Francis Drobniewski

Francis Drobniewski
OccupationsMicrobiologist, physician, and academic
Academic background
EducationM.A.
Ph.D.
M.B.B.S.
M.Sc.
DTM&H
Alma materTrinity College Dublin
University of Cambridge
St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Academic work
InstitutionsImperial College London

Francis Drobniewski is a microbiologist, physician, and academic. He is professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College London.

Drobniewski's research focuses on the molecular diagnosis and epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) and other respiratory infections, including multidrug-resistant forms and their implications for treatment and public health. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the UK Royal College of Pathologists.

Education

Drobniewski attended high school at St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath.[1] He completed his M.A. at Trinity College Dublin in 1983, followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1986. Later, in 1991, he earned his M.B.B.S. from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, and an M.Sc. and Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1993.[2]

Career

Following his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, Drobniewski began his academic career as a professor at King's College London in 2000,[2] and later joined Queen Mary University of London in 2005.[1] Since 2013, he has been a professor of Global Health and Tuberculosis at Imperial College London.[3]

Drobniewski was director of the UK Public Health Laboratory Service, National Mycobacterium (TB) Reference Laboratory from 1996 to 2015.[2] He was elected president of the European Society for Mycobacteriology from 2006 to 2007.[1] In 2006, he directed Health Sciences Research.[2] He was also the member and then Chair of the WHO European Laboratory initiative on TB, HIV and Viral Hepatitis,[4] and worked as a member of the WHO Global Strategic and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) in 2008.[5] He is a founding member of European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) European TB Reference Laboratory Network since 2009.[1] He has also held advisory and governance roles, including working as a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Tuberculosis,[6] member of the British Thoracic Society National Clinical MDR-TB Advisory Panel,[7] Trustee-Director of Peter Sowerby Foundation[8] and a NICE-TAC member.[9]

Research

Drobniewski's research focuses on microbiology, highlighting molecular diagnostics, drug resistance, and management of tuberculosis and respiratory infections. His work has investigated genotyping methods such as spoligotyping and variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs),[10] and has used whole genome sequencing (WGS) of TB strains in understanding of the evolution[11] and transmission of TB during outbreaks in multiple countries.[12] His work has identified associations between pathogen genotypes, drug resistance,[13] and lineage across different geographical population groups,[14] including patterns specific to the Beijing lineage.[15] In collaborative studies, he used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to analyze TB drug resistance and transmission[16] and contributed to the development of non-microbiological genotypic-prediction of first line anti-TB drugs from cultured isolates,[17][18] and supported their use in routine diagnostic services.[19]

Drobniewski's work contributed to the understanding of within-host evolution in chronically ill patients and the role of compensatory mutations in bacterial fitness. He has evaluated the performance and reliability[20] of rapid detection methods like nucleic acid amplification and real-time PCR[21] His studies have also addressed other pathogens, including Bacillus cereus, and their involvement in severe infections[22] and foodborne illness.[23]

Drobniewski's studies have emphasized the need for improved treatment options for tuberculosis.[24]

