Profile

My CV

• Education:

  I am from Italy, so my early education story will probably not help you much, but I can show you that it is also possible to achieve your dreams even if that means you have to move from your country and enter into a pretty different education system!

  1. High school: I went to what it can be defined a scientific high school (Liceo Scientifico Gian Domenico Cassini) in Genoa, where the main focus was on scientific subjects as maths, physics, biology and chemistry. I had to take all the classes and our final exams involved all the subject studied across 5 years.
  2. University of Genoa (Italy): Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology (3 years), with a research thesis done in a neuroscience laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology (Genoa).
  3. University of Pisa (Italy): Master’s Degree in Neuroscience (2 years), where I studied the nervous system and the techniques used to study it. I did the internship for the thesis in two laboratories: Institute of Neurology (UCL, London) and Institute of Neuroscience (CNR, Pisa).
  4. University College London: PhD in Neuroscience (ongoing)

• Qualifications:

  • High school: I went to a scientific high school, because I already knew from middle school that I was passionate for science. I still did not know what I precisely liked in science, but I was extremely fascinated by the nature and also by the fact that some numbers and equations could described the world. Towards the end of the high school, when I was 17/18 years old, I still did not have a clear idea of what I wanted. I was a good student in all the subjects, but I what I liked the most were biology and chemistry classes. What really helped me understand what I wanted for my future were some small internships the school was organising in collaboration with the university. I did one internship in the Chemistry department and then I went in the Biology department. There, I understood that biology in general was the subject I wanted to deepen in my future studies. However, I did not want to do “just” biology, but something with a more practical application. I chose a bachelor in Biotechnology because of its mix of theoretical biology and applied biology, with days spent in the lab even during the classes.
  • University of Genoa (Italy): Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology (3 years). The bachelor really helped me in deepen my knowledge in biology and lab techniques. The greatest thing was that I had the opportunity to really do some science with my own hands. Every classes had also a part where the professors were taking us in the laboratory to test and see with our eyes what they were explaining before. These hands-on activities helped me in understanding that I was really enjoying the experimental part. What triggered my interest for neuroscience was a class in neurophysiology. The professor was such an enthusiastic and passionate person that I could not avoid being fascinate by it. I then decided to do my 1-year internship for the thesis preparation in a neuroscience laboratory, where I completely fell in love with the nervous system.
  • University of Pisa (Italy): Master’s Degree in Neuroscience (2 years). Here I deepen my knowledge on the nervous system and I had the opportunity to come to London for half of my research period for my thesis. I was a bit scared at the beginning, because I was not so fluent in English and I found myself alone in a huge foreign city, but then I started meeting people, to work in the lab and explore around. It was totally worth it. After I saw how scientific labs work both in Italy and in London, I decided to try to apply to PhD positions in the UK as my first choice and in Italy too.
  • University College London: PhD in Neuroscience (ongoing). I got a PhD studentship and I started my PhD on March 2020 (perfect time!!). After few months of stop because of the lockdown, I finally had the chance to properly work in the lab on my project and I find it exciting!

• Work History:

  • Barman
  • Private “teacher”/tutor for students struggling with Maths and Latin
  • Scientific explainer in a scientific festival
  • Research assistant in a neuroscience laboratory

• Current Job:

  I am a PhD student at the Institute of Neurology at UCL. I am working on a project where I am trying to understand how tau, a protein that is found to be responsible of the progression of neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer’s disease. I am using primary neuronal  cells to study the mechanisms by which tau is able to spread in the nervous system and cause the pathology.