IRIDS Virtual Science Talks

Dr. Marianne Leruez-Ville is a MD specialized in Clinical Virology and holds a PHD in Virology. She is Assistant Professor and the head of the Virology laboratory of Necker-Hospital for sick children in Paris, France. She is currently the director of the congenital CMV laboratory within the French National Reference Center for Herpes Viruses. Dr. Leruez-Ville belongs to a research group focusing on fetal abnormalities and their treatment (EA 7328, Imagine Institute, University of Paris), and a founding member of the European Congenital CMV Initiative (ECCI) – a European group founded to devise and implement concrete actions to deal with the problems linked to congenital CMV infection. Her main research interest is clinical virology in relation to congenital CMV infection.

 Tiziana Lazzarotto is Full Professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology, at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, School of Medicine at the University of Bologna in Italy. In addition, Tiziana is Head of the Operative Unit of Clinical Microbiology at IRCCS St. Orsola Polyclinic, Bologna and Director of the Post-graduate school in Microbiology and Virology, School of Medicine at the University of Bologna. Tiziana has made significant contributions in the study of viral infections, specifically on the pre and postnatal diagnosis of congenital CMV and Rubella infections and the management of CMV and EBV infections in solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Professor Lazzarotto is a member of the managing committee for the Italian Society for Clinical Microbiology (AMCLI) and a founding member of the European Congenital CMV Initiative (ECCI).

Qian Feng, Ph.D, is a virologist and immunologist with a broad experience as a Research Scientist in the fields of molecular virology, cell biology and immunometabolism. Qian has studied Biomedical Research at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. She trained on poliovirus replication at NIAID, NIH in Bethesda and on hepatitis C virus host-tissue tropism at the Rockefeller University in New York, before obtaining her PhD degree on immune activation and evasion by picornaviruses at the University Utrecht. Before joining Roche, Qian worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the ETH Zurich, where she focused on mitochondrial biology, cellular metabolism, and their regulatory role in T cell differentiation and function. She is now Clinical Scientist Infectious Diseases in the Medical and Scientific Affairs team of Roche Diagnostics International.

Nina Germič, PhD, is an Assoc. Global Medical Affairs Manager in the Infectious Diseases team. She joined Roche Diagnostics International in 2021 as an Intern in Medical Affairs Critical Care. Nina obtained her PhD degree in immunology and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Pharmacology, University of Bern, where she investigated the cellular functions of eosinophils, the autophagy process, and its implications for cancer and bacterial infections. As a visiting scientist, she was researching the innate immune response after influenza vaccination at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Bellinzona. She holds a Master of Pharmacy from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia