Biography
Christoph M. Ernst earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Tübingen in the lab of Andreas Peschel. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute in the lab of Deborah Hung before joining the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Cologne as Professor of Antimicrobial Resistance in November 2022.
His work on the evolution of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae led to the discovery of global adaptive evolution of virulence and persistence in multidrug-resistant infections and an intrinsic ability of K. pneumoniae to persist in an antibiotic-tolerant state in intracellular compartments of bladder epithelial cells.
He recently targeted intracellular persisters in a chemical screen which led to the identification of host-targeting compounds that induce intracellular antimicrobial activity. His previous studies on the adaptive evolution of daptomycin resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections led to the discovery of a major family of bacterial phospholipid flippases and to the development of flippase inhibiting monoclonal antibodies that sensitize S. aureus to host defenses.
Biography
Christoph M. Ernst earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Tübingen in the Lab of Andreas Peschel. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute in the lab of Deborah Hung before joining the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Cologne as Professor of Antimicrobial Resistance in November 2022.
His work on the evolution of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae led to the discovery of global adaptive evolution of virulence and persistence in multidrug-resistant infections and an intrinsic ability of K. pneumoniae to persist in an antibiotic-tolerant state in intracellular compartments of bladder epithelial cells.
He recently targeted intracellular persisters in a chemical screen which led to the identification of host-targeting compounds that induce intracellular antimicrobial activity. His previous studies on the adaptive evolution of daptomycin resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections led to the discovery of a major family of bacterial phospholipid flippases and to the development of flippase inhibiting monoclonal antibodies that sensitize S. aureus to host defenses.