Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
Third-year Medical student at the University of Pisa and Honours student at Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Interested in Haematoncology, Immunology and everything in between.
Research internship under Dr. Joanna Krupka (Hodson Lab, Lymphoma functional genomics). I performed DESeq2, GSEA and GO analyses on RNAseq and Riboseq data to determine the post-transcriptional effects of MYC, BCL2 and BCL6 over-expression in healthy and malignant B-cell lines. I also tested and used the dripARF pipeline to infer changes in ribosome composition potentially associated with Lymphoma metabolism and antigen presentation. I reviewed the literature on the "ribosome heterogeneity" hypothesis to write my yearly Honours thesis.
Research internship under Prof. Stefano Casola, Genetics of B-cell and Lymphomas Lab @IFOM. I investigated the effects of pharmacological inhibition of the B-cell receptor axis in a patient-derived model of High-Grade B-cell Lymphoma. Specifically, I measured transcription of Rag1/2 recombinase genes via qRT-PCR and conducted flow cytometry to monitor surface expression of B-cell receptor and Germinal Center markers. I consequently wrote my yearly Honours thesis on "Roles and interplay of Rag1/2 and B-cell receptor expressions in High-Grade B-cell Lymphoma", reviewing current literature and presenting my data.
As a student trainee under Professor Debora Angeloni, I learnt practical laboratory skills such as working with cell cultures, PCR, spectrophotometry, gel electrophoresis and imaging on Chemidoc.
Visiting student in Dr. Laura Poliseno's Lab, studying PTEN mutations as possible predictors of Breast Cancer in patients with wild-type BRCA1/2. I learnt the basics of working with patient-derived cancer cells and performing molecular biology techniques.
Intensive 50h one-week Biology program for rising high school students, organized by Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. With a 2.89% acceptance rate in the year 2023, the program included theoretical lectures on molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience and synthetic biology and visits to Scuola Normale's neuroscience laboratories (Pizzorusso Lab, Cremisi Lab).