Dear Reader,

My name is Monica and I come from Costa Masnaga, a very small town in the north of Italy. I am a Molecular Biotechnologist by trade and I’m currently working on my PhD at APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork.

First, I think that you need to know more about me before discovering what I am researching. My interest in science started when I was young. If you are already picturing me doing some kitchen experiments or trying to burn my house under my parents' distressed eyes, you are actually on the wrong track. Everything started in the secondary school during a school trip with a forensic company. They showed us how to identify the culprit during a forensic investigation using a jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP). That completely made me believe and understand that the visible world is not enough and there is so much to discover still.

My years as a student have been wonderful. I started studying Biotechnology at the University of Milan and conducted my research in Germany for 6 months. It was my first experience in a foreign country, speaking English 24/7 and far away from my family. Was it easy? I can lie and say yes, but the reality is that learning to live by itself requires time and determination. For this reason, I came back to Italy and I did my M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the University of Milan. This gave me the incentive to perform my research in Spain for 1 year. I ended up learning Spanish and knowing that I loved travelling, wanted to continue my life in academia.

During the pandemic time, I was feeling like an odd duck. I started more studies, and I did another M.Sc. in Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine at the University of Turin. Besides that, I applied for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship and here I am now! I started my PhD in September 2021, and it has still a long way to go. I aim to investigate the gut bacteria that is responsible for the colonization resistance against Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria is a Gram-positive bacterium that was discovered by a Scottish doctor, J.H.H. Pirie, who named it in honour of British surgeon Joseph Lister. Upon contamination of food, Listeria can spread through the ingestion of it causing a disease called listeriosis. In the intestinal epithelium, the first line of defence is the gut microbiota and its products of metabolism. This gut microbiota is heterogeneous and highly personalised, and diet is the dominant selective force that defines microbiota membership and functionality. For this reason, diet can be used to customise the bacterial community and therefore presents the most straightforward route for therapeutic intervention.

Nowadays, there is an increase in consumption of the so-called Western diet. This diet is characterized by being rich in saturated fats, refined carbohydrates and salt, which has been associated with the coincidental rise in diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and colorectal cancer. Of course, this can result in a progressive loss of microbial diversity. On the other hand, a diet rich in fibers and whole grains represents an abundant source of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and slowly digestible energy. So, mixtures of dietary fibres that better represent a human diet promote higher gut microbiota diversity, and thus improve colonisation resistance and mucosal integrity. Furthermore, carbohydrates, fat, and proteins play a critical role in the modulation of gastrointestinal physiology and, consequently, in controlling the expression of key virulence genes of L. monocytogenes. Bacteria can sense their surrounding environment and regulate gene expression through external signals. Listeria monocytogenes can activate or deactivate the virulence genes. For this reason, I’m trying to understand how diet is affecting the pathogenicity of Listeria in the host and how the gut microbiota responds to specific dietary interventions. All the questions will be answered by performing a different set of experiments over the coming years.

After one year of my PhD, I am confident that this programme will bring me a step closer to my goal of becoming an eminent scientific researcher. As a scientist, I want to encourage you to continue investing time and energy in what makes you happy and satisfied in the life you are living. It is a long journey, but we are just at the beginning.

Thank you and don’t forget to follow my Instagram page (Microbes in Science) to discover more about what I’m doing every day in the lab.

Sincerely,

Monica Cazzaniga