Francesca Colavita

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Francesca Colavita (* 1990 in Campobasso ) is an Italian biologist . She is a specialist in microbiology and virology and a member of a working group in the virological laboratory of the Istituto nazionale per le malattie infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani (National Institute for Infectious Diseases) in Rome. In February 2020, together with Concetta Castilletti and Maria Rosaria Capobianchi , she succeeded in isolating the SARS-CoV-2 virus , the causative agent of the lung disease COVID-19 . A partial sequencing of the genome of 2019-nCoV / Italy-INMI1 has been published on the GenBank database .

Career and work as a researcher

Francesca Colavita graduated from La Sapienza University in Rome in 2013 with a degree in biology . In 2017 she obtained a special diploma in microbiology and virology at Sapienza . She worked in Africa , particularly in Liberia and Sierra Leone , to contain the Ebola epidemic.

From April 2013 to March 2014 she did research as an intern at the Institute for Infectious Diseases and Public Health at Sapienza in the field of molecular virology with a focus on the Epstein-Barr virus and from April 2014 to August 2014 at Lazzaro Spallanzani on the serological diagnosis of newly emerging pathogens . She has been working at Lazzaro Spallanzani since September 2014, initially within the project " Emerging Pathogens : Diagnostic and Pathogenetic Aspects". From September 2014 to October 2014 she worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Liberia as part of the European project EMLab for the establishment of mobile laboratories for the diagnosis of high-risk pathogens in West Africa during the Ebola virus outbreak. She was also a member of the first team involved in setting up the field laboratory at MSF's Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Foya, Liberia. From December 2014 to January 2015, she was sent to Sierra Leone as an expert on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation , where she was a member of the first team as part of the "Emergency Initiative for the Victims of the Ebola Virus in Sierra Leone" project who worked on setting up the laboratory at the ETC in Goderich , Freetown , Sierra Leone. There she worked again from April 2015 to June 2015 in the molecular diagnostic laboratory, where she also trained local staff on the job.

Thanks to a scholarship, she was able to take part in an exchange program at the Center for Biological Evaluation and Research (CBER) of the FDA in September 2015 , which aimed to train and optimize new serological ELISA and serum neutralization methods for the evaluation of total and neutralizing antibodies against the Ebola virus ( BSL-2 particle virus ELISA and fluorescence reduction neutralization tests) served. These were developed in the laboratory under the direction of Gerardo Kaplan at the FDA as part of the research project "Field validation of BSL-2 assays to diagnosis total and neutralizing anti-Ebola antibodies in West Africa". As part of this FDA project as well as the European projects EbolaMoDRAD, Horizon 2020 and EVIDENT, she stayed several times between April 2016 and March 2017 for a few weeks or months in Sierra Leone, in cooperation with the Italian NGO Emergency , to carry out the work carried out by the Sierra Leone organized a surveillance program for Ebola virus disease to provide diagnostic support, to develop and validate methods and also to train local staff.

In addition to Ebola, Colavita also researched other viruses. In February 2020, together with Maria Rosaria Capobianchi and Concetta Castilletti , she succeeded in isolating the SARS-CoV-2 virus , the causative agent of the lung disease COVID-19 , in less than 48 hours, which is an important step in research and fighting the virus represents. A partial sequencing of the genome of 2019-nCoV / Italy-INMI1 has been published on the GenBank database .

Publications (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margherita De Bac: Francesca Colavita, 30 years, precaria allo Spallanzani: "È stato meno difficile del previsto". In: Corriere della Sera . March 2, 2020, accessed March 31, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ Francesca Colavita et al .: INMI / Emergency NGO Italian laboratory established in Sierra Leone during Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. In: Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. oat, October 31, 2016, accessed April 5, 2020 .
  3. ^ Office of the Commissioner: Supporting Field Laboratory Testing of Ebola Antibodies in Sierra Leone . In: FDA . August 27, 2019 ( fda.gov [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Home - EbolaMoDRAD. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  5. ↑ EVIDENT. Accessed April 3, 2020 (English).
  6. ^ F. Colavita: Field validation of novel diagnostic tools for Ebola virus detection in Sierra Leone. In: Presentation at the IMI Scientific Symposium, Brussels. imi - innovative medicines initiative, October 2018, accessed on April 5, 2020 .
  7. ↑ F. Colavita, M. Biava, P. Mertens, Q. Gilleman, C. Borlon: EBOLA Ag K-SeT rapid test: field evaluation in Sierra Leone . In: Clinical Microbiology and Infection . tape 24 , no. 6 , June 1, 2018, ISSN  1198-743X , p. 653-657 , doi : 10.1016 / j.cmi.2017.10.019 ( sciencedirect.com [accessed April 5, 2020]).
  8. ↑ Bulgari supports the Roman institute in the fight against the corona virus. WatchPro, March 9, 2020, accessed April 2, 2020 .
  9. ^ Coronavirus, Speranza: "Allo Spallanzani isolato il virus". rainews, February 2, 2020, accessed March 27, 2020 (Italian).
  10. ↑ Francesca Colavita, la ricercatrice che ha isolato il coronavirus, assunta allo Spallanzani. In: La Repubblica . February 13, 2020, accessed April 1, 2020 (Italian).
  11. ↑ Isolato presso il laboratorio di Virologia dell'INMI il nuovo coronavirus. Istituto nazionale per le malattie infettive , February 2, 2020, accessed on March 27, 2020 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Colavita, Francesca
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian biologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Campobasso