18th May 2023: Public PhD defence of Beatrice Pennati
SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in Covid-19 patients
The public PhD defense was approved and Beatrice granted a PhD in Health Sciences with Curriculum in Epidemiology and Vaccine Prevention.
Congratulations to Beatrice Pennati at her public PhD defense which took place 18th May 2023 at the University of Genova !
Beatrice has been researching SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis in Covid-19 patients during her project period in Italy. She also investigated various laboratory methods by the use of SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test. The performace of various extraction-free methods were compared with the traditional extraction-based SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR showing that the unheated extraction-free RT-PCR worked just as well as the standard. At Oslo University Hospital, Department of Microbiology, she examined the effect of Drug X against SARS-CoV-2 by using virus cell cultures. Further, results showed that for the 13,5% of faeces samples, it was possible to revive SARS-CoV-2 viable virions using the Vero-E6 cell line.
Beatrice was enrolled in the PhD programme at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo during her exchange period in Norway as part of a collaboration project with her supervisor Prof. Andrea Orsi at University of Genova.
Beatrice commented afterwards: «That day has finally come for me too! My thesis was focused on the projects I was involved in during my stay in Oslo, hosted by the research group of Prof Susanne Dudman and Mari Kaarbo. It was a great pleasure and honour to be part of it! Thank you very much to everyone who took me by the hand and made this experience the best I could ever expect.»
Barlinn R, Helbig A, Rønnestad A, Hilde K, Klingenberg C, Lang AM(2025) Congenital cytomegalovirus infection can be prevented Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen, 145(5) DOI 10.4045/tidsskr.25.0092, PubMed 40272141
de Schrijver S, Vanhulle E, Ingenbleek A, Alexakis L, Johannesen CK, Broberg EK, Harvala H, Fischer TK, Benschop KSM, (2025) Epidemiological and clinical insights into enterovirus circulation in Europe, 2018 - 2023: a multi-center retrospective surveillance study J Infect Dis(in press) DOI 10.1093/infdis/jiaf179, PubMed 40184501
Ludvigsen LUP, Åsberg A, Spetalen S, Sørensen MD, Hamilton-Dutoit S, Gramkow AM, Christiansen CF, Kro GB, Thomsen MK, Ulrichsen SP, Pedersen RM, Holte H, Thiesson HC, Bjerre A, D'Amore F, Dahle DO, Jespersen B, Jensen-Fangel S, Reisæter AV(2025) Risk and prognosis of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease in Epstein-Barr virus-seronegative kidney transplant recipients - an observational cohort study from Norway and western Denmark Am J Transplant(in press) DOI 10.1016/j.ajt.2025.01.035, PubMed 39884653
Contact information for the group is provided below. To contact one of the group members directly please see the group members page.
Postal address: Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet Institute of Microbiology Pb. 4950 Nydalen 0424 Oslo, Norway
Deliveries Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet B2, plan 3, reception desk Sognsvannsveien 20 0372 Oslo, Norway
E-mail for deliveries: huda.al-baldawi@medisin.uio.no Phone for deliveries: +47 455 81 326
NB: There are no open positions available in our group at this time. Future vacancy announcements will be posted on our NEWS page, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital Vacancies' page or other Norwegian job search websites such as Webcruiter, Jobbnorge.no etc.