Marco R Oggioni graduated in medicine, worked a clinical microbiologist in Siena (Italy) for 20 years, then as professor of Microbial Genetics at the University of Leicester (UK) and now also at the University of Bologna (Italy). His research interests include the analysis of the molecular basis of mechanisms involved in the interaction of bacterial pathogens with their environment - the human host - by use of genomic tools and the study of microbial physiology. Recent contributions were the identification of phase variable epigenetic control in bacteria and bacterial replication within a subset of tissue macrophages prior to invasive disease. Currently his main interest is the elucidation of the early phases of interaction of bacterial pathogens with the innate immune system in models of ex vivo human organ perfusion.