Anna Aulicino

My research career has been consistently focused on understanding how bacterial pathogens interact with their hosts at the molecular and cellular level. I trained as a microbiologist and have worked across multiple systems and technologies with a long-standing interest in host–pathogen interactions. Throughout my career, I have been particularly interested in how bacteria adapt to complex host environments and how these adaptations shape disease outcomes.

I am currently developing advanced human infection models to study invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS), a major cause of severe systemic disease worldwide. My work combines human intestinal organoids and ex vivo tissue infection models to recreate physiologically relevant infection scenarios that cannot be captured by traditional cell lines or animal models.

By integrating 3D infection systems with cutting-edge technologies such as dual single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, I aim to map host–pathogen interactions directly in human tissue and uncover how invasive bacteria breach the intestinal barrier, persist within host cells, and reprogram epithelial responses during infection.