Damiana Chiavolini, Ph.D.

Research Scientist, Aerobiology Core

Damiana Chiavolini, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University. Dr. Chiavolini attended a Master’s program in Medical Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and completed her Ph.D. in Biotechnology at the University of Siena in Italy.


Dr. Chiavolini moved to the United States to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship on the Boston University Medical Campus and joined the Department of Medicine as a junior faculty in 2007. She currently serves as the Animal Core Director for a Tularemia project and has been working in BSL-3 containment since 2005.


Dr. Chiavolini is in training as the Associate Director for the Aerobiology Core at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. Her research interests include lung specific immune responses to bacterial lower respiratory infection and mucosal vaccines. Dr. Chiavolini has set up and developed a number of mouse models for the study of major infectious diseases including pneumococcal pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis, shigellosis and pneumonic tularemia. Dr. Chiavolini has also worked on the characterization of the immune response to a number of vaccine candidates in the mouse.


Dr. Chiavolini’s scientific contributions are evidenced by more than ten publications on peer reviewed scientific journals. She is currently working on the development of an independent scientific program.