Vittorio Sambri was born in Modena on May 22nd, 1960.
Married with Gaia Magnani, they have 2 sons (Andrea and Giacomo)
and one daughter (Maria Giulia). Dr Sambri graduated summa
cum laude in Medicine at the Alma Mater Studiorum, the University
of Bologna, in 1986. From September 1st, 1988 to May 31st, 1989 he
attended the Laboratory of the ID Division, the University of
California at Los Angeles under the supervision of Michael A.
Lovett working on genetic transformation of spirochetes. He
received his Ph.D. degree in Microbiology from the University of
Genoa in 1991, discussing a thesis on the microbiology of
spirochetal infection. From 1991 to 2004 he worked as research
associate in the Laboratory of the Section of Microbiology, DMCSS,
the University of Bologna. Presently he holds a position as
Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology and Head of the
Laboratory of the Regional reference Centre for Emerging
Infections, the University of Bologna. The research work refers to
spirochetes and chlamydiae. The interaction between Kupffer cells
and spirochetes has been studied in animal and in isolated primary
cells. The ability of several cathelicidins to kill, in vitro,
borreliae, leptospirae and T.pallidum has been investigated
and a newly identified antigen (TprI) belonging to the Tprs familiy
has been cloned and expressed. It has been demonstrated that
the vmp family of proteins in B.anserina, is the principal
pathogenicity determinant in an experimental infection. Studies on
chlamydiae have shown that the pgp3,a plasmid encoded protein of
C.trachomatis, is capable to induce protection, following
DNA vaccination, in a mouse genital infection model. A new model of
C.pneumoniae infection has been developed in the hamster and
it has been used to asses the protective immunity following
vaccination with recombinant proteins. He recently worked on the
application of molecular methods to the diagnosis of sepsis: in
particular his work focused on the possibility to achieve a rapid
and accurate diagnosis of blood stream infection in neonates and
neutropenic patients. From September 2003, Dr Sambri holded also the
position of Head of the Regional Reference Centre for Emerging
Infectious Disease (CRREM) and in this field he has been recently
involved in the research and diagnostic work related to the
outbreak of Chikungunya fever and West Nile virus that hit the
Emilia Romagna Region during the recent years. Since December 2012 Dr Sambri holds the position of Head and Director of the Unit of MIcrobiology - The Great Romagna Hub laboratory. Dr Sambri has
organized the “1st Conference of the European Society for Chlamydia
Research, Bologna, 1988; and the “6th International Conference on
Lyme Borreliosis”, Bologna, 1994. He attended six times the Gordon
Research Conference on Biology of Spirochetes. He is a member of
the Board for the International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis
since 1996, of the MC of the EU COST Action 855, of the Italian
Society for Microbiology and of the Italian Association of Clinical
Microbiologists. Since last December, Dr Sambri has been
elected vice-President of APSI (Association for the Study of
the Infections). His work resulted in more than 225 scientific publications in international Journals. Dr Sambri was
selected as a reviewer for many Journals, including Clinical
Infectious Diseases, The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Clinical
and vaccine Immunology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Clinical Infectious Disease, Microroganism, Viruses, The Journal of Infectious Diseases and
the Journal of Infection.
Dr Sambri's h-index (google scholar) is 50 with 7767 citations (3667 from l 2016). The global i10 index is currently 152 (97 from 2016).
Vittorio Sambri is member of the EU
funded research project PREDEMICS and of the SAB of the EU
funded research project VECTORIE. He is the PI of the research
project "New and emerging vector borne infectious diseases in
Italy: epidemiology, surveillance, diagnosis and impact on the
safety of blood and organ donations" funded by the Italian Ministry
of Health and of many other research Projects.
