Prof. Elisabetta Blasi

Elisabetta Blasi, Full Professor. Graduated with honors in Biological Sciences, at the University of Perugia in 1980, she moved to USA, where she spent a long-term period (1982-1986), as visiting fellow and visiting associate, at the Frederick Cancer Research Facility, National Institute of Health, Frederick, MD, under the supervision of dr. Luigi Varesio. During that time, she was involved in a relevant project, that brought to the immortalization of primary macrophages using recombinant oncogene-carrying retroviruses (Blasi et al. Nature, 1985); because of that, she received also a prestigious prize, the “Presidential Award” from the Reticuloendithelial Society of America, dedicated to the best young scientist of the year (1985). Once back to Italy, she was firstly employed at the University of Perugia, as a post-doc (1987-1988), then as Researcher (1988-1992) and Associate Professor (1992-1994) in Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology. From 1994-to date, she is Full Professor in Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where she is also Director of the “School of Specialization” in Microbiology and Virology, a third level course open to both medical doctors and biological science doctors. From 2008-to date, prof. Blasi is involved in the field of Diagnostic Microbiology, being responsible of a “Programma Assistenziale” focused on “Innovative diagnosis of invasive fungal infections” at the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Policlinico di Modena. During her carrier, Prof. Blasi has been involved in several research projects, including 1) host-parasite interaction in opportunistic infections; 2) fungal genotype and dimorphic transition in the pathogenesis of Candida albicans infections; 3) pathogenic role of microbial biofilm: conventional and innovative approaches to counteract biofilm formation and persistence; 4) microbial synergisms in mixed infections; 5) searching for new markers as ancillary tools in the diagnosis of fungal infections.

Email: elisabetta.blasi@unimore.it

Publications