Pandemics, Covid-19, and the Future of Infectious Diseases in a Globalized World

Presents: Cristina Cassetti, Ph.D.

Deputy Director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

National Institutes of Health

Curated by Patrizia Farci

It is with great pleasure that we announce the first presentation of the Interest Group which we have called “L'angolo della Salute”. The purpose of this interest group is to discuss the most current issues and advances in science in the field of medicine, and to answer questions from members.

We will begin this series with COVID-19, responsible for a pandemic that has spread rapidly affecting the planet as a whole and touching the cornerstones of society, affections, physical and mental health, and the economy. At the same time, it also highlighted a solidarity and self-denial on the part of the scientific, medical world and all the people on the front line who have no equivalent in recent times.

Cristina Cassetti, a renowned virologist who works with the leaders of infectious disease research to fight this pandemic, has inaugurated this series of meetings.

Thanks to our Cristina Cassetti, internationally renowned scientist as well as our Diva, we have learned a lot about COVID 19: how to protect ourselves, what are the most important measures to prevent contagion by controlling our behaviors, and the progress made by science as regards vaccines and antiviral therapies used in the treatment of this disease. We have understood the reasons and consequences of the spread of zoonotic diseases, or diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, even at a global and environmental level.

Some notes on our presenter: Cristina Cassetti, Ph.D.

Cristina Cassetti graduated in Rome where she obtained her PhD in Virology. He has worked in centers of excellence in America conducting research on poxvirus replication at NIH, influenza virus biology at Rutgers University, and development of HPV papillomavirus vaccines at Wyeth. In 2003, she became Program Officer at NIAID, NIH, where she was responsible for directing extramural research programs on several emerging viral diseases, including influenza and dengue. In 2016 she was called to coordinate extramural research on the Zika virus and to manage translational research of the Virology Branch of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID). In 2017 she was appointed Head of the Virology Branch of the DMID. In 2019 she was promoted to Deputy Director of DMID where she shares with the Director the responsibility for the scientific direction, administration and management of the largest extramural division of the NIAID, with a budget of approximately $ 2 billion per year for the financing of the Research.