Ana Rita Franco
ESR 6
Project: Development of Toll-Like Receptor-directed adjuvants and incorporation in innovative vaccine formulations
Organisation/Institute: University of Milano Bicocca (Milan, Italy)
Supervisor: Prof. Francesco Peri
My name is Ana Rita and I’m from Portugal. I hold a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto. I was always very interested in research and science and that’s the reason I decided to enrol in the field of pharmaceutical studies.
During my degree, I developed a great interest in Medicinal Chemistry and applied for an optional research course, in the field of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, that introduced me to academic research. It was a very exciting period for me, and it showed me that being a researcher is what I wanted to do. For two years I was able to collaborate with the lab and develop several skills and interests.
The issue of antimicrobial resistance is particularly motivating to me and I’m very happy to be able to participate on a project that is trying to solve it by using innovative strategies. Furthermore, I’m really excited to be a part of an ITN and being able to collaborate with scientists that have different backgrounds and research lines. I believe that this type of multidisciplinary projects is very useful towards the progression of the field, in this case vaccines against antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections.
Now, I’m committed to the BactiVax project and currently enrolled in a PhD, under the supervision of Prof. Francesco Peri, in the University of Milano- Bicocca. The project will focus on the development of new vaccine adjuvants, using a medicinal chemistry approach.