Profile
Sara Carloni is Principal Investigator of the Microbial Systems and Human Interfaces (MSHI) Laboratory at Humanitas Research Hospital. She graduated from the “G. Parini” Classical High School in Milan and obtained her degree in Biotechnology and her PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Milan. She carried out research at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Humanitas Research Hospital, and the Institut Pasteur, where she served as a Visiting Professor.
Her research focuses on host–microbiota interactions, the gut–brain axis, neuroinflammation, infectious diseases, and bacterial extracellular vesicles as mediators of interkingdom communication. Her work has contributed to the identification of novel mechanisms linking intestinal microbial signals to the central nervous system and to the development of translational approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory, neurological, and infectious diseases. She has authored numerous publications in international scientific journals and leads national and international research projects in translational microbiology.
In 2026, she was awarded the Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani Prize in Biological Sciences by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in recognition of her contributions to microbiology, particularly in the fields of host–microbiota, host-pathogen interactions, and the gut–brain axis.