Sylvia Knapp, MD, PhD, is Professor of Infection Biology at the Medical University of Vienna. Sylvia studied Medicine in Vienna and Berlin, and is a board-certified Internist. After her clinical training, she obtained her PhD at the University of Amsterdam, where she investigated pattern recognition receptors in bacterial infections. Between 2006 and 2021, she was Principal Investigator at CeMM and continued her clinical duties while also running her own lab. In 2012, Sylvia was appointed Professor of Infection Biology at the Medical University Vienna. Her research focuses on the innate immune response to infections, with a specific emphasis on the comprehensive repertoire of macrophage functions in development, health and disease. Sylvia is highly committed to bridging academic medicine and basic science. She is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of Academia.Net circle of excellent female scientists. Sylvia is a member of the University Board of the Medical University of Graz, elected vice president of the Ludwig Boltzmann Society as well as the Viennese College of Physicians, and vice-dean of doctoral studies at the Medical University of Vienna.