Giulia Zanetti is a British Italian biologist and Professor of Molecular Biology at the Francis Crick Institute. She develops advanced imaging techniques to understand membrane transport pathways. She was awarded the 2021 Biochemical Society Colworth Medal.

Zanetti was an undergraduate student in biomedical technologies. ^[1] She moved to Australia for her graduate studies, where she worked on HIV/AIDS at the University of Sydney. In 2004 Zanetti joined the University of Oxford, where she studied spike proteins on virus membranes. These spike proteins made it possible for viruses to enter cells. Here she developed cryo-electron tomography with "subtomogram averaging". Subtomogram averaging is a reconstruction approach that can be used to understand protein structures in situ. It works by aligning and averaging images of a large number of copies of flash-frozen samples, and can generate 3D images. She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for her postdoctoral research, where she worked alongside Randy Schekman. Here she applied her electron microscopy knowledge to capsids. ^[1]

Zanetti was part of the UCL – Birkbeck Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology. ^[1] In 2021 she was awarded the Colworth Medal. ^{[2] [3]} She moved to the Francis Crick Institute in 2024. ^{[4] [5]} Collagens are very large proteins that are found in the extra-cellular matrix, and are the most abundant protein secreted in animals. Collagen dysregulation is linked to various diseases, including defects in cartilage formation and organ fibrosis. Defects in cartillage formation occur due to mutations in membrane transport components, and organ fibrosis happens due to an excess of collagen deposition during wound healing. Despite its importance in human health, the organisation of the secretory pathway has remained unclear. Zanetti studies membrane transport pathways using Cryo-Electron Microscopy. ^[6] She is particularly interested in the membrane transport pathways that control the secretion of collagen in animal cells. ^[1]

• John Briggs; James D. Riches; B Glass; V Bartonova; Giulia Zanetti; H-G Kräusslich (22 June 2009). "Structure and assembly of immature HIV". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 106 (27): 11090–11095. Bibcode: 2009PNAS..10611090B. doi: 10.1073/PNAS.0903535106. ISSN  0027-8424. PMC  2700151. PMID  19549863. Wikidata  Q37237053.
• Giulia Zanetti; Kanika Bajaj Pahuja; Sean Studer; Soomin Shim; Randy Schekman (22 December 2011). "COPII and the regulation of protein sorting in mammals". Nature Cell Biology. 14 (1): 20–28. doi: 10.1038/NCB2390. ISSN  1465-7392. PMID  22193160. Wikidata  Q37970881.
• Giulia Zanetti; John A G Briggs; Kay Grünewald; Quentin J Sattentau; Stephen D Fuller (August 2006). "Cryo-electron tomographic structure of an immunodeficiency virus envelope complex in situ". PLOS Pathogens. 2 (8): e83. doi: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PPAT.0020083. ISSN  1553-7366. PMC  1557830. PMID  16933990. Wikidata  Q21090535.{{ cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI ( link)