Nadia Boisen

Nadia Boisen, is a senior scientist at the International Centre for Reference and Research on Escherichia and Klebsiella, Statens Serum Institut, Denmark and visiting Associate Professor, University of Virginia School of Medicine, USA. She is one of the leading experts on pathogenic E. coli particular enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) and hybrid strains. Her research has been on pathogenic E. coli through molecular epidemiology identifying virulence factors causing disease.

Research areas

• Intestinal pathogens, foodborne bacteria, and extra-intestinal pathogens mainly E. coli and Klebsiella
• One Health
• Foodborne and zoonotic bacteria
  • Virulence
  • Diagnostics
  • Epidemiology
  • Phylogeny
  • Typing

Awards

• Kauffmann Award 2015
• Individual postdoctoral grant and Sapere Aude-research talent grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research | Medical Science 2013

Areas of responsibility

• Plan and carry out interdisciplinary and international research projects
• Genomic pathogenic analysis
• Detection and traceback of foodborne outbreaks
• Execute external quality assessment in EU
• Assist in coordinating the E. coli reference laboratory
• Reference diagnostics related to E. coli
• One Health research and collaboration
• FAO/WHO Core Expert on VTEC/STEC

Current projects (selected)

Bill and Melinda Gates funded project. Sepsis in Neonatal Children:
Phenotypic Characterization of Klebsiella spp. and E. coli
Guide development of a broadly effective vaccine against neonatal sepsis caused by
Klebsiella spp. and E. coli. (Grant: INV-025304)

EU project: Impact of Changes in Diagnostic Testing on Gastrointestinal
Infections: The Use of Culture-Independent Diagnostic Tests (CIDT)
Develop guidelines for interpretation of CIDT results for pathogens and propose
strategies for ongoing surveillance and detection of outbreaks.
(Grant, 101102070 — UNITED4Surveillance — EU4H-2021-JA3-IBA)

Publications (Selected)

Boisen N, Østerlund MT, Joensen KG, Santiago AE, Mandomando I, Cravioto A, Chattaway MA, Gonyar LA, Overballe-Petersen S, Stine OC, Rasko DA, Scheutz F, Nataro JP. Redefining enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC): Genomic characterization of epidemiological EAEC strains. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020 Sep 8;14

Boisen N, Melton-Celsa AR, Scheutz F, O'Brien AD, Nataro JP. Shiga toxin 2a and Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli - a deadly combination. Gut Microbes. 2015 Jul 4;6(4):272-8

Boisen N, Hansen AM, Melton-Celsa AR, Zangari T, Mortensen NP, Kaper JB, O'Brien AD, Nataro JP. The presence of the pAA plasmid in the German O104:H4 Shiga toxin type 2a (Stx2a)-producing enteroaggregative Escherichia coli strain promotes the translocation of Stx2a across an epithelial cell monolayer. J Infect Dis. 2014 Dec 15;210. (Editor’s Choice)

Rasko, D. A., D. R. Webster, J. W. Sahl, A. Bashir, N. Boisen, et al. 2011. Origins of the E. coli Strain Causing an Outbreak of Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome in Germany. N Engl J Med (Shared 1st authorship).

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1519-793X

• H-index (Google Scholar) of 19 and total citations 2,752 (June 2023), average Impact Factor of 8.5