Prof. Christian Drosten MD, PhD

Christian Drosten is a physician and virologist. He works in the fields of viral diversity, ecology and epidemiology across the different evolutionary levels, from the natural reservoir of a pathogen right through to a global outbreak in the human population.

Virus discovery is a vital tool in understanding etiologically unclear disease presentations. Likewise, the characterisation of biological diversity is fundamental to understanding their evolutionary biology. However, the question of how we analyse the equidistance of unknown viruses remains unsolved. In recent years, Christian Drosten and his team have developed a strategy to describe significant new viruses, based on advanced cell culture systems and multi‐pronged molecular characterisation. In addition, they have developed new bioinformatic approaches to identify viral sequences in meta‐transcriptomic data. Alongside this work, Christian Drosten has also been focusing on the expanding field of viral ecology, in particular the need to improve our understanding of viral diversity so that future pandemics can be identified early and prevented.

What is still needed are concepts that make it possible to apply the complex relationships observed in viral ecology as part of a practical prevention strategy. Christian Drosten's research focuses on the dilution effect and speciation processes. He and his working group are looking at the concept of the species barrier, which they believe has functional correlates in terms of the interferon system and other cellular interactions. Their viral working models for this research are the coronaviruses, for which they have the relevant molecular biological repertoire.

During the discovery of the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus, Christian Drosten and his research group delivered some fundamental findings with regards to the epidemiology of the virus and disease progression. The current picture is that of a classic zoonosis with limited transmissibility, which can cause fulminant disease progression in individual cases, but appears relatively infrequently in the overall population. Christian Drosten and his team explored the evolution of the diversity and virulence of the MERS pathogen in the animal reservoir (dromedary camels).

In comparison, the COVID‐19 pandemic was caused by a highly transmissible coronavirus. Christian Drosten and his research group were again involved in studying the new virus and contributed to both diagnostics and clinical and virological characterisation of the disease

In 2003, Drosten was one of the co-discoverers of SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Together with Stephan Günther, a few days after identification and before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, he succeeded in developing a diagnostic test for the newly identified virus. Drosten immediately made his findings on SARS available to the scientific community on the internet, even before his article appeared in New England Journal of Medicine in May 2003. Among others, this was honoured by the journal Nature.

From 2012, the research group led by Drosten also researched the Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

In mid-January 2020, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 yielded to his method. In early January 2020, the research group led by Drosten, together with Marion Koopmans' group, a RIVM group including Chantal Reusken, Maria Zambon and others, developed a test that was made available worldwide through the WHO. The whole research was published in the journal Eurosurveillance.

In April 2020, the Drosten research group published "a detailed virological analysis of nine cases of COVID-19 that provides proof of active virus replication in tissues of the upper respiratory tract" in Nature.

During the early months of the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Drosten advised politicians and authorities and was invited as an expert in the media, among others in the podcast Das Coronavirus-Update mit Christian Drosten [de] (English: The coronavirus update with Christian Drosten), initially published daily during the week since 26 February 2020, in Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), the frequency of the podcast having been gradually reduced from April 2020 until becoming weekly from 15 June 2020. Drosten now shares his spot on the Podcast with fellow virologist Sandra Ciesek with either being interviewed by a science journalist of the NDR every two weeks to keep the weekly schedule of the podcast while allowing Drosten more time to focus on his research work.

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