Professor Lothar H. Wieler (Germany)

Professor Lothar H. Wieler is President of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, the national public health institute in Germany. A veterinarian by training, Professor Wieler has focused his research on zoonotic diseases, that is, infections that are transmitted between animals and humans, which account for many newly emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. A particular research interest of Professor Wieler are the molecular mechanisms which enable bacterial zoonotic pathogens, such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, to infect different hosts, and develop resistance to antibiotics. In his work, Wieler has used genome-based typing methods to identify zoonotic pathogens, which were subsequently analysed in functional experiments in order to learn more about their evolution and adaption to different habitats. The insights generated from this work can be used to develop new interventions to target pathogenic bacteria.

Professor Wieler is Deputy Spokesperson for the research consortium InfectControl 2020, which pursues intersectoral approaches to preventing and treating infections from a “One Health” perspective. Within InfectControl 2020, Wieler also heads the IRMRESS and Neobiom networks. IRMRESS researches innovative strategies to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria and aims to use next generation sequencing techniques to establish a molecular surveillance system. Neobiom identifies factors that change the microbiome, resistome and mycobiome of premature babies.

Professor Wieler is also a member of the scientific advisory board of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) and the EACHR. Since 2010, he has also been an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Wieler joined the EACHR in 2018.