Mother and daughter duo battle Coronavirus in England and Italy

Last Wednesday, we were pleased to host mother and daughter duo, Dr Maria Colzani and Dr Maria Rosa Pozzi for a fascinating #LucyinLockdown talk.

When the Covid pandemic started, Dr Maria Colzani, who is a postdoc researcher in the Sanjay Sinha group, part of the Stem Cell Institute at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, revamped her research to understand the effects of the COV2 infection on cardiovascular biology. Meanwhile, Dr Maria Rosa Pozzi, from being a retired doctor, came back to clinics to treat Covid patients in Milan throughout the current pandemic. We heard some of her personal stories about the pandemic and the ways in which she helped on the front lines in Milan at a time when it was horribly affected.

About our speakers, mother and daughter duo Dr. Maria Colzani & Dr. Maria Rosa Pozzi

Dr. Maria Teresa Colzani, is a postdoc researcher in the Sanjay Sinha group, part of the Stem Cell Institute at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, investigating cardiac regeneration. Maria obtained her bachelors degree in Biotechnology in 2008 followed by a masters degree in Molecular Biology in 2011. She then moved to Cambridge in 2012 to pursue a PhD in Haematology, which she obtained in July 2016.

Her mother, Dr. Maria Rosa Pozzi, was a retired doctor who came back to clinics to treat Covid patients in Milan throughout the current pandemic. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Milan in 1984, after her degree she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis in Prof. D.Y. Loh lab studying T-cell receptor, and later at the Istituto dei tumori (Cancer research institute) in Milan working on mammary carcinomas. She specialised in Clinical Immunology in 1987 and then obtained a second medical specialisation in Rheumatology in 2008. She currently is the director of the Rheumatology unit at the San Gerardo university hospital in Monza (part of the University of Milano Bicocca).