Wolfgang Köster is a Research Scientist at VIDO-InterVac Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre), and an Adjunct Professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK. In 2004 he was awarded the “NSERC/Bioniche Associate Industrial Research Chair in Vaccines to Reduce Food and Water Contamination”.

Dr. Köster studied bacterial iron transport and received his Ph.D. from the Eberhard-Karls-University of Tübingen, Germany. As a post-doctoral fellow of the German Science Foundation (DFG) he investigated bacterial vitamin B12 uptake at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA. After working on various aspects of bacterial iron transport and completing his “Habilitation” at the University of Tübingen, he studied ABC transporter-mediated maltose uptake as a Visiting Scientist at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. From 1999-2004, as a Senior Scientist, he was leading the group 'Drinking Water Microbiology', at the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Dübendorf, Switzerland. There he studied survival strategies of bacteria in the environment, molecular detection methods for microbes, and metal homeostasis in unicellular green algae. From 1999-2003 he served as Swiss Delegate and “Invited Expert” at various events related to safe drinking water of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Dr. Köster´s current research focuses on secretion systems and other virulence determinants in Salmonella ssp. and their role in the infection and colonization of poultry, with the long term goal to develop effective intervention strategies in order to reduce the amount of pathogens in animals used for food production. Other projects include Campylobacter, Clostridium and avian Escherichia coli associated with poultry, and focus on the development of vaccination and other intervention strategies, including in-ovo administration routes to fight early chick mortality and colonization and infection of poultry.