Antonella Fioravanti

Dr. Antonella Fioravanti is a European scientist that obtained her Master Degree in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Florence (Italy) in 2010. She then joined the Laboratory of Comparative systems biology of signal transduction (Dr. Biondi, Lille CNRS-France) where in 2014 she obtained her PhD in Cellular and Molecular aspects of biology, performing breakthrough work on the role of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms in bacterial asymmetrical cell division. Since October 2014 she joined the Structural and Molecular Microbiology group at VIB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel, headed by Professor Han Remaut. Here she had the opportunity to take over and lead the S-layer research project, with the aim of filling the gap in the structural and functional understanding of the bacterial Surface layers (S-layers) in the highly pathogenic bacterium Bacillus anthracis.
S-layers are 2-dimensional protein coats that constitute the major cell wall component in a myriad of bacteria including important pathogens like B. anthracis and Clostridium difficile. Although classical genetic knockouts indicate B. anthracis’ S-layers are non-vital cell surface components, she could demonstrate that phenotypic disturbance of S-layer assembly during bacterial growth results in severe morphological defects and attenuated growth. Moreover, her research showed the promising potential of targeting the S-layer integrity as novel antimicrobial therapy. She currently spearheads the development of anti B. anthracis S-layer assembly inhibitors as promising new tools to fight anthrax disease applying such strategy to other S-layer carrying pathogens too. For her scientific contribution, in 2020 the Belgian Royal academy of Science, together with the scientific journal EOS, awarded her with the 2020 EOS Pipet award, award given to the most promising young scientist of the year.
In addition to that Dr. Fioravanti in 2020 was enlisted among the “40 under 40 italian talents by the Fortune magazine, she receive the “Premio Cerreto 2020” from the city of Prato (Italy) and in 2021 the magazine F listed her among the 100 more influent women of 2020.