Dr Margherita Bertuzzi is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Fungal Infection Group (University of Manchester) with more than 15 years of experience in Fungal Infection Biology. Throughout her career, she has investigated the ways in which extracellular cues shape fungal tissue invasion and pathogenicity in mammalian hosts, with a major emphasis on pH-mediated signalling. As an independently funded Research Fellow, her research integrates single-cell molecular, transcriptional and immunological analyses of the A. fumigatus host-pathogen interaction to obtain first-in-field mechanistic insights into the antifungal protective activities of the respiratory epithelium and the role of these in health and disease