Maria Forlenza

Dr. Maria Forlenza is an Associate Professor at Wageningen University and Research, affiliated with the Aquaculture and Fisheries division and the Comparative Immunology Unit. Her research focuses on vertebrate immune system evolution and vaccine development, particularly in fish, poultry, and pigs. She holds a PhD in Cell Biology and Immunology from Wageningen University (2009) and has received prestigious grants including the Veni (2011) and Aspasia (2018) awards from NWO. She is a member of the Wageningen Young Academy and featured in the 'Inspiring Women at WUR' book. Her work bridges fundamental immunology with applied vaccine strategies, including nucleic acid-based vaccines and mucosal delivery systems.

Research Interests: Evolution of the vertebrate immune system, host-pathogen interactions, and vaccine development for fish, poultry, and pigs. Notable projects include studying trypanosome infections in zebrafish, African swine fever virus (ASFV) in pigs, and SVCV in carp. She collaborates internationally, including with the Shanghai Veterinary Institute.

Outreach: She has been the moderator of the FameLab science communication event at Wageningen since 2014, fostering public engagement with science. Her lab emphasizes translational research, aiming to develop cost-effective vaccines for aquaculture and improve disease resilience in farmed animals.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Comparative Immunology Unit, focusing on molecular, cellular, and biochemical approaches to study immune responses and develop experimental vaccines. Collaborates with the Virology and Host-Microbe Interactomics groups at Wageningen.