Prof. Christian Milani

Christian Milani, PhD, is Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Parma and Head of the Computational Microbiology Unit within the Probiogenomics Laboratory. His research combines microbiology, bioinformatics and multi-omics approaches to investigate the composition, function and evolution of complex microbial communities, with a particular focus on the human gut microbiota.

His scientific work has primarily addressed the role of the gut microbiome in human health and disease, the development of the microbiota during early life, and the biology and ecology of bifidobacteria and other health-associated microorganisms. He has contributed to the genomic and functional characterization of probiotic bacteria, the investigation of host–microbe and microbe–microbe interactions, and the study of microbial communities associated with humans, animals and fermented foods. A major component of his research involves the development and application of bioinformatic tools for species-level taxonomic profiling, comparative genomics and the functional characterization of metagenomic datasets.

His research activities are highly interdisciplinary and are conducted through extensive national and international collaborations, integrating microbial genomics and metagenomics with transcriptomics, metabolomics, experimental microbiology and host-related measurements. He is also actively involved in teaching and in the supervision of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in microbiology, microbial genomics, metagenomics and computational biology.

In recent years, his research interests have increasingly expanded towards the connections between environmental exposures and human health. In particular, he is investigating how the human microbiota interacts with xenobiotics and emerging environmental contaminants, including micro- and nanoplastics, their additives and degradation products. This work aims to understand whether microbial communities contribute to the biotransformation of these compounds and how such interactions may influence microbiome functionality, host physiology and susceptibility to disease.