Funding:  HORIZON ERC Grant

Duration:  01/2024 - 12/2028

This project leverages innovative methodologies and an interdisciplinary approach to develop and validate FINDTB, a digital tool aimed at improving tuberculosis triage in children.

Funding:  Bill and Melinda Gats Foundation

 Duration:  06/2023 - 05/2024

A highly pragmatic cross-sectional study evaluating the diagnostic yield of tongue-swab-based versus sputum-based molecular TB testing. Tongue-swab testing has the potential to expand molecular TB diagnostics to lower-level healthcare facilities in high-burden countries, where most patients initially seek care. While preliminary results indicate a sensitivity deficit compared to sputum testing, an increased overall diagnostic yield could favor its adoption. This study could provide critical evidence to inform WHO policies and country-level implementation of swab-based molecular TB tests.

Funding:  USAID

Duration:  08/2022 - 09/2027

“Supporting, Mobilizing, and Accelerating Research for Tuberculosis Elimination” is a five-year initiative supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), that aims to transform TB prevention and care. In 2021, an estimated 10.6 million people were affected by Tuberculosis worldwide, and 1.6 million died in aftermath of a Tuberculosis infection, making it second only to COVID-19 as leading cause of death due to an infectious disease. SMART4TB aims to develop and implement person-centered methods for TB diagnosis, treatment, and prevention, strengthen local research capacity, and engage communities to drive policy change and improve intervention implementation.

Funding:  Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts 

Duration:  1.07.2023 - 31.12.2024

This project focuses on the interdisciplinary development of a novel digital tool for screening respiratory illnesses in children.

Funding:  National Institute of Health (NIH)

Duration:  08/2020 - 05/2025

This NIH-funded initiative supports diagnostic developers in evaluating innovative TB screening and diagnostic solutions to advance the global TB diagnostics pipeline.

Funding:  German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)

Duration:  01/2021 - 12/2025

This translational research project focuses on:

1. Implementing resistance prediction based on Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome analysis in diagnostic workflows.

2. Conducting molecular epidemiological studies, including transmission analysis, to develop models for integrating molecular data into tuberculosis surveillance.

Funding:  German Center for Infection Research  (DZIF)

Duration:  07/2021 - 06/2024

A prospective multicenter cohort study assessing the diagnostic accuracy and yield of point-of-care ultrasound (POC-US) and AI-assisted US interpretation using a microbiological and composite reference standard among patients with presumed TB disease. This study aims to define the sensitivity and specificity of sonographic findings for TB diagnosis and monitoring, guiding implementation in diverse clinical settings, which could increase case finding und avoid over-diagnosis. Research will be conducted in a high-incidence middle-income country (India) and a low-incidence high-income country (Germany) as a prospective, cross-sectional study, both in HIV-positive and -negative adult patients with presumed TB.

Funding:  European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP)

Duration (in Heidelberg):  10/2020 - 2/2023

Three trials from part of TB-CAPT: the CORE trial on decentralized molecular diagnosis, the XDR trial on extended resistance testing and the HIV trial, on rapid, comprehensive diagnostics testing for most vulnerable and hospitalized people living with HIV. 

TB-CAPT aims to facilitate TB test implementation through evidence-driven strategies in clinical trials across South Africa, Mozambique, and Tanzania. The project evaluates new diagnostic technologies, policy change and implementation strategies on a regional, national, and global level as well as to consolidate and strengthen human capacity and in-country infrastructure for conducting clinical trials, implementation research and plans for new diagnostic methods. 

Following three trials are part of TB-Capt:

- CORE trial on decentralized molecular diagnosis

- XDR trial on extended resistance testing

- HIV trial, on rapid, comprehensive diagnostics testing for most vulnerable and hospitalized patients living with HIV. 

The project was initiated by Claudia while she was working at FIND and will be coordinated by FIND. Heidelberg’s contribution, in collaboration with David Dowdy (Johns Hopkins University), focuses on economic and benefit incidence analysis.

Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration:  06/2022 - 05/2024

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide with delayed and missed diagnoses contributing to ongoing community transmission and mortality. Currently, none of the symptom screen and triage strategies meet the minimum recommended diagnostic accuracy targets recommended by the WHO. This project applies machine learning to develop a predictive model for active TB, integrating patient data and local epidemiology. The algorithm will be deployed in a simple digital tool (mobile app) for rapid, resource-efficient TB risk stratification, guiding diagnostic pathways, and preventive treatment decisions.

