Professor Endtz is a world-renowned microbiologist with a broad, international background. Most recently, he has been Head of R&D and deputy Chairman of the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, as well as Professor of Tropical Bacteriology at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Prior to that, he held leadership positions at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), where he directed the Centre for Food and Waterborne Diseases and the Laboratory Sciences Division until 2012. He continues to be involved with ICDDR,B as an Associate Scientist. Recently, he chaired a WHO expert group on global campylobacteriosis, which has been a focus of his research.
In his new position at Fondation Mérieux, Professor Endtz will lead teams at the Emerging Pathogens Laboratory in Lyon (France) and at the Christophe Mérieux Laboratory, part of the Institute of Pathogen Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS), in Beijing.
Enhancing local research capabilities is one of Fondation Mérieux’s primary objectives. The Emerging Pathogens Laboratory coordinates collaborative research programs focused on diseases that pose a particular threat to developing and emerging countries. It coordinates a global network of laboratories known as GABRIEL, which conducts research on subjects such as respiratory pathogens causing severe pneumonia in children and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. The Emerging Pathogens Laboratory is located next to the P4 Jean Mérieux Laboratory and its teams have preferential access to this BSL4 maximum-security research unit, belonging to the Fondation and managed by Inserm.
Professor Endtz will be based in France but will continue to be in engaged in the Rotterdam Global Health Initiative and carry on his research and teaching missions as well as the Chair in Tropical Bacteriology at Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He replaces the Fondation’s former Scientific Director, Guy Vernet, who has been appointed Director General of the Centre Pasteur of Cameroun.
Professor Endtz holds M.D. and PhD. degrees from Leiden University Medical School in the Netherlands and his post-graduate training includes work in tropical medicine at the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 3 in Cairo and at the Mycology Department at Institut Pasteur in Paris. He is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications.