Alessandra della Torre

alessandra.dellatorre@uniroma1.it

BIOGRAPHY

Associate Professor of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases of Animals at SAPIENZA University of Rome (Italy). Degree in Biological Sciences in 1987 and PhD in Microbiology and Epidemiology in 1993. Since 2000 she coordinates the research group in Medical Entomology of the DSPMI of SAPIENZA.

The central core of her interests is represented by the study of Culicidae vectors of human and zoonotic pathogens, with particular reference to two lines of research: the study of the evolution of Afrotropical malaria vectors of the Anopheles gambiae complex and its impact on malaria transmission, and the study of the bionomic of arbovirus vectors in Europe, with the aim of improving monitoring and control activities and predicting the risk of transmission of endemic and exotic pathogens.

AdT has received funding from the European Community (FP7, H2020) and NIH-USA and coordinates the Research Node 2 of the INF-ACT extended partnership on Emerging Diseases financed by European/MIUR PNRR Next Generation EU funds (2022-2025). She is a member of the Task Force on Vector-Borne Diseases of the Ministry of Health.

In 2012, AdT received the 'BATTISTA GRASSI 2012' award from the ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DEI LINCEI for "Zoology, Parasitology and Biological Thalassography", with reference to her research on Afrotropical vectors of malaria.

V Pichler, B Caputo, V Valadas, J Pinto, A della Torre (2022) Geographic distribution of the V1016G knockdown resistance mutation in Aedes albopictus: a warning bell for Europe. Parasites & Vectors, 15(1): 280.

B Caputo, V Pichler, G Bottà, A. Miles, A della Torre (2021) Novel genotyping approaches to easily detect genomic admixture between the major Afrotropical malaria vector species, Anopheles coluzzii and An. gambiae. Molecular Ecology Resources, 21(5): 1504–1516.

Marini M, Caputo B, Pombi M, Travaglio M, Montarsi F, Drago A, Rosà R, Manica M, della Torre A (2019) Estimating spatio-temporal dynamics of Aedes albopictus dispersal to guide control interventions in case of exotic arboviruses in temperate regions. Scientific Reports, 9(1):10281. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46466-4.

Miles A, Sharakhov I, Pearson R, …, della Torre A, …, Lawniczak M, Donnelly M, Kwiatkowski D (2017). Natural diversity of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. NATURE: 552(7683):96-100.

A. della Torre, C. Costantini, N.J. Besansky, A. Caccone, V. Petrarca, J.R. Powell, M. Coluzzi (2002) Incipient speciation in Anopheles gambiae: the glass is half-full. SCIENCE, 298: 115-117.