Alessandra Bragonzi is a biologist with an international PhD and an academic career spanning Italy, Germany, and Canada. Her interest lies in translational science with a focus on Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Her work began in 1997 at TIGET OSR (Ospedale San Raffaele) with a gene therapy approach, shifting towards infection and animal models in 2000. In 2009, she established and led a research group at OSR, specializing in infections and CF, and managed preclinical studies in collaboration with diverse stakeholders including industry and academia.

Her research has significantly advanced understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms in CF, particularly chronic infections. Key areas of her work involve defining genetic diversity and bacterial virulence factors for long-term host colonization, and understanding how host genetic backgrounds influence bacterial infections. Additionally, she focused on developing new mouse models of bacterial chronic airway infection that mimic human pulmonary pathology, and testing new drugs such as antimycotic flucytosine, PTX3, pamoic acid, resolvin D1, and the novel antibiotic POL7001 to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing bacterial burden and host response.

In collaboration with the Italian Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation, Alessandra Bragonzi co-founded the Cystic Fibrosis animal Core (CFaCore) facility. This center is dedicated to pre-clinical models for testing innovative therapies, particularly anti-infectives and anti-inflammatories, and is recognized for its role in advancing basic and translational studies on disease mechanisms.

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