14th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious ...

ESCMID Awards 2004
Award for Excellence in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Jean Paul Butzler, born 1941 in Brussels, Belgium
Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Epidemiology at the Free University of Brussels,
in recognition of his outstanding contributions in research, teaching and international
co-operation in the fight against infectious diseases related to poverty, in particular diarrhoeal
diseases. Throughout his medical career he has translated the concerns about poverty and
poor health care in the developing world into collaborative research programmes. He has
been instrumental in establishing reference microbiology laboratories in some of the most
deprived regions, notably in Central Africa. In addition, he has trained and promoted many
foreign and Belgian students who are now among the new generation of opinion leaders in
the infection disciplines.
Research Interests
Jean-Paul Butzler’s early research concentrated on the diagnosis and treatment of enteric
diseases. In 1974 he was the first to show that “Related Vibrio”, now called Campylobacter
jejuni/coli, was a frequent cause of acute human enteritis and that early administration of
erythromycin significantly reduced the duration of both diarrhoea and faecal excretion in
patients with severe campylobacter enteritis. In 1972, he started the laboratory of clinical
microbiology at the hospital of malnourished children in Lwiro, Bukavu, Congo where he
concentrated on the rapid diagnosis and treatment of septicaemia and the management
of hospital infections. In 1980 the WHO appointed Jean-Paul Butzler Director of the WHO
Collaborating Centre for Enteric Campylobacter. From 1985 to 1990 Jean-Paul Butzler
focused his research on HIV infections in Rwanda. His teams at the St Peter’s University
Hospital in Brussels and the Kigali Hospital, Rwanda, in conjunction with the Institute for
Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, were the first to show that HIV could be heterosexually
transmitted. Today Jean-Paul Butzler supervises a team of young medical doctors both at
the hospital for malnourished children in Lwiro, Bukavu, Congo and at the St Peter’s
University Hospital in Brussels. Their current research focus is on emerging potential
enteric pathogens and infection control.
Young Investigator Awards for Research in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
Arianna Loregian, born 1968 in Padua, Italy
PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, Medical School,
University of Padua, Italy, in recognition of her innovative work on the molecular
mechanisms, especially protein-protein interactions, involved in viral replication of
herpes simplex virus, HIV and human cytomegalovirus.
Research Interests
During the past few years, Arianna Loregian's research focused on the study of viral replication
mechanisms and the characterisation of protein-protein interactions between viral and/or
cellular proteins as new targets for antiviral chemotherapy. Some of these studies were
aimed at characterising protein-protein interactions between herpesvirus enzyme subunits,
for example HSV-1 ribonucleotide reductase and HSV-1, HCMV and EHV-1 DNA polymerase,
and at identifying antiviral peptides and peptidomimetic compounds that mimic either face
of the subunit interaction and therefore are able to disrupt the viral protein complexes. She
has also characterised the interaction of HIV-1 Tat protein with cellular factors. These studies,
which dissected some key protein-protein interactions involved in the assembly of transcription
complexes at the HIV-1 LTR, could contribute to unravelling the puzzling mechanism of HIV-1
replication and to suggest novel strategies for anti-HIV chemotherapy.
www.escmid.org/eccmid2004
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