Mariagrazia Pizza

Mariagrazia Pizza is an Italian vaccine researcher who is a professor at Imperial College London. She worked as Senior Scientific Director for Bacterial Vaccines at GSK plc. She was involved with the development of the first pertussis vaccine. In 2023, she was awarded the IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award.

Early life and education
Pizza was born in Eboli, Italy and lived there until 1980. She studied chemistry and pharmaceutical science at the University of Naples Federico II. Her dissertation used nuclear magnetic resonance to explore the structure of opioid peptides. When a family member became ill, she decided to learn more about pharmaceutical design. She moved to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, where she learnt molecular biology and engineering.

Research and career
Pizza has focused on the design and development of new vaccines. In 1986, she joined Sclavo, a vaccine research centre in Siena. She spent six years there, contributing to the development of the first pertussis vaccine, which was able to protect infants, and was safer and more immuno-active than other pertussis vaccines on the market. Sclavo was sold to Chiron, which was eventually acquired by Novartis. Motivated by their success and advances in whole genome sequencing, Pizza started working on a Meningococcal vaccine. She joined GSK plc in 2016.

In 2023, Pizza joined the faculty at Imperial College London. She is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester.

Awards and honours

 * 2000 Elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)
 * 2018 Elected a Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE)
 * 2023 IVI-SK bioscience Park MahnHoon Award

Personal life
Pizza has two children.