Vanni Bucci

Professor Vanni Bucci is a faculty member at the UMass Chan Medical School in the Department of Microbiology, with an adjunct appointment at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His research focuses on host-microbiome interactions through computational biology, synthetic biology, and systems biology approaches.

He received education at the University of Florence (BS Environmental Engineering) and Northeastern University (MS/PhD Civil Engineering), followed by postdoctoral work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Current research spans microbiome engineering, immune modulation, and antimicrobial discovery, with recent publications on microcins, gut-brain axis dynamics, and tuberculosis microbiome interactions.

• Host-microbiome interactions
• Synthetic biology applications
• Computational modeling of microbiomes
• Antimicrobial peptide engineering

His lab develops bioinformatic tools like MDITRE for microbiome prediction, while recent articles demonstrate expertise in Clostridioides difficile colonization resistance, Enterobacteriaceae inhibition, and Alzheimer's disease microbiome connections. Collaborations span institutions including Weill Cornell, NIH, and Gates Foundation.

Scientific Awards & Funding

• NIH U01 grant ($2.9M) for intestinal barrier-targeted therapeutics
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant for microbiome intervention methods
• Department of Defense funding for ESBL-PE eradication