Funding:  German Federal Ministry of Education and Research  (BMBF)

Duration:  06/2022 - 05/2025

The mid- and long-term effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on respiratory infections, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and pneumococcal disease, remain poorly understood. This project aims to develop an integrated transmission model to assess the collateral effects of NPIs on disease burden over time. A systematic review will synthesize available data on immunity markers, infection prevalence, and disease burden during and after NPIs. A meta-analysis using generalized linear mixed models will then be conducted to evaluate the findings.

Funding: Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg (MWK)

Duration: 04/2021 – ongoing

This collaboration between universities in Baden-Württemberg, the Department of Virology, and the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health addresses key topics in infectious disease medicine, including:

1. Self-Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies

• Evaluation of self-collected fingertip blood and saliva samples for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection compared to venous blood samples.

• Assessment of feasibility and accuracy for self-testing in population-wide serosurveillance.

2. Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Point-of-Care PCR Testing for COVID-19

• An online survey targeting healthcare professionals in Germany working with vulnerable patient populations to identify barriers and facilitators for implementing point-of-care (POC) PCR diagnostics in clinical practice.

3. Mixed-Methods Study on Quality, Acceptance, and Feasibility of POC PCR Diagnostics

• Introduction of POC PCR testing in oncology and other high-risk outpatient settings.

• Comparison of POC PCR with laboratory-based RT-PCR diagnostics.

• Stakeholder interviews with patients, healthcare professionals, and decision-makers to assess acceptance, feasibility, and potential scalability of POC diagnostics.

Long-term implication of this study could benefit disease prevention and early, reliable testing in vulnerable patients. 

Funding:  Network University Medicine (NUM)

Duration: 09/2022 - 08/2023

The overall objective of PREPARED was to develop a concept for a collaborative, adaptable and sustainable infrastructure for pandemic management and preparedness within the Network University Medicine (NUM). This would enable a coordinated, rapid, targeted and evidence-based action and response to threats to patient care and public health due to a pandemic situation. Necessary infrastructure will be established, harmonized and optimized components and a detailed concept for pandemic preparedness and response by the NUM and its partners will be created. This will contribute to high-quality patient care and targeted research in future pandemics.

The uniqueness of the project constitutes of synthesis and integration of the entire cycle. This includes the identification and prioritization of urgent research and care needs through systematic modeling, evidence synthesis, the consecutive transparent and multi-perspective derivation of recommendations for clinical care and public health and the systematic implementation of these recommendations in national clinical networks and cross-sectoral, multi-professional settings.

WP2: Surveillance, infection prevention and control
Previous epidemics, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic, have demonstrated the importance of a rapid and versatile epidemic response that can be adapted to a range of pathogen threats. As part of the NUM project PREPARED work package 2 (WP2), we are addressing this need through a proposal to establish a permanent, nationally representative cohort focused on rapid epidemiologic assessment of infectious diseases through adaptive population sampling.

WP3: Testing solutions

This work package addresses the topic of diagnostics as a cornerstone of pandemic control. In particular, the establishment of high-quality, safe and user-friendly diagnostic tests as well as the introduction of a targeted and sustainable testing strategy are crucial. Through qualitative interviews with experts and decision-makers from the stakeholders involved during the COVID-19 pandemic, we will evaluate the German national testing strategy and develop a catalog of measures for pandemic preparedness in field of diagnostics and testing strategy.

Funding: World Health Organization (WHO)

Duration: 05/2022 – 09/2022

Support for the World Health Emergencies Programme ( part of WHO ) in conducting two systematic reviews on the accuracy and impact of COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) for self-testing. The findings inform WHO guidance on self-testing policies to enhance global preparedness and improve case detection strategies, which are crucial in effective pandemic response. 

Our goal is to implement penicillin allergy delabeling in hospital inpatients, in collaboration with hospital pharmacy. Furthermore, we launch a national penicillin allergy delabeling network (PANDA) and conduct a national survey on penicillin allergy in cooperation with other university hospitals (UK Köln, UK Düsseldorf, UK Eppendorf, UK Schleswig Holstein, LMU).

• Participation in the K-APAT national registry in collaboration with university hospitals.

• Monitoring and analysis of clinical outcomes in patients receiving outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT).

• Contribution to Fungiscope, a global registry for invasive fungal infections.

• Collaboration with the Department of Hematology to develop novel treatment strategies for invasive fungal infections.

• Interdisciplinary project with Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, Microbiology, and Hospital Pharmacy.

• Monitoring and evaluation of infections and outcomes in left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients.

Development of interactive teaching tools for medical students in collaboration with the Departments of Internal and Psychosocial Medicine.