Final Programme

ESCMID Awards 2006
ESCMID / FEMS Research Fellowship
ESCMID and FEMS offer each year two joint
fellowships to foster outstanding research in
microbiology by young Europeans. We are
delighted to announce that the 2006 ESCMID /
FEMS fellowship goes to Surbi Malhotra-
Kumar from Antwerp, The Netherlands.
Surbi Malhotra-Kumar
born 1972 in Sirsa, India; MD,
PhD, post-doctoral fellow,
Belgian Reference Centre
for Group A Streptococcus,
Department of Medical
Microbiology, University of
Antwerp, Belgium
Project
Analysis of novel genetic elements and
resistance mechanisms, fitness costs and
compensatory adaptations in macrolide-,
ketolide-, and fluoroquinolone-resistant
Group A Streptococcus
Research Interests
The research of Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar is
focused on the molecular epidemiology and
genetics of resistance to the macrolide-,
ketolide-, and fluoroquinolone group of
antimicrobials in oral streptococci, primarily
Group A Streptococcus (GAS). Using the
oro-pharyngeal flora in healthy individuals
as a model, Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar has also
analysed differences in selection pressure of
various macrolides and the resulting impact
on resistance. Continuing as a post-doctoral
fellow in the laboratory of Herman Goossens,
her current work includes: further analysis
of novel and emerging genetic elements
harboring macrolide resistance gene mutants,
elucidating the basis of ketolide resistance
in GAS, and the fitness costs of antibiotic
resistance gene carriage.
ISF Sepsis Award
Evangelos J. Giamarellos-
Bourboulis,
born 1971 in Athens, Greece;
MD, Assistent Professor of
Medicine at the Department
of Internal Medicine, Attikon
University Hospital, Athens,
Greece, in recognition of his
excellent abstract submitted for presentation at
the 16 th ECCMID.
Evangelos Giamarellos-Bourboulis will give a
short oral presentation on Blood monocytes
as a site of production of sTREM-1 in sepsis
during the joint ESCMID/ISF symposium
on Pathogenesis and Therapy of Sepsis
(page 60).
Abstract:
The pathophysiological role of blood
monocytes for the release of soluble triggering
receptor expressed on myeloid cells – 1
(sTREM-1) in patients with sepsis
E.J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, C. Routsi,
D. Plachouras, I. Andrianakis, M. Raftogiannis,
C. Roussos, H. Giamarellou (Athens, GR)
Objective: sTREM-1 is the soluble counterpart
of the surface receptor TREM-1 that is highly
expressed on neutrophils and mature monocytes
after bacterial and fungal triggering. The
exact site of production of sTREM-1 remains
unclear. The present study aimed at investigating
the role of monocytes in the release
of sTREM-1 in patients with sepsis and its
correlation with monocyte apoptosis.
Methods: Peripheral blood monocytes
were isolated from 90 patients with septic
syndrome due to ventilator-associated pneumonia
on seven consecutive days after
presentation of sepsis, by density gradient
centrifugation of whole blood, incubation
in RPMI and removal of non-adherent cells.
Apoptotic rate on the first day was measured
by flow cytometry after incubation with
FITC-conjugated monoclonal antibodies to
Annexin-V and Propidium Iodide. Monocytes
were cultured in the absence and presence
of LPS and concentrations of sTREM-1 in
supernatants were estimated by an enzyme
immunoassay.
www.escmid.org/eccmid2006
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