Cillo Fabrizio

Dr. Fabrizio Cillo, PhD, is since December 2001 a research scientist at the CNR, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (previously at CNR – Institute of Plant Virology). His main research projects include: the biological and molecular characterisation of plant viruses, with a major focus on vegetable viruses; assessment of plant virus resistance in transgenic plants; characterisation of RNA silencing mediated defense mechanisms in virus-infected plants, in transgenic plants and by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of endogenous host transcripts; identification of tomato host factors involved in the susceptibility to viruses, by genome-wide transcriptomics and more focused gene expression approaches; use of wild Solanum accessions for the identification of host factors (genes/traits) involved in the susceptibility to viruses.
Recently, Dr. Cillo has been involved actively in research projects that investigate the role of plant nanovesicles and extracellular vesicles, and their specific molecular cargo, in plant-virus interaction and in cross-kingdom communication between plants and humans in plant-based food.
He has been in charge of several national and international research projects and is author of numerous scientific papers on peer-reviewed international journals.

Project Leader for:

• Plant Extracellular Vesicles Farming (FarmEVs)