Margherita Bertuzzi is a molecular microbiologist specialized in fungal infection biology, whose research focuses on the epithelial interactions with inhaled fungal pathogens and the role of these events in health and disease, how these interactions affect communication with other components of human immune and inflammatory cascades, and the technical know-how to translate this knowledge into human benefit. With a major emphasis on pH-mediated signalling, her research has focused upon the way in which extracellular cues shape fungal tissue invasion and pathogenicity in mammalian hosts. She was appointed Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology at the University of Manchester in 2020 to establish her research group, focusing on understanding epithelial encounters with inhaled respiratory pathogens and the role of these events in health and disease, especially in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a well-known risk factor for debilitating fungal lung disease. Having been awarded a prestigious MRC New Investigator Research grant in 2021, her group is now pursuing a full mechanistic understanding of fungal-epithelial interactions and how these are dysregulated in disease. In 2025, in collaboration with Dr Becky Hall at the University of Kent, she secured funding from the Wellcome trust to investigate how Mucorales adaptation to natural and in-host environments underpins Mucormycosis infection.