Microbial Genetics of Infection. Coordinator: Prof. Oggioni

3D reconstruction of a confocal image of a tissue macrophage of a human spleen after phagocytosis of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. The image was generated on a biopsy sample taken during ex vivo perfusion of a spleen. Blue nuclei, red macrophage marker CD169, green bacteria.

Research themes

• Infection: The earliest events during infection are the encounter of bacteria and viruses with the innate and acquired immune response mechanisms and only exceptionally specific events occur which will then lead to a localised or invasive infection. We have recently discovered that one such event is the replication of certain bacteria within tissue resident macrophages in the spleen (Ercoli 2018) and liver (Wanford 2021) (see 3D video of infected cell). The understanding of the molecular and cellular details in this interaction are predicted to provide novel approaches for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases (Carreno 2021).
• Microbial epigenetics: The study of population dynamics in the host during carriage and infection have let us to discover processes of rapid phase variable mechanisms for epigenetic changes which change gene expression (Manso 2014). These phase-variable methylation systems are present in many bacterial species (De Ste Croix 2017) and represent a novel model to investigate the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic gene regulation in procaryotes.

Lab Members

• Marco R. Oggioni, Professor, Medical Microbiologist, group leader Infection and Epigenetics.
• Daniele Ghezzi, Junior Assistant Professor. PNRR INF-ACT project on microbial infections.
• Claudia Trappetti, Post-doc. RNA vaccine for pneumococcal infection.
• Francesco Flandi, PhD student. PhD program in Cellular and Molecular Biology, UniBo.
• Giulia Cattabriga, PhD student. National PhD program in Innovation in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infections at epidemic-pandemic risk.

Job openings 

• BSc and MSc lab projects for thesis
• Post-doc position in spring 2024 with the pharma industry GSK
• Post-doc position in early summer 2024 on vaccines for Pseudomonas

Main publications

• Wanford JJ, Hames RG, Carreno D, Jasiunaite Z, Chung WY, Arena F, Di Pilato V, Straatman K, West K, Farzand R, Pizza M, Martinez-Pomares L, Andrew PW, Moxon ER, Dennison AR, Rossolini GM, Oggioni MR. Interaction of Klebsiella pneumoniae with tissue macrophages in a mouse infection model and ex-vivo pig organ perfusions: an exploratory investigation. Lancet Microbe. 2021 Dec;2(12):e695-e703. https://doi.org/ 1016/S2666-5247(21)00195-6
• Carreno D, JJ Wanford, Z Jasiunaite, RG. Hames, WY Chung, AR. Dennison, K Straatman, L Martinez-Pomares, M Pareek, CJ Orihuela, MI Restrepo, WS Lim, PW Andrew, ER Moxon, MR Oggioni. 2021. Splenic macrophages as the source of bacteraemia during pneumococcal pneumonia. EBioMedicine. 2021 Oct 4;72:103601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103601
• Manso AS, MH Chai, JM Atack, L Furi, M De Ste Croix, R Haigh, C Trappetti, AD Ogunniyi, LK Shewell, M Boitano, TA Clark, J Korlach, M Blades, E Mirkes, AN Gorban, JC Paton, MP Jennings, MR Oggioni. 2014. A random six-phase switch regulates pneumococcal virulence via global epigenetic changes. Nature Commun. 5:5055 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6055
• Ghezzi D, Boi M, Sassoni E, Valle F, Giusto E, Boanini E, Baldini N, Cappelletti M, Graziani G. Customized biofilm device for antibiofilm and antibacterial screening of newly developed nanostructured silver and zinc coatings. J Biol Eng. 2023 Mar 6;17(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s13036-023-00326-y.
• Ercoli G, VE Fernandes, WY Chung, JJ Wanford, S Thomson, CD Bayliss, K Straatman, PR Crocker, A Dennison, L Martinez-Pomares, PW Andrew, ER Moxon, MR Oggioni. 2018. Intracellular replication of Streptococcus pneumoniae inside splenic macrophages serves as a reservoir for septicaemia. Nature Microbiology. 2018 May;3(5):600-610. doi: 10.1038/s41564-018-0147-1