Luigina Romani
University of Perugia, Italy
Biography
Luigina Romani received her Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the University of Perugia, where she also trained in basic immunology and transplant immunology. She is currently Professor of Pathology and a faculty member of the University Medical School at the University of Perugia. Luigina Romani is internationally recognized in the area of antifungal immunity — a field in which her major interest is on the comprehension of innate mechanisms of antifungal immunity that lead to the activation of protective and non-protective adaptive immunity. She has been recognized “Fellow" of the American Academy of Microbiology and elected to the American National Academy of Sciences. Luigina Romani pioneered studies on the role of T cells first (early 80’) and then of the different Th cell subsets (early 90’) in experimental fungal infections. She introduced several novel scientific and translatable concepts which have become popular in the field of medical mycology. Examples are the concept of protective tolerance, the basis of immunotherapy, the use of dendritic cells to develop fungal vaccine, the pathogenetic role of inflammation in infection, the discovery of tryptophan metabolites as potential antifungal strategies and, more recently, the use of functional genomic to predict individual risk for fungal infections in transplanted patients
Abstract
Abstract : The regulation of host resistance to fungal infections by the microbiota