Assist Prof Dr. Francesco Asnicar | Genomics | Editorial Board Member 

Assistant Professor | Department CIBIO, University of Trento | Italy

This researcher has made influential contributions to microbiome data science, advancing both computational tools and biological discovery across human-associated microbial ecosystems. Their work includes leading the development of QIIME 2, a reproducible, interactive, and scalable platform that has become a cornerstone for modern microbiome analysis. They also contributed to uncovering extensive, previously unexplored human microbiome diversity by analyzing over 150,000 genomes from global metagenomes, highlighting how age, geography, and lifestyle shape microbial variation. In addition, their involvement in the creation of bioBakery 3 has enabled integrated taxonomic, functional, and strain-level profiling of complex microbial communities, improving the precision of microbiome research. Their studies further extend to understanding early-life microbiome development, demonstrating how mother-to-infant microbial transmission from multiple body sites influences the maturation of the infant gut microbiome. Collectively, their research bridges methodological innovation and biological insight, deeply shaping current knowledge of microbial diversity, function, and transmission.

Profile: Google Scholar

Featured Publications

Bolyen, E., Rideout, J. R., Dillon, M. R., Bokulich, N. A., Abnet, C. C., Al‑Ghalith, G. A., … Caporaso, J. G. Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2. Nature Biotechnology, 37(8), 852–857.

Pasolli, E., Asnicar, F., Manara, S., Zolfo, M., Karcher, N., Armanini, F., Beghini, F., Manghi, P., Tett, A., Ghensi, P., Collado, M. C., Rice, B. L., DuLong, C., Morgan, X. C., Golden, C. D., Quince, C., Huttenhower, C., & Segata, N. Extensive unexplored human microbiome diversity revealed by over 150,000 genomes from metagenomes spanning age, geography, and lifestyle. Cell, 176(3), 649–662.e20.

Beghini, F., McIver, L. J., Blanco‑Míguez, A., Dubois, L., Asnicar, F., Maharjan, S., Mailyan, A., Manghi, P., Scholz, M., Thomas, A. M., Valles-Colomer, M., Weingart, G., Zhang, Y., Zolfo, M., Huttenhower, C., Franzosa, E. A., & Segata, N. Integrating taxonomic, functional, and strain-level profiling of diverse microbial communities with bioBakery 3. eLife, 10, e65088.

Ferretti, P., Pasolli, E., Tett, A., Asnicar, F., Gorfer, V., Fedi, S., Armanini, F., … Segata, N. Mother-to‑infant microbial transmission from different body sites shapes the developing infant gut microbiome. Cell Host & Microbe, 24(1), 133–145.e5.