DR TORSTEN ECKSTEIN - Colorado State University

Dr Torsten Eckstein, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University visited the Faculty from 8th to 14th November as part of an International Program Development Fund grant from the University of Sydney.The purpose of the visit was to develop collaborative projects related to the detection and control of mycobacterial diseases with the paratuberculosis research group. Dr Eckstein is based in the premier mycobacterial (tuberculosis and leprosy) research laboratory in North America.

Dr Eckstein is a graduate of the Humbolt-University Berlin where he earned an M.S. in Biochemistry and holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases. He specialized in Infectious Diseases at the University of Heidelberg. Since 1995 he has been part of the Mycobacteria Research Laboratories at Colorado State University. He has made outstanding contributions in research on the lipids of mycobacteria, the immunolipidome of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and of Burkholderia pseudomallei.

He holds several patents, founded two Biotech companies, and has shown the potential of lipidomics to reinvigorate study of the cell wall of this important group of pathogens.