Sven HammerschmidtSven Hammerschmidt is Professor and Head of the Department of Genetics of Microorganisms at the University of Greifswald in Germany. He is a microbiologist and molecular biologist, graduated 1996 from Medical Microbiology at the Medical School Hannovr and University of Hannover in Germany followed by a postdoc time from 1996 to 2003 at the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany. This time was associated with two short-term stays as a visiting scientist at the Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. In 2003 he was appointed as head of a young investigator group at the Center for Infection Research, University of Würzburg, Germany and In 2007 Sven Hammerschmidt was appointed as an associate professor for Cellular Microbiology at the Max von Pettenkofer-Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, University of Munich, Germany. In 2008 he moved to the University of Greifswald and became full-professor for General and Molecular Genetics. In 1998 he received the Robert Koch prize for post-docs and in 2008 the Becton Dickenson Research Award of the German Society of Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM). His research interests are focused on deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms of Gram-positive human pathogens with special emphasis in Streptococcus pneumoniae. His studies identified several novel adhesive molecules, pneumococci-induced host signalling pathways, innate immune evasion mechanisms, and explored the link between physiology and pneumococcal virulence. He serves as associate editor of Molecular Oral Microbiology (since 2010), and is member of the editorial board of Microbes and Infection (since 2009), Frontiers in Immunology (since 2011), and the ASM journal Infection and Immunity (since 2012). He also serves as an ad hoc reviewer or consultant for several journals and government agencies. Read More Read Less