Antonella Castagna

Professor Antonella Castagna is the head of the Unit of Infectious Diseases at IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, based in San Raffaele Turro, and Director of the School of Specialization in Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan.  

Her education began with a Degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan in 1985. In 1989, she obtained specialization in Infectious Diseases at the same University. She also had periods of specialization abroad: from 1985 to 1987, she was a Fellow in Neurovirology at the Neurovirology Department (University of Chicago, USA); in 1990, she was a Research Associate at the National Bacteriological Laboratory Hospital, Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden).

Prof. Castagna has extensive knowledge of infectious diseases, particularly those of viral etiology, including HIV and SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Since 1992, she has worked as a physician and activity area coordinator at Ospedale San Raffaele.

From 2014 to 2019, she was the Clinical Group Leader of the Unit of Management and Antiretroviral Therapy of HIV Infection, IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele.

Since 2017, she has been National Coordinator of the Prestige Registry (www.registroprestigio.com) focused on the study of patients with HIV infection and extensive antiretroviral drug resistance. Since 2017, she is also the head of the CSLHIV Cohort, an observational, longitudinal clinical database enrolling adult patients with infectious diseases (HIV infection, hepatitis, tuberculosis and other infections) maintained at the Infectious Diseases Unit of IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele since 1991.

Since 2020, she is responsible for the computerized collection of epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic information of hospitalized patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection within the Covid-BioB project of IRCCS San Raffaele.

She is Principal Investigator of several national and international observational studies and prospective randomized trials.

She is Member of the steering committee of several national and international networks (ICONA; EUROSIDA, COHERE, RESPOND, STIPNET) and, since 2019, she is Chair of the Panel for the drafting of the Italian Guidelines on the use of Antiretroviral Therapy and the diagnostic-clinical management of people with HIV-1 infection; since 2021, she is member of the Governing Body of EACS (European AIDS Clinical Society).

She is the author of numerous book chapters and over 500 publications in prestigious scientific journals. Her H-index is 51.