Isabella Eckerle is a medical doctor and clinical virologists with a board certificate in microbiology, virology and infectious disease epidemiology. She is associate professor and co-head of the Geneva Centre for Emerging Viral Disease, a joint institution of the HUG and Unige, and independent research group leader of the group “Emerging Viruses” affiliated with the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Geneva. She is co-head of a WHO collaborating Centre on epidemic and pandemic diseases and co-head of a WHO CoViNet laboratory. Her research interest are emerging and re-emerging viral diseases with a focus on zoonotic viruses and coronaviruses.