Emanuele Montomoli Research Group
Emanuele Montomoli
Emanuele Montomoli is Full Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Siena in Italy. He received his BSc and MSc in Life Sciences from University of Siena in Italy in 1995 and he earned his MBiochem in 2001.In 2008, he funded VisMederi srl, a private enterprise involved in management and serology for clinical trials and focussed studies with human viruses for pharmaceutical companies. Actually, he has a role of Chief Scientific Officer.
His research interest is primarily in the field of influenza vaccines, and in particular in the study of correlates of protection. He is expert in development, standardization and validation of assays for antibody detection. He has conducted many clinical and laboratory research studies to evaluate immunogenicity and efficacy of traditional and new influenza vaccines. Recently he has participated in protocols for development and evaluation of new molecules as adjuvants. He has also undertaken planning and execution of European seroepidemiological studies for emerging infectious disease in collaboration with WHO Regional Office and eCDC.
He has participated in several analyses for COVID-19 vaccines evaluation, and conducted the VisMederi laboratories as part of the CEPI international network.
In 2015, he was Scientific Coordinator for one European Project IMI (Innovative Medicine Initiative) titled “Standardization and development of assays for assessment of influenza vaccine correlates of protection (FLUCOP)” (IMI-JU-10-2013-01, Grant Agreement No 115672).
He has organized 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition of the Summer School on influenza in Siena with the support of ISIRV.
Over the years, he has published more than 1000 scientific papers and reviews, and written several chapters in textbooks.
Claudia Trombetta
She is currently Associate Professor of Public Health at University of Siena. She obtained her Master’s
Degree in Biology and her PhD in Biotechnologies from the University of Siena in Italy. Claudia has over 10
years of experience in academia working on clinical trials for influenza vaccines, serological assays for the
evaluation of influenza vaccines’ immunogenicity, correlates of protection, vaccines preventable diseases,
epidemiological studies and study of antiviral compounds . She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers,
commentaries and book chapters.
The University of Siena, represented by Prof. Emanuele Montomoli and Dr. Claudia M. Trombetta, joined the
Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework (WHO) in 2015 and co-organized the WHO Training
Workshop on Quality Management and Biosafety for National Influenza Centres hold in Siena in 2018.
Serena Marchi
Dr. Serena Marchi graduated in Biomedical laboratory techniques (Bsc) in 2010 at the University of Bologna and
worked for a year and a half at the Regional Reference Center for Microbiological Emergencies at the University
Hospital of Bologna. She graduated in Biology (Msc) in 2015 at the University of Siena and in 2019 she obtained her
PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, with a study focused on the seroepidemiology of Zika virus in West
Africa.
She has experience on virology and serology laboratory techniques for the study of influenza and emerging viruses.
She participated in the European project IMI (Innovative Medicine Initiative) “FLUCOP - Standardisation and
development of assays for assessment of influenza vaccine correlates of protection”. She has experience on techniques
for the study of antiviral compounds, in particular cytotoxicity and immunofluorescence assays, and confocal
microscopy.
Serena is currently a post-doc research fellow at the University of Siena, where she works on epidemiology of vaccine
preventable diseases and emerging viruses. She is author and co-author of over 30 peer-reviewed research articles,
reviews, and book chapters.
