Singapore, Singapore
Marco Vignuzzi obtained his B.Sc from McGill University in Canada in 1995, and MSc and PhD from University of Paris in 2001. His PhD was among the first works developing self amplifying RNA vaccines. Following 7 years of postdoctoral studies in Raul Andino’s lab at UCSF, he founded his own laboratory at Institut Pasteur in 2008. From 2008-2022, his work focused on emerging viral diseases and antiviral therapies based on approaches that target evolutionary mechanisms. Marco ran two DARPA research programs under the US Department of Defense and a French National program on Emerging Infectious Diseases coordinating 65 research laboratories. As a committed globalist promoting international cooperation, his lab has directly collaborated with teams in 66 countries and on every continent. In 2015 his work in emerging diseases was awarded the Sanofi National Award in Biomedical Research; in 2019 he received the international Richard Elliott Memorial Award for his work on zoonotic viral diseases, in 2024 he received the Alice Ball Excellence in Science award from the International Society for Antiviral Research. Since September 2022, he is a Senior Principal Investigator and Strategic Hire at A*STAR ID Labs, and an adjunct Associate Professor at NUS medical school. In 2023, he received a NRF Investigatorship. In Singapore, Marco is building a research community around his expertise on predictive computational biology and experimental evolution to prepare for future outbreaks and will develop novel agnostic RNA therapeutic platforms that can respond to new viral threats. Outside of viruses, his obsessions are pugs, fitness, travel, food, and cakes. Celebrate weird! You-Do-You role model.