Salmonella Sardinian Group
Home:
University of Sassari - www.uniss.it
Dip. di Scienze Biomediche
V.le San Pietro 43/b
07100 Sassari (Italy)
Tel:079/228302- Fax:079/212345
Principal investigator:
Prof. Salvatore Rubino, M.D.
email:rubino@uniss.it
Research team:
Sergio Uzzau uzzau@uniss.it
Bianca Paglietti biancap@uniss.it
Giovanni Falchi
Donatella Bacciu
Manuela Murgia
Fields of interest:
Mechanism of pathogenicity and host adaptation in Salmonella
Molecular epidemiology of Salmonella in Developing Countries
Resistance to antibiotic in Salmonella.
Curriculum
From several years I have been engaged in university, research, and health cooperation projects with partners in Albania, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, India, Iran, Lybia, Jordan, Morocco, Mozambique, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Senegal,and Zimbabwe. I worked as an expert of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for health and university projects in Angola, Moroco, and Zimbabwe. I'm member of a WHO steering committee on Laboratory Partnership.
I was tutor for doctorate thesis in Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Colombia and member of Committee for evaluation of academic promotion, thesis and research project in Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Colombia.
We are mainly interested in studying Salmonella epidemiology in developing countries using molecular tools. Several researchers and students have been hosted in my lab to be trained.
Recently in collaboration with Dr. Rajni Gaind, we described a full resistance S. typhi strains to ciprofloxacin.
Key publications
Fantasia M., Paglietti B., Filetici E., Anastasio M.P., Rubino S.
Conventional and molecular approaches to isolates of Salmonella hadar from sporadic and epidemic cases.
J. Appl. Microbiol. 82:494-498, 1997
Colombo M.M., Mastrandrea S., Leite F., Santona A., Uzzau S., Rappelli P., Pisano M., Rubino S., Cappuccinelli P.
Tracking of clinical and environmental Vibrio cholerae 01 strains by combined analysis of toxin cassette presence, plasmid content, PCR ribotyping and ERIC PCR.
FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 19:33-45, 1997
Rubino S., Muresu E., Solinas M., Santona M., Paglietti B., Azara A., Schiaffino A., Maida A., Cappuccinelli P.
IS200 fingerprint of Salmonella typhimurium human strains isolated in Sardinia,
Epidemiology and Infection, 120:215-222, 1998
Rubino S., Gabrielli A., Rwende A., Gwanzura L., Cappuccinelli P.
Salmonellosis and AIDS: an emrging problem
The Central African Journal of Medicine 44: 83, 1998.
Rubino S., Spanu L., Mannazzu M., Schiaffino A., Cappuccinelli P., Aceti A.
Recurrent episodes of Salmonellosis in HIV+ patients identified by IS200 fingerprints
AIDS, 13:137-139, 1999
Uzzau S., Gulig P.A., Paglietti B., Leori G., Stocker A. D., Cappuccinelli P., Rubino S.
Role of the virulence plasmid in the pathogenesis of Salmonella abortusovis
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 188:15-18, 2000.
Uzzau S., D. J.Brown, T. S.Wallis, S. Rubino, G. Leori, S. Bernard, J. Casadesús, D. Platt, J. E.Olsen
Host Adapted Serotypes of Salmonella enterica.
Epidemiology and Infection 125:229-255, 2000.
Uzzau S, Leori G.S., Petruzzi V., Watson P.R., Schianchi G., Bacciu D., Mazzarello V., Wallis T.S., Rubino S.
Salmonella enterica serovar-host specificity does not correlate with the magnitude of intestinal invasion in sheep.
Infect Immun. 69:3092-3099, 2001
Muresu E, Piana A., Azara A., Maida I., Nastasi A., Sajid S.D., Rubino S.
Clonal relationships among Salmonella enteritidis phage type 3 outbreak isolates traced by PCR-PS Ribotyping and DNA fingerprinting
New Microbiol. 24:371-7,2001
Uzzau S., Figueroa-Bossi N., Rubino S., Bossi L.
Epitope tagging of chromosomal genes in Salmonella
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 15264-15269, 2001
Uzzau S., Falchi G., Azara Y, Bacciu D., Chessa D., Raffatellu M., Canu N., Bossi L., Rubino S.
Identification and analysis of Gifsy-1 and Gifsy-2 pathogenicity phages in epidemic strains of Salmonella spp. isolated in Zimbabwe and in strains with diverse host specificity.
Pakistan Journal of Microbiology 1:9-11. 2001
Nikbakht. G.H.., Raffatellu M., Uzzau S., Tadjbakhche H. and Rubino S.
IS200 fingerprinting of Salmonella enterica serotype Abortusovis strains isolated in Iran.
Epidemiology and Infection 128:333-336, 2002.
Bacciu D., Falchi G., Spazziani A., Bossi L., Marogna G., Leori G.S., Rubino S., Uzzau S.
Trasposition of heat-stable toxin astA gene into a Gifsy2-related prophage of Salmonella enterica serovar Abortusovis
J. Bacteriology 186:4568-74, 2004.
Raffatellu M., Chessa D., Wilson R.P., Dusold R., Rubino S. & Baumler A.J.
The Vi-capsular antigen of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi reduces Toll-like receptor-dependent IL-8 in the intestinal mucosa
Infect. Immun, Infect. Immun.. 73: 3367-3374, 2005
Uzzau S., Marogna G., Leori G., Curtiss III R., Schianchi G, B.A., Stocker, P. S. Rubino S.
Virulence attenuation and vaccine potential of aroA, crp-cya, and plasmid cured mutants of Salmonella abortusovis in the mice and sheep model.
Infect. Immun. 73, 4302-4308, 2005
Ruiu L, Delrio G., Ellar D.J., Floris I., Paglietti B., Rubino S., Satta A.
Lethal and sub-lethal effects of Brevibacillus laterosporus on the Housefly (Musca domestica L.)
Entomologia experimentalis et applicata 118:137-144, 2006
Gassama-Sow A., Wane A.A., Canu N., Uzzau S., Aidara-Kane A., Rubino S.
Characterization of virulence factors in the newly described Salmonella enterica serotype Keurmassar emerging in Senegal (sub-Saharan Africa)
Epidemiol Infect. 134, 741-743, 2006
Gaind R., Paglietti B., Murgia M., Dawar R., Uzzau S., Cappucinelli P., Deb M., Aggarwal P., Rubino S.
Molecular Characterization of Fluoroquinolone resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Paratyphi A causing Enteric Fever in India
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy in press