Biography:
Francesca undertook her BSc in Medical Biosciences at Imperial College London, graduating in 2023. During her degree she carried out 3 lab projects, one of which was a 6-month research project investigating the antimicrobial activity of gut bacteria against pathogens. Carrying on with the gut microbiome theme, Francesca started her PhD with Kiran Patil's group at the MRC Toxicology Unit. Her project also involves working with Sarah Aitken's group and a partnership with AstraZeneca, for the hepatic in vitro cell model aspect.
Research interests:
The distinctive composition of individuals' microbiomes influences the diverse efficacy and side effects experienced by different patients in response to the same pharmaceutical drug. Gut bacteria can directly modify drugs to change their pharmacodynamics/pharmacokinetics. Additionally, indirect drug modifications are also observed, facilitated through the secretion of small molecules (e.g., tryptophan metabolites, secondary bile acids and SCFAs). My PhD project focuses on understanding the impact of microbiome metabolism on drug-induced liver toxicity, using gut bacterial communities (Patil lab) and liver tissues/spheroids (AZ/Aitken lab). This will allow us to understand how changes in microbiome-derived metabolites may modulate cellular responses to drugs, and possibly provide new insights into the role of these metabolites in patient variability in efficacious or toxic drug responses.
