Daniel Pletzer

Background

About Daniel Pletzer

My research is focused on recalcitrant ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) pathogens; especially hard-to-treat clinical isolates involved in multidrug resistance, biofilm infections and persistence. I am especially interested in Gram-negative bacteria that have been categorized as "critical" pathogens by WHO (pathogens where antibiotics are urgently needed). I obtained my BSc degree in Bioinformatics from the University FH Hagenberg in Austria. After completing my BSc, I moved to Germany where I obtained a MSc degree in Molecular Genetics at the Jacobs University Bremen. I decided to stay at the same university and did a PhD in Microbiology under the supervision of Helge Weingart. After completing my PhD on multidrug efflux pumps in the plant pathogen Erwinia amylovora and ABC transporters in the human pathogen P. aeruginosa, I continued with a short Post-Doc in the lab of Mathias Winterhalter working on the purification of outer membrane proteins from P. aeruginosa. Subsequently, I secured a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to do a Postdoc in Canada under the supervision of Bob Hancock working on stress response, antibiofilm peptides, and animal models. During this time I also received a scholarship from Cystic Fibrosis Canada and a Research Trainee Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.