18th May 2023:
Public PhD defence of Beatrice Pennati
Congratulations to Beatrice Pennati at her public PhD defense which took place 18th May 2023 at the University of Genova !
Beatrice has been researching SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in Covid-19 patients during her project period in Italy. She also investigated various laboratory methods by the use of SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test. The performace of various extraction-free methods were compared with the traditional extraction-based SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR showing that the unheated extraction-free RT-PCR worked just as well as the standard. At Oslo University Hospital, Department of Microbiology, she examined the effect of Drug X against SARS-CoV-2 by using virus cell cultures. Further, results showed that for the 13,5% of faeces samples, it was possible to revive SARS-CoV-2 viable virions using the Vero-E6 cell line.
Beatrice was enrolled in the PhD programme at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo during her exchange period in Norway as part of a collaboration project with her supervisor Prof. Andrea Orsi at University of Genova.
Beatrice commented afterwards: «That day has finally come for me too! My thesis was focused on the projects I was involved in during my stay in Oslo, hosted by the research group of Prof Susanne Dudman and Mari Kaarbo. It was a great pleasure and honour to be part of it! Thank you very much to everyone who took me by the hand and made this experience the best I could ever expect.»
Ørbo HS, Bjørlykke KH, Sexton J, Jyssum I, Tveter AT, Christensen IE, Mjaaland S, Kvien TK, Grødeland G, Kro GB, Jahnsen J, Haavardsholm EA, Munthe LA, Provan SA, Vaage JT, Goll GL, Jørgensen KK, Syversen SW(2024) Incidence and outcome of COVID-19 following vaccine and hybrid immunity in patients on immunosuppressive therapy: identification of protective post-immunisation anti-RBD antibody levels in a prospective cohort study RMD Open, 10(2) DOI 10.1136/rmdopen-2023-003545, PubMed 38599653
Simoes MP, Hodcroft EB, Simmonds P, Albert J, Alidjinou EK, Ambert-Balay K, Andrés C, Antón A, Auvray C, Bailly JL, Baldanti F, Bastings C, Beard S, Pereira CB, Berginc N, Bloemen M, Blomqvist S, Bosma F, Böttcher S, Bubba L, Buderus S, Cabrerizo M, Calvo C, Celma C, Ceriotti Fet al.(2024) Epidemiological and clinical insights into the enterovirus D68 upsurge in Europe 2021/22 and the emergence of novel B3-derived lineages, ENPEN multicentre study J Infect Dis(in press) DOI 10.1093/infdis/jiae154, PubMed 38547499
Garcia I, Lee Y, Brynildsrud O, Eldholm V, Magnus P, Blomfeldt A, Leegaard TM, Müller F, Dudman S, Caugant DA(2023) Tracing the adaptive evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during vaccine roll-out in Norway Virus Evol, 10(1), vead081 DOI 10.1093/ve/vead081, PubMed 38205440