Hi I’m Charlotte. I’m joining the MFIG lab as a research technician funded by the Wellcome Trust, working on a collaborative project with a group at the University of Kent. Our research aims to uncover how different Mucorales species adapt to their surroundings, both in the environment and within the human body, and how this stress adaptation contributes to infection.

 My background is in microbiology, with a BSc from Aberystwyth University. I’ve gained experience across both industry and academia, beginning in a role supporting microbiological testing for the medical device and biopharmaceutical sectors, specialising in biofilm testing. I later moved into academia at the University of Liverpool, contributing to research on the development of teixobactins, a novel class of antibiotics, before transitioning into work focused on antimicrobial resistance. I then joined the Department of Antimicrobial Pharmacodynamics and Therapeutics. Here I contributed to the development of novel therapeutic strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance and simulating human drug concentration-time profiles to study antimicrobial efficacy through Hollow-fibre Infection Models.

In my new role at MFIG, I’m looking forward to transferring my experience in microbial adaptation and resistance from bacteria to fungi, while expanding my understanding of fungal pathogens and their behaviour. I’m excited to build on my existing skill set, learn new techniques, and contribute to ongoing research, while benefiting from the expertise within MFIG.

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Congratulations to Dr Margherita Bertuzzi, who has been awarded funding to provide a fully funded PhD studentship tackling fungal lung infections by the Humane Research Trust.

Dr Margherita Bertuzzi in collaboration with Dr Raveen Tank (University of Manchester), Prof Marc Thilo Figge (Friedrich Schiller University), Prof Terry Tetley (Imperial College London) and their PhD candidate Keira Gordon will develop a microfluidic ‘lung-on-a-chip’ platform within a fully humanised system. Whilst importantly, the model will use animal-free culture media and recombinant antibodies, ending reliance on animal-derived products.

To find out more information on The Humane Research Trust and this project or other projects they are supporting you can visit their website here.

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Congratulations to Dr Can Zhao, Co-Founder of UoM-MFIG spin-out InPepCide, who has been awarded a place on the full Accelerator Programme, which offers start-up and scale-up support to early stage and growing life science businesses on their journey to success. More information can be found here.

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Congratulations to Dr Can Zhao, Co-Founder of UoM-MFIG spin-out InPepCide, who has been awarded a place on the full Accelerator Programme, which offers start-up and scale-up support to early stage and growing life science businesses on their journey to success. More information can be found here.

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Congratulations to Dr Can Zhao, Co-Founder of UoM-MFIG spin-out InPepCide, who has been awarded a place on the full Accelerator Programme, which offers start-up and scale-up support to early stage and growing life science businesses on their journey to success. More information can be found here.

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We are delighted to announce that Manchester University lecturer Dr Margherita Bertuzzi has been awarded a New Investigator Research Grant by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study Aspergillus fumigatus-epithelial interactions, how these influence immune responses and how they are dysregulated in disease.

Airborne spores of the most prominent fungal pathogen of human lungs, Aspergillus fumigatus, are a major component of the air we breathe and are responsible for more than 3 million chronic infections and initiate over 200,000 invasive diseases annually worldwide. Some groups of severely immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing bone marrow transplants, have just a 10% survival rate once a fungal infection is contracted.

“Remarkably, while fungal diseases cause more deaths annually than tuberculosis or malaria, we still lack effective drugs to treat many of these infections,” said Dr Bertuzzi, who is principal investigator of the three-year project. “Obtaining first-in-field insights into the mechanistic basis of the antifungal potency of the airway epithelium will open avenues for the development of novel immunomodulatory therapeutic strategies to facilitate treatment of lung diseases caused by Aspergillus fumigatus and other respiratory pathogens.”

The New Investigator Research Grant is a competitive award aimed at researchers who are in the process of becoming independent Principal Investigators. The award will support Dr Bertuzzi’s research which focuses on the epithelial interactions with inhaled respiratory pathogens and the role of these events in health and disease; how these interactions affect communication with other components of human immune and inflammatory cascades, and the technical know-how to translate this knowledge into human benefit.

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