Dr. Maria Raffaella Spalla Grandi earned her University Degree in Biological Sciences in 1979. From 1979 to 1981, she moved to the Public Health Research Institute in New York, to work on microbial pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance in Gram-positive bacteria. She was instrumental in the elucidation of a novel mechanism of erythromycin resistance in Bacillus subtilis. Over the past several years she has been collaborating with different Biotech Companies as project manager.