MSCA IF Fellow: Agnese Serafini
Project: Myco_Metabolism - How iron and manganese affect the central metabolism in pathogenic mycobacteria
MSCA Fellow: Agnese Serafini
UNIPD Supervisor: Riccardo Manganelli
Department: Molecular Medicine
Total Contribution: Euro 171.473,28
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date: 15/06/2021
End Date: 14/06/2023
Agnese Serafini is an Italian scientist who specialised in the microbiology field. During her PhD at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", she developed her interest in the study of microbial physiology. From 2006 to 2008 she collaborated with the Crystallography Institute of the CNR. During her postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. Riccardo Manganelli at UNIPD (2008-2014), she was fascinated by the physiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of tuberculosis. She was one of the first scientists to explore the role of the novel ESX-3 type VII secretion system in M. tuberculosis. In 2015, she joined the Dr Luiz Carvalho lab at the National Institute for Medical Research (London, UK) that in 2016 became part of the new Francis Crick Institute. Here, she furthered the studies on the physiology of mycobacteria. She identified the carbon metabolic pathways for assimilation of lactate and pyruvate carbon source in M. tuberculosis, shifting the paradigm that lipids are the main carbon and energy source for M. tuberculosis in vivo. During the MSCA Fellowship, at the University of Padua, she will explore how the variations of metal availability (mimicking the mechanisms of innate immune cells), like iron and manganese, affect the activity of central metabolism in M. tuberculosis and Mycobacterium abscessus. The project will be developed at the UNIPD (Padua, Italy) under the supervision of Prof Riccardo Manganelli and at the Francis Crick Institute (London, UK) under the supervision of Dr Luiz Carvalho.