Assist Prof Dr. Francesco Asnicar | Gut Microbiome | Best Researcher Award

Francesco Asnicar, Ph.D. 🧬💻

🌟Current Position & Main Research Interests:

• Francesco Asnicar is a tenure-track researcher at the Department of Cellular, Computational, and Integrative Biology (CIBIO) at the University of Trento, Italy. His research focuses on computational phylogenetics, microbiome-diet relationships, and advanced statistical and computational approaches, including machine learning, to analyze large microbiome datasets. From June 2019 to April 2024, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Computational Metagenomics under the supervision of Prof. Nicola Segata.

Education 🎓

• Ph.D. in Information Technology – Transdisciplinary Programme in Computational Biology (cum laude), May 2019, University of Trento, Italy
  • Thesis: “A phylogenetic framework for large-scale analysis of microbial communities”
  • Supervisors: Prof. Enrico Blanzieri and Prof. Nicola Segata
• M.Sc. in Computer Science, October 2014, University of Trento, Italy
  • Thesis: “PhyloPhlAn2 and GraPhlAn: novel reconstruction and visualization tools for large-scale whole-genome phylogenomics”
  • Supervisors: Prof. Enrico Blanzieri and Prof. Nicola Segata
• B.Sc. in Computer Science, March 2012, University of Trento, Italy
  • Thesis: “Installazione e Test di Estensioni Grafiche Real-time per Debian GNU/Linux”
  • Supervisor: Prof. Luca Abeni

Awards & Honors 🏆

• Highly Cited Researcher 2023 in Cross-Field by Clarivate™
• Member of the Gruppo 2003 per la Ricerca Scientifica since 2023
• Highly Cited Researcher 2022 in Cross-Field by Clarivate™
• Euregio Young Researcher Award 2022 (Second Place)
• X PRÊMIO 2019 – Prêmio Octavio Frias de Oliveira
• Doctor Darwin Prize, 2017

Fellowships & Scholarships 🎓💼

• Travel grant for BITS 2018
• Summer school grant for the Second European Summer School on Nutrigenomics, 2016
• Travel scholarship for ISMB/ECCB 2015

Invited Talks & Workshops 🎤📅

• 9th Central European Congress of Life Sciences Euro biotech 2024, Krakow, Poland
  • Talk: “Unraveling the complex interplay between the human gut microbiome, diet, and cardiometabolic health”
• 10th International Human Microbiome Consortium Congress (IHMC 2024), Rome, Italy
  • Talk: “Large-scale data integration of metagenomics data to link the gut microbiome with diet and cardiometabolic health”
• IBS Days 2024, Bologna, Italy
  • Talk: “Computational metagenomics for the analysis of gut microbiota”
• DF/HCC Microbiome Symposium Workshop, Boston, USA
  • Talk: “Microbiome as a predictive biomarker”

Teaching Experience 🏫📚

• Teacher Assistant for Computational Microbial Genomics, University of Trento, Italy (A.Y. 2023/2024 & 2022/2023)
• Invited Lecturer, University of Padova (A.Y. 2022/2023 & 2021/2022)

Reviewer Activity 📝🔍

• Reviewer for journals including Genome Biology, Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, Genome Medicine, Bioinformatics, and npj Biofilms and Microbiomes.

Science Outreach Activities & Industrial Collaborations 🌐🏢

• Organizing Committee Member, Microbiome Virtual International Forum (MVIF) since November 2022
• Bioinformatic Consultant for ZOE Limited since September 2019
• Active Funding Member, RagionevolMente (2015-2018)

International Research Visits 🌍🔬

• University of California, San Diego (April – July 2017)
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (March 2017)

Francesco Asnicar has contributed significantly to the field of microbiome research through his innovative computational approaches and extensive collaborations with renowned institutions. His work continues to uncover the intricate relationships between the human gut microbiome and diet, advancing our understanding of microbial communities.