Is Full Professor of Hygiene and Public Health and Director of the Department of the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and Advanced Technologies "GF Ingrassia", University of Catania.
Master of Sciences in Biological Sciences, thesis in Hygiene and Public Health, "cum laude" at the University of Catania, July 20th, 1981. Postgraduated School of Specialization in General Pathology December 16th, 1985 "cum laude" and Ph.D.in Neurobiology, October 6th, 1988 at the University of Catania.
Awarded by the Lions Club Augusta: Prize on Environmental Health, April 1982. Research fellowship at the Laboratories of Environmental Mutagenesis and Cancer Prevention, Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Genova, May 1982. Awarded by the Accademia Gioenia di Catania, Prize for Young Scientists in Applied Biology, January 1985. Grant-supported Fellowship by the Health Department, Sicilian Region, for a research project on the “Epidemiology of infections by multiresistant gram-negatives”, at the Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Catania, June 1987 - June 1989. Senior-level fellowship by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) for a research project: "Investigation of occurrence and spread of specific antibiotic resistance genes in "Salmonella" and "Shigella" by the use of non-isotopic DNA probes" at the Division of Enteric Pathogens (DEP), and at the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) del Central Public Health Laboratory Service, (CPHL), London, July 1988 - July 1989. Granted by the Fulbright-Hays Act, Academic year 1991-1992, for research at the Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, December 1991. Granted by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR for research at the Section of Molecular Genetics and Epidemiology, Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases, Boston University, April 1992.
Since 2013, Bologist Manager at the “Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele”, Catania, Italy.
Founding member of the Research Centre LaPOSS, Laboratory for Planning and Analysis of Public Policies and Services for People (www.lpss.unict.it) University of Catania, April 2004.
Member of the National Committee of the European Committee on Infection Control (EUCIC) – ESCMID, from 2015.
Member of the ‘European Public Health Association’ (EUPHA) from 2012.
Member of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (SItI). Since 2017 national coordinator of the Italian Study Group of Hospital Hygiene (GISIO) of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (SItI).
Since April 2005 she has been responsible for coordinating the SPIN-UTI project (Sorveglianza Prospettica Infezioni Nosocomiali - Unità Terapia Intensiva) of the GISIO, designed to build the Italian network of nosocomial infections surveillance in the intensive care units (ICUs) in the framework of the European HELICS network (Hospital in Europe Link for Infection Control through Surveillance) and of the Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Since 2005 in the roster of scientists, ECDC Scientific Panels; since 2010, ‘ECDC Disease Expert - Epidemiologist’, HAIICU (Healthcare Associated infections - Intensive Care Units); since 2015, ECDC Operational Contact Point for epidemiology; since 2015, member of the HAI-Net ICU ECDC Working Group and expert for the HAI-Net Mortality review validity and reproducibility study
Since 2018, member of the Disease Network Coordination Committee (DNCC) for the Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) of the ECDC.
Since 2016, member of the Working Group for the development of the “National Action Plan to Contrast Antimicrobial Resistance” (PNCAR 2017-2020) and member of the Coordination group of the national antimicrobial-resistance strategy” of the Italian Ministry of Health. Since 2018, member of the Group for the coordination and management of the PNCAR, Sicilian Region.
Appointed as Member of the Board for the Revision of the Guidelines for Tuberculosis Surveillance and Control, Health Department and Epidemiologic Observatory, Sicilian Region, May 2011.
Appointed as Scientific Referent for the surveillance and control of healthcare associated infections, Service V – Quality, Clinical Governance and Patient Safety, Health Department and Epidemiologic Observatory, Sicilian Region, June 2011.
Project Leader and Operative Unit Leader of several Project funded by the National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CCM) of the Italian Ministry of Health or the Sicilian Region, Italy.
Research Unit Leader of the Workpackage 6 “Valorisation”, European Program “Leonardo da Vinci” entitled “Care for Work - Competence updating for care service sector as new employment source through the use of innovative learning methodologies" (LLP/LdV/TOI/09/IT/0459), 2010-2011.
The scientific activity of Antonella Agodi focused on four main topics of interest, listed below, and already produced several scientific publications or identified new areas of research. The general approach adopted for all four topics integrates the epidemiological management of data and the development of informative systems with high-throughput tools of genomics and molecular research. The specific methods of molecular epidemiology, designed to study the two main epidemiological models of diseases, communicable and not-communicable, are respectively targeted to the epidemiological characterization of infection-associated microorganisms or to the identification of exposure, effect and susceptibility biomarkers in humans. As such, her research activity aims at the interpretation of translational research, from the perspective of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, in terms of moving from basic research achievements into further knowledge about disease causes, risk and protective factors, diagnostic/treatment methods, prevention strategies and of their efficacy/effectiveness evaluation. Antonella Agodi’s research activity has been focusing the following main topics, each representative of a general model:
1. Epidemiology and control of infections: informative systems and molecular methods for risk management
2. Public health genomics, nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics
3. Environmental and food hygiene: models and tools for risk analysis and management
4. Planning, organizing, testing and evaluating public policies and public health interventions.