Awards and honors

Selected articles

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Francis Drobniewsky". ORCID. Retrieved November 22, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "Francis Drobniewski". Imperial. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  3. ^ "DPFS-COI-Declarations" (PDF). UK Research and Innovation. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  4. ^ "Annex 1. List of participants" (PDF). World Health Organization (WHO). Retrieved December 3, 2025.
  5. ^ "STRATEGIC AND TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP FOR TUBERCULOSIS (STAG-TB)" (PDF). World Health Organization. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  6. ^ "GDG and SDG membership ICG technical team and peer review". National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  7. ^ "CLINICAL SERVICE ADVISERS". British Thoracic Society (BTS). Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Francis Drobniewski". Peter Sowerby Foundation. 14 October 2025.
  9. ^ "Technology appraisal committee B members". National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Retrieved December 28, 2025.
  10. ^ Das, Sarbashis; Roychowdhury, Tanmoy; Kumar, Parameet; Kumar, Anil; Kalra, Priya; Singh, Jitendra; Singh, Sarman; Prasad, H. K.; Bhattacharya, Alok (2013). "Genetic heterogeneity revealed by sequence analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from extra-pulmonary tuberculosis patients". BMC Genomics. 14 404: 2. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-404. PMC 3699378. PMID 23773324.
  11. ^ Merker, Matthias; Barbier, Maxime; Cox, Helen; Rasigade, Jean-Philippe; Feuerriegel, Silke; Kohl, Thomas Andreas; Diel, Roland; Borrell, Sonia; Gagneux, Sebastien; Nikolayevskyy, Vladyslav; Andres, Sönke; Nübel, Ulrich; Supply, Philip; Wirth, Thierry; Niemann, Stefan (2018). "Compensatory evolution drives multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Central Asia". eLife. 7 e38200: 12. doi:10.7554/eLife.38200. PMC 6207422. PMID 30373719.
  12. ^ Jiang, Qi; Liu, Hai-Can; Liu, Qing-Yun; Phelan, Jody E.; Tao, Feng-Xi; Zhao, Xiu-Qin; Wang, Jian; Glynn, Judith R.; Takiff, Howard E.; Clark, Taane G.; Wan, Kang-Lin; Gao, Qian (2023). "The Evolution and Transmission Dynamics of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in an Isolated High-Plateau Population of Tibet, China". Microbiology Spectrum. 11 (2): 2. doi:10.1128/spectrum.03991-22. PMC 10101056. PMID 36912683 – via PMC10101056.
  13. ^ Worku, Getnet; Gumi, Balako; Girma, Musse; Mohammedbirhan, Binyam; Diriba, Getu; Seid, Getachew; Getu, Melak; Amare, Misikir; Sinshaw, Waganeh; Ashagre, Wondimu; Tschopp, Rea; Carruth, Lauren; Ameni, Gobena (2022). "Drug sensitivity of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its association with bacterial genotype in the Somali region, Eastern Ethiopia". Frontiers in Public Health. 10 942618. Frontiers Media SA: 2. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.942618. PMC 9428271. PMID 36062084.
  14. ^ Ismail, Fazli; Couvin, David; Farakhin, Izzah; Abdul Rahman, Zaidah; Rastogi, Nalin; Suraiya, Siti (2014). "Study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex genotypic diversity in Malaysia reveals a predominance of ancestral East-African-Indian lineage with a Malaysia-specific signature". PLOS ONE. 9 (12): 16. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0114832. PMC 4263714. PMID 25502956.
  15. ^ Shi, Jie; Zheng, Danwei; Zhu, Yankun; Ma, Xiaoguang; Wang, Shaohua; Li, Hui; Xing, Jin (2018). "Role of MIRU-VNTR and spoligotyping in assessing the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Henan Province, China". BMC Infectious Diseases. 18 (1): 9. doi:10.1186/s12879-018-3351-y. PMC 6122615. PMID 30176820.
  16. ^ Nikolayevskyy, V.; Niemann, S.; Anthony, R.; van Soolingen, D.; Tagliani, E.; Ködmön, C.; van der Werf, M. J.; Cirillo, D. M. (November 2019). "Role and value of whole genome sequencing in studying tuberculosis transmission". Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 25 (11): 1377–1382. doi:10.1016/j.cmi.2019.03.022. PMID 30980928.
  17. ^ Schwab, Tiana Carina; Perrig, Lisa; Göller, Pauline Carlotta; Guebely De la Hoz, Freddy Fernando; Lahousse, Adrien Philippe; Minder, Beatrice; Günther, Gunar; Efthimiou, Orestis; Omar, Shaheed Vally; Egger, Matthias; Fenner, Lukas (2024). "Targeted next-generation sequencing to diagnose drug-resistant tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis". Lancet Infectious Diseases. 24 (10): 1162–1176. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00263-9. PMID 38795712.
  18. ^ Phuong Quan, Thuy; Bawa, Zharain (2018). "Evaluation of Whole-Genome Sequencing for Mycobacterial Species Identification and Drug Susceptibility Testing in a Clinical Setting: a Large-Scale Prospective Assessment of Performance against Line Probe Assays and Phenotyping". J Clin Microbiol. 56 (2): e01480-17. doi:10.1128/JCM.01480-17. PMC 5786738. PMID 29167290.
  19. ^ Kavvas, Erol S.; Catoiu, Edward; Mih, Nathan; Yurkovich, James T.; Seif, Yara; Dillon, Nicholas; Heckmann, David; Anand, Amitesh; Yang, Laurence; Nizet, Victor; Monk, Jonathan M.; Palsson, Bernhard O. (17 October 2018). "Machine learning and structural analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pan-genome identifies genetic signatures of antibiotic resistance". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 2. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06634-y. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6193043. PMID 30333483.
  20. ^ Tafaj, Silva; Ghariani, Asma; Trovato, Alberto; Kapisyzi, Perlat; Essalah, Leila; Mehiri, Emna; Kasmi, Gentian; Burazeri, Genc; Saidi, Leila Slim; Cirillo, Daniela Maria (2020). "Accuracy of the QIAxcel Automated System for MIRU-VNTR Genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Two Limited Resource Settings". J Clin Med. 9 (2): 7. doi:10.3390/jcm9020389. PMC 7074178. PMID 32024091.
  21. ^ Lawn, Stephen D (2015). "Advances in Diagnostic Assays for Tuberculosis". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 5 (12): 6. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a017806. PMC 4665042. PMID 26253092.
  22. ^ Bottone, Edward J (2010). "Bacillus cereus, a volatile human pathogen". Clin Microbiol Rev. 23 (2): 387. doi:10.1128/CMR.00073-09. PMC 2863360. PMID 20375358.
  23. ^ Agaisse, H; Gominet, M; Okstad, O A; Kolstø, A B; Lereclus, D (1999). "PlcR is a pleiotropic regulator of extracellular virulence factor gene expression in Bacillus thuringiensis". Mol Microbiol. 32 (5): 1044. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1999.01419.x. PMID 10361306.
  24. ^ Frith, Maxine (October 22, 2002). "Warning as TB cases in London hit 10-year high". Evening Standard. p. 232 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Membership Directory". Royal Society of Biology. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  26. ^ "ESCMID Fellows". ESCMID. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
  27. ^ "65 Fellows Elected Into the American Academy of Microbiology". American Society for Microbiology. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
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