Dr. Maria Vitale currently works at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia. She conducts research in microbiology, molecular biology and Genetics. She is involved in topics related to food safety and antimicrobial resistance. Her fields of interest are animal health, food safety and security, molecular microbiology, the genetics of microorganisms, antimicrobial resistance, biofilms and biotechnology and public and global health. She was involved in studies of gene expression analysis in prokaryotes first and eukaryotes later. She has participated in several research projects and established several diagnostic methods for infectious disease and the genetic characterization of microorganisms. She organized several courses for Continuous Education in Medicine for public health operators. She was appointed as a Professor in the Biology Faculty at the University of Palermo for 4 years.