ProfessorMariagrazia Pizza
Chair in Microbiology
Department of Life Sciences - Faculty of Natural Sciences
Orcid identifier0000-0002-7800-1404 (opens in a new tab)
- Chair in MicrobiologyDepartment of Life Sciences - Faculty of Natural Sciences
- 1.47, Flowers building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
BIO
Mariagrazia is Professor of Microbiology and Co-director of CBRB, Centre of Bacterial Resistance Biology at Imperial, based at the South Kensington Campus.
Before joining Imperial, she was Senior Scientific Director Bacterial Vaccines at GSK and Head of Research at GVGH, the GSK Vaccine Institute for Global Health. With over 30 years of experience in vaccine research and development, she has led many bacterial vaccine projects and collaborated with leading vaccinologists worldwide. Her work has been instrumental in defining the structural and immunological properties of several candidate vaccine antigens. She led the discovery and development of the Meningococcal B vaccine, based on a reverse vaccinology approach. This vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2015 to vaccinate all newborns and remains the only MenB vaccine for infants. It is currently licensed in more than 50 countries with efficacy of 71%-95.
She has received numerous awards, including the IVI- SK Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award 2023, and is an elected member of EMBO, the European Academy of Microbiology and the Academia Europaea, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Vice Chair of the Bacteriology Division of the IUMS (International Unit of Microbiology Societies) and member of the WHO Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC). With over 250 publications and 70 patents, she is one of the world’s most accomplished scientists in vaccine development.
Her current research program aims to characterize a class of new potential virulence factors and antigens of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a Gram-negative bacterium that has emerged as one of the most dangerous multidrug-resistance pathogens. Her research program is expected to elucidate some of the mechanisms of Klebsiella infection and inform future vaccine strategies.
Before joining Imperial, she was Senior Scientific Director Bacterial Vaccines at GSK and Head of Research at GVGH, the GSK Vaccine Institute for Global Health. With over 30 years of experience in vaccine research and development, she has led many bacterial vaccine projects and collaborated with leading vaccinologists worldwide. Her work has been instrumental in defining the structural and immunological properties of several candidate vaccine antigens. She led the discovery and development of the Meningococcal B vaccine, based on a reverse vaccinology approach. This vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2015 to vaccinate all newborns and remains the only MenB vaccine for infants. It is currently licensed in more than 50 countries with efficacy of 71%-95.
She has received numerous awards, including the IVI- SK Bioscience Park MahnHoon Award 2023, and is an elected member of EMBO, the European Academy of Microbiology and the Academia Europaea, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Vice Chair of the Bacteriology Division of the IUMS (International Unit of Microbiology Societies) and member of the WHO Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee (PDVAC). With over 250 publications and 70 patents, she is one of the world’s most accomplished scientists in vaccine development.
Her current research program aims to characterize a class of new potential virulence factors and antigens of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a Gram-negative bacterium that has emerged as one of the most dangerous multidrug-resistance pathogens. Her research program is expected to elucidate some of the mechanisms of Klebsiella infection and inform future vaccine strategies.
FACULTY
- Faculty of Natural Sciences
POSITION NAME
- Chair in Microbiology