Hugo David Awards
(Previously Paper of the Semester Awards)

The Hugo David Awards are two annual awards for the best papers of the year published by an ESM member. They will be awarded yearly at the annual meeting and the prize is 500 Euros for each of the awardees.

In 2021 the ESM, in collaboration with Hugo David's family, decided to honour this great scientist by creating a new award in his name.

Read more about Hugo David and his work below.

Entry Guidelines

Who is eligible?

First or last author of the publication, must be an active and paid member of the society at the time of the proposal and will be the recipient of the prize.
First or last author can only be awarded one prize a year.
In cases where there are co-first authors, it is sufficient for one of them to be an ESM member.
Researchers must be under 40 (or less than 7 years after PHD)
Submitted papers must have appeared within 6 months of the deadline, defined as the date of online publication

Proposals and selection process

The deadline for submitting publications will be 30 June and 31 December each year and the winner for each semester will be announced within the month following the deadline.
Proposals are to be emailed to the ESM office (office@esmycobacteriology.eu). Please include an abstract along with a PDF copy of your paper.
The ESM Steering Committee will review the entries.

Hugo David Award Winners 2024

The mycobacterial glycoside hydrolase LamH enables capsular arabinomannan release and stimulates growth

From left to right: Dr Patrick Moynihan (PI), Kamilla Anochshenko, Dr Samuel Benedict, Amar Gudka, Greg Goudge, Suzanna Benn, Dr Aaron Franklin, and Abigail Layton.

Published in nature communications

Aaron Franklin, Vivian C Salgueiro, Abigail J Layton, Rudi Sullivan, Todd Mize, Lucía Vázquez-Iniesta, Samuel T Benedict, Sudagar S Gurcha, Itxaso Anso, Gurdyal S Besra, Manuel Banzhaf, Andrew L Lovering, Spencer J Williams, Marcelo E Guerin, Nichollas E Scott, Rafael Prados-Rosales, Elisabeth C Lowe, Patrick J Moynihan

Mycobacterial glycolipids are important cell envelope structures that drive host-pathogen interactions. Arguably, the most important are lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and its precursor, lipomannan (LM), which are trafficked from the bacterium to the host via unknown mechanisms.... Read the full paper here >

Hugo David Award Winners 2023

A One Health approach revealed the long-term role of Mycobacterium caprae as the hidden cause of human tuberculosis in a region of Spain, 2003 to 2022

Darío García de Viedma

Published in Eurosurveillance

Miguel Martínez-Lirola , Marta Herranz , Sergio Buenestado Serrano, Cristina Rodríguez-Grande, Eva Dominguez Inarra, Jose Antonio Garrido-Cárdenas , Ana María Correa Ruiz , María Pilar Bermúdez , Manuel Causse del Río , Verónica González Galán , Julia Liró Armenteros , Jose María Viudez Martínez , Silvia Vallejo-Godoy, Ana Belén Esteban García, María Teresa Cabezas Fernández , Patricia Muñoz , Laura Pérez Lago, Darío García de Viedma

Mycobacterium caprae is a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) not routinely identified to species level. It lacks specific clinical features of presentation and may therefore not be identified as the causative agent of tuberculosis. Use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) in the investigation of a family microepidemic of tuberculosis in Almería, Spain, unexpectedly identified the involve- ment of M. caprae. Aim: We aimed to evaluate the pres- ence of additional unidentified M. caprae cases and to determine the magnitude of this occurrence.... Read the full paper here >

A Smooth Tubercle Bacillus from Ethiopia Phylogenetically Close to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex

Arash Ghodousi

Daniela Cirillo

Published in Nature Communications

Bazezew Yenew, Arash Ghodousi, Getu Diriba, Ephrem Tesfaye, Andrea Maurizio Cabibbe, Misikir Amare, Shewki Moga, Ayinalem Alemu, Binyam Dagne, Waganeh Sinshaw, Hilina Mollalign, Abyot Meaza, Mengistu Tadesse, Dinka Fikadu Gamtesa, Yeshiwork Abebaw, Getachew Seid, Betselot Zerihun, Melak Getu, Matteo Chiacchiaretta, Cyril Gaudin, Michael Marceau, Xavier Didelot, Getachew Tolera, Saro Abdella, Abebaw Kebede, Muluwork Getahun, Zemedu Mehammed, Philip Supply & Daniela Maria Cirillo

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) includes several human- and animal-adapted pathogens. It is thought to have originated in East Africa from a recombinogenic Mycobacterium canettii-like ancestral pool. Here, we describe the discovery of a clinical tuberculosis strain isolated in Ethiopia that shares archetypal phenotypic and genomic features of M. canettii strains, but represents a phylogenetic branch much closer to the MTBC clade than to the M. canettii strains.... Read the full paper here >

Bedaquiline and clofazimine resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: an in-vitro and in-silico data analysis

Lindsay Sonnenkalb

Published in The Lancet Microbe

Lindsay Sonnenkalb, Joshua James Carter, Andrea Spitaleric, Zamin Iqbal, Martin Hunt, Kerri Marie Malone, Christian Utpatel, Daniela Maria Cirillo, Camilla Rodrigues, Kayzad Soli Nilgiriwala, Philip William Fowler, Matthias Merker, Stefan Niemann; Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: an International Consortium

Bedaquiline is a core drug for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; however, the understanding of resistance mechanisms is poor, which is hampering rapid molecular diagnostics. Some bedaquiline-resistant mutants are also cross-resistant to clofazimine. To decipher bedaquiline and clofazimine resistance determinants, we combined experimental evolution, protein modelling, genome sequencing, and phenotypic data.... Read the full paper here >

Paper of the Semester and Hugo David Winners 2022

Role of Epistasis in Amikacin, Kanamycin, Bedaquiline, and Clofazimine Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex

Hugo David Awards (Previously Paper of the Semester Awards)