Petra Dersch
Professor
Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Germany
Biography
Petra Dersch graduated in Biology at the University of Konstanz. She continued her studies of Microbiology at the University of Konstanz and the Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology Marburg and finished her PhD in 1995. After that, she worked as a postdoc in the laboratory of Dr. Ralph Isberg at the Tufts Medical School/Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston/USA. In 1998, back in Germany, she started as a Research Assistant with her own group at the Freie Universität Berlin. From 2003 - 2005, Petra Dersch was Junior Research Group Leader at the Robert Koch Institute Berlin. In 2005, she was appointed at the Technische Universität Braunschweig as Associate Professor in microbiology. Since 2008, Petra Dersch is Head of the Department of Molecular Infection Biology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and holds a co-appointment as full professor in microbiology and infection biology at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Petra Dersch is member of various boards, since 2012 she is elected member of the study section „Microbiology, Virology and Immunology“ of the German Research Foundation. She is member of the Central Commission for Biological Safety of the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety Germany. Since 2016 she is one of the Vice Presidents of the DGHM (German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology). In 2013 Petra Dersch was awarded the Main Prize of the DGHM. Her main research field is molecular pathogenesis of enteric bacterial pathogens. She published more than 90 original papers in peer-reviewed international journals, reviews and book chapters.
Research Interest
Her main research field is molecular pathogenesis of enteric bacterial pathogens.