Manuela Raffatellu, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, has been chosen by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) to receive a 2010 ICAAC Young Investigator Award. Sponsored by the ASM, this award recognizes an early career scientist for research excellence in microbiology and infectious diseases.
Dr. Raffatellu earned her M.D. at the University of Sassari, Italy, and completed her postdoctoral work at Texas A&M University and the University of California, Davis.
Early in her post-doctoral studies, Dr. Raffatellu was intrigued by the clinical observation that the human pathogen Salmonella typhi does not trigger an inflammatory response in the gut. Her subsequent work contributed to the identification of the Vi capsular antigen as a novel virulence factor promoting immune evasion by S. typhi. More recently, Dr. Raffatellu's research has been focused on the gut pathogen Salmonella typhimurium, with the goal of elucidating its interaction with both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. Dr. Raffatellu became interested in understanding which components of the gut inflammatory response prevent S. typhimurium from systemic spreading by containing the infection to the mucosa. Her work has identified a novel role for early T cell responses and the cytokine IL-17 in preventing S. typhimurium dissemination from the gut, thus benefiting the host. Dr. Raffatellu subsequently began studying the mechanisms by which S. typhimurium thrives in the inflamed gut, and currently continues to work on the mucosal response to Salmonella.
The ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented during ASM's 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 12-15, 2010 in Boston, MA. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health, economic, and environmental well-being.