Annelies Zinkernagel is the professor and director of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Hygiene department at the University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland as well as the immediate past president of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). Annelies Zinkernagel is a practicing physician scientist specialised in infectious diseases and experimental microbiology, combining both worlds to further improve patient care and guide research interests. In addition to her interests in research and clinics, Annelies Zinkernagel places a large focus promoting the next generation of physicians and scientists.

Together with her group, she has set up a unique translational approach of assessing how bacteria behave in patients in contrast to their characteristics in the rich bacterial which is typically used to characterize bacterial growth behaviours and antibiotic susceptibilities. This approach has clearly shown that environmental stress factors such as low pH and antibiotic pressure can trigger bacteria to enter dormant states and become persister cells. Populations of these bacteria have been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo and show high antibiotic tolerance. These populations reveal why antibiotic treatment alone is often insufficient and results in relapses and chronic infections which cause a substantial disease burden.

It is thanks to the optimisation of these advanced techniques that characteristics of persister cells could be underlined, making a leap forward in persister research.