PHD STUDENT
Lorenzo obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology at the University of Catania, carrying out his undergraduate thesis on the antimicrobial activity of Lactobacillus gasseri 1A-TV against multidrug-resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, combining microbiology with translational perspectives on antimicrobial resistance. He subsequently completed a Master’s degree in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Bologna. As part of his master’s training, he moved to Hamburg to work at the Leibniz Institute of Virology in the Pietro Scaturro Lab, where he investigated Orthoflavivirus biology. His master’s thesis, entitled “Unveiling the cellular substrates of orthoflavivirus NS2B3 protease by N-terminomics”, focused on the identification of host targets of viral proteases and the application of proteomics-based approaches to study virus–host interactions.
Since November 2025, Lorenzo has been a PhD student in the Papa Lab, where his research centers on identifying host factors involved in the assembly and function of viral replication factories using state-of-the-art proteomic approaches.
Outside the laboratory, he enjoys cooking and playing chess.