18th May 2023: Public PhD defence of Beatrice Pennati SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in Covid-19 patients
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.»