Steering Committee
Marc Tebruegge
(Chair)
He works as a Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Department of Child and Adolescent Medicine & the Austrian National Reference Centre for Childhood Tuberculosis at Klinik Ottakring, Vienna Healthcare Service. He also holds academic appointments at the University of Melbourne and the University of Southampton.
His main research interest lies in paediatric TB, particularly immune-based diagnostics, and NTM infections in children. To date he has published more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals, as well as several book chapters, mainly on mycobacterial infections.
He is also on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, including the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Frontiers in Pediatrics (Paediatric Infectious Diseases section) and PLoS One, and is a long-standing member of the WHO New Diagnostics Working Group and the WHO Child & Adolescent TB Working Group.
Ingrid Burkhardt
(Database Manager)
Dr. Ingrid Burkhardt is a paediatrician, currently appointed as clinical fellow in paediatric infectious diseases at the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland. She previously trained in paediatrics and paediatric infectious diseases at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital (Guys and St. Thomas NHS Trust) and St. Mary’s Hospital (Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust) in London and holds an MSc in Infectious Diseases and a DTM&H both from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is involved in collaborative research between the University of Bern and University of Namibia, focusing on paediatric TB epidemiology.
Begoña Santiago García
Begoña Santiago is a paediatrician specialised in Infectious Diseases at Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid. She has devoted much of her career to the study and clinical care of children affected by tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, with a particular focus on improving the diagnosis of paediatric TB through different approaches — from immunological and microbiological methods to technological innovation and omics-based tools.
She coordinates the Spanish Paediatric TB Research Network (pTBred) and its Biobank, fostering collaboration among clinicians, researchers, and laboratories across Spain to advance knowledge and improve care for children with tuberculosis.
Begoña has also been part of the Steering Committee of the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet), contributing to multicentre international studies that have enhanced the understanding and management of paediatric TB in Europe.
In addition to her clinical and research activities, she is actively engaged in science communication, training, and professional collaboration, participating in teaching, outreach, and institutional initiatives that promote evidence-based approaches to child health.
Florian Götzinger
Florian Götzinger is a paediatric pneumologist, trained in Austria, France and the United Kingdom and holds diplomas in Tropical Medicine and Paediatric Infectious Diseases. He is programme director for Paediatric Infectious Diseases for the Vienna Healthcare Group and works as a consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Health & the Austrian National Reference Centre for Childhood Tuberculosis at Klinik Ottakring, Vienna. In 2016 he established the first outpatient clinic in Austria focussing solely on refugee children to provide equitable, accessible, and culturally appropriate healthcare and to overcome the barriers of the local healthcare system for this vulnerable group of patients. He is also chair of the division for Transcultural Paediatrics and deputy chair of the working group for Paediatric Infectious Diseases for the Austrian Society of Paediatrics. Since 2021 he is visiting professor at the Vienna Medical University,
Since 2025 Florian is commuting between Vienna and Islamabad to work as the TACTiC (TACTiC – tuberculosis in children | MSF) national implementer for Médecins Sans Frontières in Pakistan.
Eleni Vergadi
She has served as a research fellow at Harvard Medical School, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB-Forth), Dresden Bioinnovation Center and University of Crete and she has been trained in Paediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston and Heraklion University Hospital and in Paeds Infectious Paediatric Infectious Diseases, St Mary’s Hospital London (Imperial NHS Trust, UK) and Evelina London Children’s Hospital (Guys and St Thomas NHS Trust, UK).
She is actively involved in both clinical and laboratory-based translational research focusing on Paediatrics, Infectious Diseases and host defense and has relevant, highly cited publications in major peer-reviewed international journals. For her research she has received the L’Oreal-UNESCO award for “Women in Science” and Young Investigator Award from the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. He has also received many other honors, awards and grants and has secured significant research funding (at national and European level). Currently, she devotes her time to patient clinical care, teaching and research. She supervises postgraduate and undergraduate students towards their thesis research projects. She is an elected board member of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases and peer-reviewer in international scientific journals
Antoni Noguera-Julian
Ton Noguera is the the Head of the Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at Sant Joan de Deu (SJD) Barcelona Children’s Hospital and Full Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Barcelona. He currently coordinates the Tuberculosis Working Group of the Spanish Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (SEIP). His main research line is tuberculosis in children, with particular interest in the performance of IGRA tests in paediatrics and tuberculosis infection in immunocompromised patients. He is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has supervised nine PhD theses. His broader research includes paediatric HIV and other mother-to-child transmitted infections.
