My research focuses on observational and interventional studies that aim to improve childhood antibiotic use in the light of an increasing burden of antimicrobial resistance and the need to conserve antibiotics for future generations. I am involved in or leading several strategic randomized trials investigating optimal antibiotic use in children suffering from pneumonia and in neonates with sepsis as well as optimal infection prevention and control interventions in neonatal intensive care.

Approved Research Projects

• Efficacy, safety and impact on antimicrobial resistance of amoxicillin dose and duration in childhood pneumonia (2014-2019, NIHR)
• NeoAMR Observational Study in Neonatal Sepsis (2018-2020, GARDP/BMGF)
• Intravenous and Oral Fosfomycin in Hospitalised Neonates With Clinical Sepsis (2018-2020, GARDP)
• Efficacy and safety of chlorhexidine cleansing in reducing bacterial skin colonisation of hospitalised low birthweight neonates (2019-2021, MRC)
• Effectiveness trial of adjunct betamethasone therapy in hospitalised children with pneumonia (2017-2022, SNSF)
• Strategies to reduce vertical transmission of multi-drug resistant pathogens to neonates (2020-2022, MRC)

Collaborations

National Collaborations

• SwissPedNet Swiss Research Network of Clinical Pediatric Hubs
• Center for Clinical Research at Hôpitaux Universitaires Genève
• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
• National Centre for Infection Prevention (Swissnoso)
• Department for Medical Microbiology and Mycology at the University Hospital Basel
• Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, University of Zurich

International Collaborations

• Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection and Immunology, St George’s University London, UK
• Penta Foundation, Padova, Italy
• Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, London, UK
• Nationales Referenzzentrum für Surveillance von nosokomialen Infektionen, Charité University, Berlin, Germany
• Julius Center Research Program Infectious Diseases, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
• Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch University, Capetown, South Africa

Ongoing Research Projects

• The value of diagnostics to combat antimicrobial resistance by optimising antibiotic use (2019-2023, IMI2)
• Oral antibiotic step-down and duration of antibiotic therapy in severe childhood pneumonia in Africa (2019-2024, EDCTP)
• Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy for Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome in Switzerland (2021-2022, philanthropic funding)
• Establishing innovative optimal approaches for infection prevention of resistant bacteria in neonatal intensive care (2021-2025, H2020)
• An open-label randomised controlled trial of novel combination antibiotic regimens for the empiric treatment of neonatal sepsis with a run-in confirmatory pharmacokinetic phase (2021-2026; GARDP)
• SARS-CoV-2 variants evaluation in pregnancy and paediatrics cohorts (2021-2023, H2020)
• Swiss Pandemic & AMR – Health Economy Awareness Detect (2022-2024, InnoSuisse)