Mario Masiello was born in Bari in 1983. He graduated in Food Sciences at the university "Aldo Moro" of Bari – Italy, in the April 2009, defending a thesis on "Microbiota characterization of children affected by celiac disease".

During 2010-2013, he was a phD student of "Plant Protection" course, at the university "Aldo Moro" of Bari – Italy. He worked on the most important fungal pathogens associated to grape rot, such as Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus carbonarius, and A. niger. He set up integrated pest management strategies against B. cinerea, in order to reduce chemicals in grape protection and to avoid the occurrence of fungicide resistant strains in field population. In this period, he also validated molecular assays based on real-time PCR, for the rapid detection of resistant strains on grape bunches. Since 2014, Mario Masiello has a post-doc position at the National Research Council of Italy, at the Institute of Sciences of Food Production, Bari (ISPA – CNR). His work is mainly focused on the molecular diagnosis and phylogeny of the most important mycotoxigenic fungal genera on the most important crops (wheat, maize, vegetables): Alternaria, Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium. He has expertise on food mycology, molecular biology, plant pathology and crop protection.

At MycSA, Mario will also studied the molecular mechanisms involved in the antimycotoxin (TCTB) activity of biomolecules on Fusarium graminearum.