Giulia Manina

Giulia Manina is a Research Director at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where she heads the Microbial Individuality and Infection Unit. She earned her PhD from the University of Pavia, Italy. During her doctoral studies, as part of the EU FP6 New Medicines for Tuberculosis Consortium (NM4TB), she identified the mechanism of action and resistance of a new potent anti-tubercular drug class (benzothiazinones), now in clinical trials. Her work was recognized with the Novartis Prize in 2009. After a brief stint at the Institut Pasteur within the NM4TB framework, she joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland, for postdoctoral research. At EPFL, she investigated mycobacterial phenotypic heterogeneity in the laboratory that pioneered the single-cell studies of mycobacteria (Prof. John McKinney), and her contributions were recognized with the Swiss TB Award in 2015. Later in 2015, Giulia started her own research group at the Institut Pasteur, establishing a cutting-edge program on tuberculosis persistence at the single-cell level. She obtained her HDR diploma in infectious diseases from Paris Descartes University in 2017. Her work integrates molecular and cell biology, microsystems engineering, live-cell imaging, and omics approaches to explore tuberculosis persistence and mycobacterial survival mechanisms, as potential sources of diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Her lab is also involved in tuberculosis drug discovery and the development of subpopulation-based biomarkers. She is a partner in national and international consortia, including the IMI European Regimen Accelerator for Tuberculosis (ERA4TB), and she coordinates the French ANR Consortium TREATABLE, which brings together academic and industry partners to advance technology development and new tuberculosis control strategies.