Constance Schultsz

Emerging infections and antimicrobial resistance

The research in the group of Constance Schultsz aims to drive changes in the prevention and management of bacterial infections, to improve global health. The research focuses on antimicrobial drug resistance and zoonotic infections. Within the antimicrobial resistance program, research is targeted at understanding mechanisms and routes of transmission of antimicrobial resistance determinants, and the development and application of novel tools for antimicrobial resistance surveillance. Streptococcus suis, an important swine pathogen and the main cause of bacterial meningitis in adults in countries of the Far East such as Vietnam and Thailand, is used as a model pathogen to study the emergence of zoonotic bacterial infections through livestock and food production.

Research approaches are both laboratory-based and interdisciplinary and studies are carried out with collaborating research fellows within the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, within the Netherlands Centre for One Health, and with overseas research partners and institutes.

Research team

Head of the team

Constance Schultsz

Constance Schultsz is a MD specialized in medical microbiology at the Amsterdam UMC (AMC). She is deputy head of the department of Global Health and also works at the Medical Microbiology department. She is a member of the Board of the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD), the interdisciplinary network organization of the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC and VU Amsterdam, which focuses on research, education, training and policy in the area of Global Health and development. Schultsz previously worked at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh in Dhaka and at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Team members
  • Boas van der Putten, PhD student, Genomics of antimicrobial resistance, molecular epidemiology
  • Victoria Janes, PhD student, Metagenomics for diagnostics of bacterial infections and antimicrobial resistance
  • Adhi Sugianli, PhD student, Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance
  • Fransiscus Ginteng, PhD student, Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance
  • Rik Oldenkamp, postdoctoral scientist, Improving antimicrobial resistance surveillance using modeling approaches
  • Niels Willemse, PhD student, Molecular epidemiology and host-pathogen interaction of S. suis
  • Thomas Roodsant, PhD student, Host-pathogen interaction of S. suis
  • Jaime B. G. Brizuela Gabaldon, PhD student, Molecular epidemiology and host-pathogen interaction of S. suis
  • Yao Shi, PhD student, Cell wall components as vaccine candidates against S. suis in pigs
  • Carmen Coral Dominguez, postdoctoral scientist, Cell wall components as vaccine candidates against S. suis in pigs; molecular biology of S. suis
  • Chaluma C. Luchen, PhD student, Reducing antimicrobial resistance through rotavirus vaccination
  • Mwelwa Chibuye, PhD student, Impact of gut microbiome composition on growth in children
  • Vanessa Harris, assistant professor, specialist in internal medicine-infectious diseases, Improving health and growth and reducing antimicrobial resistance in children through microbiome enhance (rotavirus) vaccination strategies
News & Publications Contact
Prof. Dr. Constance Schultsz
Emailc.schultsz@amsterdamumc.nl / c.schultsz@aighd.org