Developed skills and lines of research
Livia Leoni is a Full Professor of Microbial Biotechnology at the Department of Science at Roma Tre University. She holds a PhD in Public Health and Microbiology and a specialisation in Microbiology and Virology. For over thirty years, she has been studying the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with a particular focus on the mechanisms regulating virulence and biofilm formation.
Her research aims to identify new molecular targets and develop innovative strategies against bacterial infections, including antivirulence drugs and molecules capable of enhancing antibiotic efficacy.
Her key scientific contributions include demonstrating the potential of drug repurposing for identifying antivirulence compounds, studying the regulatory pathways of pathogenicity, and developing biosensors and high-throughput platforms for screening new bioactive molecules.
She is the author of over 90 scientific publications and has been collaborating with the Italian Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation for around twenty years.
Projects funded by FFC Ricerca as Principal Investigator
FFC#17/2018
Drug repurposing for antivirulence therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
FFC#10/2013
Anti-virulence therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa: identification of antibiofilm drugs and development of inhalable Niclosamide and Flucytosine formulations
FFC#13/2011
Identification and characterization of novel drugs suppressing Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence in chronic infection
FFC#8/2008
Development and validation of a novel screening system for the identification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence inhibitor
Projects financed by FFC Ricerca as Partner
FFC#14/2010
Non-conventional strategies against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection: interference with iron homeostasis and quorum sensing
FFC#10/2007
Iron uptake and quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence
Publications from FFC Research projects
- Rampioni G, Schuster M, Greenberg EP, et al. Contribution of the RsaL global regulator to Pseudomonas aeruginosa virulence and biofilm formation. FEMS Microbiol Lett, 2009 Dec;301(2):210-7
- Imperi F, Tiburzi F, Visca P. Molecular basis of pyoverdine siderophore recycling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Dec 1;106(48):20440-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0908760106. Epub 2009 Nov 11
- Imperi F, Tiburzi F, Fimia GM, Visca P. Transcriptional control of the pvdS iron starvation sigma factor gene by the master regulator of sulfur metabolism CysB in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Environ Microbiol. 2010 Jun;12(6):1630-42
- Massai F, Imperi F, Quattrucci S, et al. A multitask biosensor for micro-volumetric detection of N-3-oxo-dodecanoyl-homoserine lactone quorum sensing signal. Biosens Bioelectron. 2011 Apr 15;26(8):3444-9
- Stano P, Rampioni G, Carrara P et al. Semi-synthetic minimal cells as a tool for biochemical ICT. Biosystems. 2012 Jul;109(1):24-34. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2012.01.002. Epub 2012 Jan 12
- Imperi F, Massai F, Ramachandran Pillai C et al. New life for an old drug: the anthelmintic drug niclosamide inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2013 Feb;57(2):996-1005. doi: 10.1128/AAC.01952-12. Epub 2012 Dec 17
- Imperi F, Massai F, Facchini M, et al. Repurposing the antimycotic drug flucytosine for suppression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenicity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Apr 30;110(18):7458-63. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1222706110. Epub 2013 Apr 8
- Rampioni G, Leoni L, Williams P. The art of antibacterial warfare: Deception through interference with quorum sensing-mediated communication. Bioorg Chem. 2014 Aug;55:60-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2014.04.005. Epub 2014 Apr 21
- Imperi F, Leoni L, Visca P. Antivirulence activity of azitrhomycin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Front Microbiol, 2014 Apr 22;5:178. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00178. eCollection 2014
- Bondí R, Messina M, De Fino I, et al. Affecting pseudomonas aeruginosa phenotypic plasticity by quorum sensing dysregulation hampers pathogenicity in murine chronic lung infection. PLoS One, 2014 Nov 24;9(11):e112105
- Costabile G, d’Angelo I, Rampioni G et al. Toward Repositioning Niclosamide for Antivirulence Therapy of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Lung Infections: Development of Inhalable Formulations through Nanosuspension Technology. Mol Pharm. 2015 Aug 3;12(8):2604-17. doi: 10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.5b00098. Epub 2015 May 27
- Lo Sciuto A, Martorana AM, Fernández-Piñar R, et al., Pseudomonas aeruginosa LptE is crucial for LptD assembly, cell envelope integrity, antibiotic resistance and virulence. Virulence. 2018;9(1):1718-1733
- Imperi F, Fiscarelli EV, Visaggio D, Leoni L, Visca P. Activity and Impact on Resistance Development of Two Antivirulence Fluoropyrimidine Drugs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2019 Mar 11;9:49. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00049. eCollection 2019.
- Francesca D’Angelo, Valerio Baldelli, Nigel Halliday, et al. Identification of FDA-Approved Drugs as Antivirulence Agents Targeting the pqs Quorum-Sensing System of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 62 (11) 2018 Oct 24
- Marta Mellini, Elena Di Muzio, Francesca D’Angelo, et al. In silico Selection and Experimental Validation of FDA-Approved Drugs as Anti-quorum Sensing Agents. Front Microbiol. 2019; 10: 2355.a