Maurizio Zazzi Research Group

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Maurizio Zazzi

Maurizio Zazzi is Full Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Medical Biotechnology of the University of Siena. He is a founder of the EuResist Network (a European collaborative network devoted to investigating response to antiviral therapy), the President of the ARCA (Antiviral Response Cohort Analysis) collaborative study, a member of the Management Board of the VIRONET-C Foundation (focusing on viral hepatitis) and of the PRESTIGIO Registry (collecting data and samples from people living with multidrug resistant HIV). He has led or participated to many European and Italian projects and has been an investigator in many contracts with pharmaceutical companies in the area of (i) advanced HIV virology, (ii) HIV drug resistance, (iii) antiviral drug discovery.

Francesco Saladini

Francesco Saladini obtained his Master’s degree with full marks cum laude in Biotechnologies for Human Health in 2007 and the PhD in Medical Biotechnologies in 2012 at the University of Siena. Currently, he is research fellow at the Department of Medical Biotechnologies, University of Siena, dedicating his research activities (i) in the set-up of advanced laboratory tools for the study of the treatment of HIV infection and the characterization of the cellular reservoir of HIV, (ii) and in the evaluation of the susceptibility to licensed or candidate antivirals using laboratory adapted or clinically derived viral isolates. In the latest years, he also participated to several projects funded by national or international agencies aiming to identify molecules with broad spectrum antiviral activity against emerging or re-emerging viral pathogens such as West-Nile Virus, Dengue Virus, Zika Virus and SARS-CoV-2.

Ilaria Vicenti

Ilaria Vicenti obtained her Master’s degree with full marks cum laude in Biotechnologies for Human Health in 2005 and the PhD in Medical Biotechnologies in 2009 at the University of Siena. Currently, she is currently Research Fellow in Microbiology at the Department of Medical Biotechnologies of the University of Siena. She is a Specialist in microbiology and virology, with a focus on antiviral drug resistance and evaluation of viral persistence and viral evolution. She has been working on HIV drug resistance for more than 15 years taking part in many international initiatives and collaborating with pharmaceutical companies. In the last ten years, she has worked in antiviral drug discovery and development, expanding her area of interest to flaviviruses and more recently to SARS-COV-2 where she has started to study neutralizing antibody response in patients previously infected and/or vaccinated.