Supervisors: Prof. Elisa Pellegrini and Prof. Guido Marchi
Research Field: Plant Pathology
Keywords: Xylella fastidiosa, Plant Pathology, Tuscan Outbreak, Comparative Genomics, Plant Defence Signalling.
Headquarters address: Plant Pathology Lab, University of Pisa, Via Vecchia di Marina 20, 56122, San Piero a Grado (PI)
Chiara started her scientific career in Rome at the University of “La Sapienza,” where she graduated with a BSc in Applied Pharmaceutical Science in 2015. To deepen her knowledge of plant biology, she decided to move to Pisa and enrolled in the “Plant and Microbial Biotechnology” MSc program, graduating in 2018 after four months of work at the Spanish research center CIALE. Subsequently, after graduation, she moved to Germany as an Erasmus traineeship student, spending one year in the Genetics Department of the LMU of Munich.
Since 2021, she has been back in Pisa as an intern at the University of Pisa, initially working on a patented diagnostic kit for the identification of Macrophomina phaseolina (“Macrobox” project) and, in the following two years, as a lab assistant for the Regional Phytosanitary Service of Tuscany.
In 2024 she joined the PhD program in Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the University of Pisa. Her research focuses on the population of Xylella fastidiosa currently detected in Monte Argentario (GR), the first recorded outbreak of this quarantine bacterium in Tuscany and the second nationally. By analyzing the genomic profiles of various strains, her work aims to provide insights into the disease epidemiology. However, this research will not only focus on the pathogen but on the host as well. For the first time, the plant’s biochemical response to X. fastidiosa will be studied in three different susceptible hosts of the heterogeneous Mediterranean maquis.
After years of work in various European laboratories, Chiara has gained experience that allows her to work efficiently and adapt to any unforeseen challenges. Her passion for plant pathology has been explored in both pure and applied research and continues today in the study of this important quarantine pathogen.
