Elisa Granato

Elisa Granato
Elisa Granato in 2018
Born
Elisa Teresa Granato

(1988-04-23) 23 April 1988 (age 36)
Alma materUniversity of Zurich
OccupationMicrobiologist
Known for
  • First to receive COVID-19 vaccine
  • Research on bacterial interactions and virulence factors
Websitehttp://elisagranato.com/

Elisa Teresa Granato (born 23 April 1988) is a molecular microbiologist in the Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, where she researches bacterial interactions and how they evolved, including the significance of features of bacteria that contribute to disease, also known as virulence factors.

Early life and education

Elisa Granato was born on 23 April 1988.[1] She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, in 2011. In 2013 she received her Master of Science degree in microbiology and immunology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), and in 2017 she received her PhD from the Life Science Zurich Graduate School of the University of Zurich for a thesis supervised by Rolf Kümmerli.[2]

Career

Pseudomonas aeruginosa on sheep blood agar

Granato works as a molecular microbiologist in the Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry at the University of Oxford.[3] She researches the evolution of bacterial interactions and the significance of bacterial traits, also known as virulence factors, that contribute to a bacteria's capability of causing disease, including the siderophore pyoverdine produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.[4][5][6]

On 23 April 2020, her 32nd birthday, she was the first volunteer in the Oxford vaccine trial for COVID-19.[1][7] On 26 April 2020, Granato responded to circulating fake news of her death in a Twitter feed by commenting, “Nothing like waking up to a fake article on your death ... I’m doing fine everyone.”[8]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b Wilford, Greg (24 April 2020). "First coronavirus vaccine dose given to optimistic volunteers". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Curriculum vitae; Elisa T. Granato Archived 2020-04-27 at the Wayback Machine. University of Oxford
  3. ^ "Dr Elisa Granato". www.zoo.ox.ac.uk. Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  4. ^ Kang, Donghoon; Revtovich, Alexey V.; Chen, Qingquan; Shah, Kush N.; Cannon, Carolyn L.; Kirienko, Natalia V. (2019). "Pyoverdine-Dependent Virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates From Cystic Fibrosis Patients". Frontiers in Microbiology. 10: 2048. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.02048. ISSN 1664-302X. PMC 6743535. PMID 31551982.
  5. ^ Leinweber, Anne. (2018) "The struggle for iron: how it affects cooperation, competition and biodiversity in bacterial communities". University of Zurich, Faculty of Science. p. 19. doi:10.5167/uzh-147576
  6. ^ Botelho, João; Grosso, Filipa; Peixe, Luísa (2019-05-01). "Antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Mechanisms, epidemiology and evolution". Drug Resistance Updates. 44: 100640. doi:10.1016/j.drup.2019.07.002. ISSN 1368-7646. PMID 31492517. S2CID 199640645.
  7. ^ Walsh, Fergus (23 April 2020). "First patients injected in UK Covid vaccine trial". BBC News. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  8. ^ "UK vaccine trial volunteer says she is 'doing fine' after online death rumours". The Guardian. 26 April 2020. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 26 April 2020.