User:Keimzelle

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de Dieser Benutzer spricht Deutsch als Muttersprache.
als Däm Bnutzer sy Muetersprach isch Alemannisch.
en-3 This user is able to contribute with an advanced level of English.
fr-2 Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.

Ahhh, I should revise my user page once again. It has collected too much cyberdust.

My name is David (* 1981), and I was born and I live near Basel, Switzerland. After completing Gymnasium (Matura degree with majors in mathematics and physics) I've been a wasp breeder (earning an allergy) and later a dishwasher/kitchen aide in an old people's home (earning more money than in the allergic job).

Yes, later I studied biology at the University of Basel, concluding with a BSc degree in "Integrative Biology"[1] in 2007. After a short stint as a developmental biology lab slave (this time, I have been breeding flies), I began my MSc studies in Epidemiology and Infection Biology at the Swiss Tropical Institute.

For those interested into my research topic: It is essentially the same as "Social Contacts and Mixing Patterns Relevant to the Spread of Infectious Diseases"[2] by Joël Mossong and his collaborators, which was a EU-wide study to assess how respiratory diseases (including pandemic influenza) will be spreading given the current social contact patterns between the different age groups. As an interesting side note, this study found that the average Italian talks with about 18 different people each day, the average German with only 8. My contribution? My MSc project will be the first such study in Switzerland.


  1. ^ This is a mix of organismic, ecological and molecular biology. During the final year, I enjoyed molecular and ecological plant biology, epidemiology as well as infection biology, molecular microbiology and cellular biology.
  2. ^ Joël Mossong, Niel Hens, Mark Jit, Philippe Beutels, Kari Auranen, Rafael Mikolajczyk, Marco Massari, Stefania Salmaso, Gianpaolo Scalia Tomba, Jacco Wallinga, Janneke Heijne, Malgorzata Sadkowska-Todys, Magdalena Rosinska, W. John Edmunds: Social Contacts and Mixing Patterns Relevant to the Spread of Infectious Diseases. PLoS Medicine, March 2008[1]