Rate My Professor Annelies Verbon

Annelies Verbon, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Internal Medicine at Utrecht University and University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht), appointed on January 1, 2024. She chairs the Division of Internal Medicine and Dermatology at UMC Utrecht since 2022 and has served as Professor of Infectious Diseases and Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine since 2021. Her career trajectory includes prominent roles at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam: Professor of Infectious Diseases and Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases from 2014 to 2021, Associate Professor and Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases from 2009 to 2014. Earlier, she was Associate Professor and Chair of Infectious Diseases at Academic Hospital Maastricht from 2002 to 2009 and Assistant Professor at Academic Medical Center (AMC) Amsterdam from 1999 to 2002. Verbon completed her fellowship in Infectious Diseases and MD in internal medicine at AMC Amsterdam in 1998-1999, following her PhD from the Department of Pulmonary Medicine there in 1992 (thesis: Development of a serological test for tuberculosis: from bench to bedside). She has experience as an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the USA and chairs the Dutch association of Infectious Diseases specialists.

Verbon's academic interests center on antibiotic stewardship, leveraging computer-assisted decision support systems and apps like AB-assistant (JPI AMR-funded) to optimize antimicrobial use and implement intravenous-to-oral switches; HIV cure strategies through shock-and-kill methods, including HDAC and BAF inhibitor screening and clinical studies; and one-health approaches, such as bacteriophage therapy for bacterial and parasitic infections in collaboration with the Netherlands Center of One Health. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications with more than 11,000 citations, including "In vitro activity of antibiotic monotherapy and combination therapy with bacteriophages against Staphylococcus aureus LVAD-driveline infections" (Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2025), "DNA methylation landscapes of HIV controllers" (EBioMedicine, 2025), "Kinome analysis of Madurella mycetomatis identified kinases in the cell wall integrity pathway as novel potential therapeutic drug targets in eumycetoma caused by Madurella mycetomatis" (PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2025), and "The use of a Poisson hidden Markov model for automated detection of hospital outbreaks with vancomycin-resistant enterococci in routine surveillance data" (Journal of Hospital Infection, 2025). Verbon was president of the Dutch Society of Internist-Infectiologists from 2015, served on the Outbreak Management Team advising the Dutch government during the COVID-19 pandemic, and contributes to national antibiotic guideline committees and SWAB. As co-promotor, she has guided 20 PhD students, emphasizing patient-centered care with AI and IT integration.