis, Joanna; Zambon, Maria; Peiris, Malik; Goossens, Herman; Reusken, Chantal; Koopmans, Marion PG; Drosten, Christian (2020-01-23). "Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR". Eurosurveillance. 25 (3). doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045.
  7. COVID-19: Commission launches European team of scientific experts to strengthen EU coordination and medical response European Commission, press release of March 17, 2020.
  8. Commission’s advisory panel on COVID-19 (E03719) European Commission.
  9. Drosten, Christian; Günther, Stephan; Preiser, Wolfgang; van der Werf, Sylvie; Brodt, Hans-Reinhard; Becker, Stephan; Rabenau, Holger F.; Panning, Marcus; Kolesnikova, Larissa; Fouchier, Ron A. M.; Berger, Annemarie; Burguière, Ana-Maria; Cinatl, Jindrich; Eickmann, Markus; Escriou, Nicolas; Grywna, Klaus; Kramme, Stefanie; Manuguerra, Jean-Claude; Müller, Stefanie; Rickerts, Volker; Stürmer, Martin; Vieth, Simon; Klenk, Hans-Dieter; Osterhaus, Albertus "Albert" Dominicus Marcellinus Erasmus; Schmitz, Herbert; Doerr, Hans Wilhelm (2003). "Identification of a novel coronavirus in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome" (PDF). The New England Journal of Medicine. Massachusetts Medical Society. 348 (20): 1967–1976. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa030747. PMID 12690091. pasteur-00167033. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  10. Abbott, Alison (2003). "SARS testing: First past the post". Nature. 423 (6936): 114. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..114A. doi:10.1038/423114a. PMC 7095456. PMID 12736651.
  11. Kastilan, Sonja (2020-02-02). "Das neue Coronavirus - Was uns erwartet". Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (Interview with Christian Drosten). Wissenschaft: Medizin & Ernährung (in German) (5). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. p. 53. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-16.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. Albrecht, Harro (2020-02-07) [2020-02-05]. "Christian Drosten: Der Informant". DIE ZEIT (in German). Vol. 2020 no. 7. Hamburg, Germany: Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  13. Heine, Hannes; Spannagel, Lars (2020-03-14). "Christian Drosten ist Deutschlands einflussreichster Arzt - Was Charité-Chefvirologe Christian Drosten rät, versucht die Politik umzusetzen. Warum selbst die Bundeskanzlerin diesem Mediziner zuhört". Der Tagesspiegel. Politik (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  14. Gasteiger, Carolin (2020-03-13). "Virologe Christian Drosten: Corona-Aufklärer der Nation". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  15. "Corona-Podcast: Alle Folgen in der Übersicht". ndr.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Ab dem 15. Juni beantwortet Drosten nur noch einmal in der Woche Fragen zur aktuellen Situation
  16. "Virologen des Tropeninstituts erhalten Preis der Werner Otto Stiftung - Identifizierung des SARS-Coronavirus gewürdigt" (press release) (in German). Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin. 2003-12-04. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-03-14.
  17. https://www.bundespraesident.de/SharedDocs/Berichte/DE/Frank-Walter-Steinmeier/2020/10/201001-Verdienstorden-TdDE.html?nn=2236336
  18. Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
  19. Internal Advisory Board National Research Platform for Zoonoses.
  20. "About - Leadership - Scientific Committee". World Health Summit. 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-03-23. Retrieved 2020-03-23.
  21. Editorial Board Emerging Infectious Diseases.
  22. Editorial Board Eurosurveillance.
  23. Editorial Board Journal of Clinical Virology.
  24. Editorial Board Journal of Virology.
  25. Editorial Board One Health Outlook.

Further reading
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