Alessia Di Claudio is a PhD Student in the Applied Physics, Biophysics and Microfluidics Lab led by Professor Roberto Rusconi at Humanitas University and Humanitas Research Hospital. She earned a BSc in Biological Sciences from Università Politecnica delle Marche and a MSc in Molecular, Genomic and Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Parma with a Thesis titled “Study of the formation of biofilm from Staphylococcus aureus through microfluidics techniques”.

Alessia’s research activities are focused on bacterial biofilms of fundamental and clinical interest. In particular, she is investigating the role of extracellular DNA in the formation of suspended filamentous biofilms – known as streamers – in order to find a mechanistic link between their biochemical composition and rheological properties, with the ultimate goal of exploring strategies to prevent and control bacterial biofilms. Moreover, she aims at evaluating the impact of bacterial eDNA on the host immune response and attenuation of inflammation associate with the development of nosocomial infections.