Endocrinologist finds key to predicting impact of stress on stroke, pneumonia patients

mirjam_christ_crain_latsis2009

Dr Mirjam Christ-Crain, 2009 Latsis Prize winner

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One of Switzerland’s most prestigious scientific awards, the Latsis Prize, was awarded to Dr Mirjam Christ-Crain in Bern 14 January. The award, worth CH100,000 is given annually to Switzerland’s most outstanding young researcher, selected by a panel of the Swiss National Science Foundation. The winner must be under the age of 40.

Christ-Crain is head of endocrinology at the Basel University Hospital. She was given the prize for her work in discovering that measuring stress hormones levels, such as cortisol, in a pneumonia or stroke patient’s blood can provide doctors with information that allows them to make treatment decisions. Both illnesses can either remain benign or turn deadly, but there are few clinical clues for doctors to make a prognosis and treat the patient accordingly.

Measuring stress hormones in the blood can provide accurate information about a patient’s risks: Christ-Crain has shown that when stress hormone levels are constantly too high, the mortality rate is very high. On the other hand, some stress hormones can help the body to fight off an infection, so the key, she has determined, is getting the balance right.

Christ-Crain studied medicine in Basel, then began her research there, where she had already made a name for herself by identifying a signal the body sends in the case of bacterial respiratory infections, but not for viral infections. Her work has made it possible to cut in half the number of antibiotics used for these infections. She then worked on stress hormones at St Bartholomew Hospital in London before returning to Basel in 2007. She was the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant in 2008.

Swiss Federal Councilor Didier Burkhalter, minister for research, handed her the award.

Laudatio (Eng) by Stephanie Clarke President of the Division of Biology and Medicine of the National Research Council of SNSF, explaining Christ-Crain’s work and its importance (pdf)

Links to other sites: Swiss National Science Foundation,

Posted by Ellen Wallace on 14 January 2010 at 15:16 | permalink
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News story, GenevaLunch, 14 January 2010.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.