Questions and AnswersProf. Dr. Petter Brandtzaeg

How or why did you become involved in infection research, what fascinates you about this subject?
While receiving my clinical training I was confronted with previously healthy children and adults developing fulminant meningococcal septicemia. Many died shortly after the admission. A serious epidemic of serogroup B meningococci was raging Norway for almost 20 years. We lacked an effective vaccine. I started my research in 1985 by collecting plasma samples from patients with different clinical presentations of meningococcal disease. At the time little was known about the underlying pathophysiology of this infection although many speculative hypotheses existed. It soon became clear to us that levels of endotoxin were excessively high in those patients we were unable to save from the septic shock and multiple organ failure. Few years later our research group documented that a dose response relation existed between the plasma level of LPS and the clinical presentation as well as mortality of meningococcal infections. This observation was striking. We could define a plasma level of LPS associated with 100% lethality. This had not been documented in man before. This clear cut relationship, the multiple effects of LPS and mediators have fascinated me ever since.

What are you working on at the moment?
Presently we elucidate the effects of meningococcal LPS as compared with non-LPS molecules in the outer membrane of meningococci. This can be done by comparing the differences induced by wild type and a mutant of Neisseria meningitidis completely lacking LPS. As read out systems we use normal human monocytes to study intracellular signalling and reprogramming and a porcine shock model to study the inflammatory responses at organ level.

What were the turning points in science, in career, in life that influenced your decisions?
After a long clinical training, curiosity drove me to start a scientific career. Medical doctors know little about scientific methods. My luck was to meet the right person at the right time. He became my mentor and good friend. I was 41 years old and had to work my way through scientific methodology. Analysing the patients samples made me suddenly discovered an area of human pathology that nobody had observed before. These early months were the most decisive of my career.

What was your most important scientific discovery?
To discover that a dose response relationship existed linking the number of meningococci, the levels of LPS and inflammatory mediators to the outcome in the patients.

What drives you and carries you on? What do you love about your work? Curiosity still is my driving force. The reward is to be able to explain phenomena observed in these patients.    

What influenced and impressed you and your life and therefore science? Before finishing the secondary school I was obliged to read about the early germ hunters as part of my compulsory education in German. It fascinated me. It may have influenced my later choice in life.

Idols?
None, really.

What would you recommend to someone starting out in science? What would you advice for young scientists?
Choose the right mentor and research team. Be sure that you are motivated and have the capacity to stay although the results may not come easily.

What would have been your alternative plan (plan B) if science / your job had not worked out?
I actually had no plan B. I wanted to become a doctor.

What are your dreams for the future?
To have a good life with my wife and family. I hope I will be able to advise and guide young doctors that want start on translational research.

What do you think is important and should be worked on in the future?
Clinical medicine badly needs doctors that are willing to and have the capacity to study disease mechanisms in patients. Basic biological science is rushing forward. Clinical medicine is limping behind. Science and clinical medicine are not communicating well. Clinical medicine should apply newly developed scientific methods more readily. On the other hand basic scientists often use disease models that give the wrong answers. This has been the case in sepsis research.

What do you do when you are not working?
I am reading a lot; enjoy go to cinema and see British or French movies as well as listing to classical concerts. Furthermore, cross country skiing is part of Norwegian outdoor life.

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