CLAUDIO DONATI

Research areas:

• Comparative genomics of bacteria
• Computational metagenomics
• Data integration

Claudio achieved his master’s degree from the Department of Physics of the University of Pisa, and a PhD in Physics from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He then joined the Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington and then he moved to the Physics Department of the Universita’ La Sapienza di Roma. In the year 2000 he joined the Systems Biology group of the Chiron Research Center in Siena as senior scientist. In 2008, after the acquisition of Chiron by Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics he became Head of the Genomics laboratory, and in 2011 Head of the Genomics Unit. Since July 2013 Claudio is Group Leader of the Computational Metagenomics group of the FEM in San Michele all’Adige.
Claudio started his scientific career by studying the applications of the theory of stochastic processes to Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy, in order to characterize the relaxation processes in liquids and other complex systems, like liquid crystals and polymers. Then, he moved to the study of the statistical mechanics of supercooled liquids and glasses. During his stay at NIST, he used molecular dynamics simulations to explore the dynamical properties of liquids on approaching the glass transition, a characteristic state of the matter that shares properties both of the liquid and of the solid state.
After joining Chiron, he started to work on the evolution of protein families, on comparative genomics of bacterial pathogens, and on vaccine target identification and characterization using the Reverse Vaccinology approach. With the increasing availability of whole genome sequences of bacterial species, he worked on the definition of the population structure of bacterial pathogens such asS. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis, Group B Streptococcus and Non-TypeableH. influenzae. Lately, he was involved in the development of molecular typing methods of bacterial species using Next Generation Sequencing data. In his new role in Fondazione Edmund Mach, Claudio Donati is working on new computational approaches for the analysis matagenomic data. Given his multidisciplinary background, the focus of the work of Claudio Donati is the application of innovative analysis techniques to the understanding of the equilibrium between the complex bacterial communities and the environment. In particular, Claudio Donati aims to understand the factors and interactions, including processes of horizontal gene transport that influence the evolution of bacterial genomes.