Attracted by the application of biotechnology for health and society, in 1999 I started studying Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at University of Bologna.

In 2002 I was accepted for a semester at the School of Pharmacy of University of Barcelona where I attended more specific courses related to drug-delivery and pharmacokinetics.

Considering my interest to experience different way of working and doing research, I finished my studies in San Diego and develop my Master Thesis in a joint-venture project involving UCSD and Cosmo Bioscience, a start-up biotech company.The thesis was about developing, through ribosome display, mimiking peptides of human TNF-alpha which were able to generate an immune response against the cytokine. To carry out this work I obtained a fellowship from University of Bologna and from Cosmo Pharmaceutical, an italian pharmaceutical company.

In 2005 I earned a M.S. in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and I was offered a position at Cosmo Bioscience where I worked for an additional year.

In september 2006 I obtained a Marie Curie Fellowship at Institut Pasteur within the Structural Bioinformatic Unit, directed by Prof.Michael Nilges, my thesis director as well. My research project involves the in-silico design of inhibitory small-proteins against Plasmodium Falciparum and the study of protein-protein docking and specificity.