Education

• 11.12.2023

National Scientific Habilitation (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale - ASN) as Associate Professore. GSD 05/BIOS-02, BIOS-02/A Fisiologia Vegetale (ex SSD BIO/04, 05/A2).

• 08/2014-07/2017

PhD degree in Biochemistry. Date of award: 4th of October 2017. Score: cum laude. Thesis dissertation held at the Universität zu Köln, Köln (Germany).

PhD thesis entitled “ Spatial organization of a chemoreceptor guanylate cyclase in the flagellum of Arbacia punctulata sperm”. Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) – Associated Institute of the Max Planck Society, Department of Molecular Sensory System, Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Bonn (Germany) and Universität zu Köln, Köln (Germany). Supervisors: Prof. Dr. U.B. Kaupp; Dr. Ashraf Al-Amoudi; Dr. Stephan Irsen.

• 09/2012-07/2014

Master Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Master of Science. Score: 110/110 summa cum laude. Date of award: 23/07/2014.

Master Thesis entitled “Structural characterisation of S-layer protein complexes from Deinococcus radiodurans R1”. University of Cagliari; Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy; Master Course in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Research activities performed at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Photobiology Supervisor: Dr. Dario Piano.

• 09/2009-07/2012

Bachelor Degree in Biology (Bc.S.). Score: 110/110 summa cum laude. Date of award: 20/07/2012.

Bachelor Thesis entitled “Deinococcus radiodurans R1: growth analysis under UV radiation in presence of different Manganese concentrations”. University of Cagliari; Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences; Bachelor Course in Biology. Research activities performed at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Photobiology Supervisor: Dr. Dario Piano.

• 09/2004 – 07/2009

Diploma (High School), 90/100.

Istituto “Liceo Ginnasio Statale G.Siotto Pintor”, Viale Trento 103/104  - 09123 Cagliari (Italy).

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Professional experience

• 2022

Postdoctoral Associate Research position (RTD-A). Laboratories of Plant Physiology and Photobiology, Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DISVA), University of Cagliari, Cagliari (Italy).

• 2021

Independent Postdoctoral research position. Project: “The Dark side of the light: how plants protect themselves against strong light”. Umeå University, Department of Chemistry, Umeå (Sweden). Funded by the Carl Tryggers Foundation for Scientific Research (född 19900224; anslagnummer CTS 19:324).

• 2018

Postdoctoral research position. Project 1: “Structural and functional characterisation of SlpA the main S-layer protein of Deinococcus radiodurans”. Warsaw University of Life Science (SGGW), Warsaw (Poland). Funded by the SONATA-BIS 7 program (grant Nr PRO-2017/26/E/NZ1/00344); Project 2: “Explanation of the complex architecture of the S-layer of D. radiodurans: structural analysis of the Type IV piliation system.” Warsaw University of Life Science (SGGW), Warsaw (Poland). Funded by the HARMONIA 10 program (grant Nr 2018/30/M/NZ1/00284).

• 2017

Visiting scientist - Independent Postdoctoral research position. Project: “Functional and structural characterisation of the main S-layer protein DR_2577 of Deinococcus radiodurans”. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cagliari (Italy). Funded by the L'Oréal-UNESCO fellowship for Women in Science (L'Oréal Italia per le Donne e la Scienza – 2017). Grant management has been a task in this position.

• 2017

Visiting scientist - Postdoctoral research position. Project: “Cryo-Electron Tomography and Subtomogram averaging analysis on the spatial organization of a chemoreceptor guanylate cyclase in the flagellum of Arbacia punctulata sperm”. Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) – Associated Institute of the Max Planck Society, Department of Molecular Sensory System, Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Bonn (Germany).

• 2014

PhD student research fellowship. Project: “Cryo-Electron Tomography and Subtomogram averaging analysis on the spatial organization of a chemoreceptor guanylate cyclase in the flagellum of Arbacia punctulata sperm”. Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) – Associated Institute of the Max Planck Society, Department of Molecular Sensory System, Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Bonn (Germany).

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Courses and training

• 2019

Intensive post-graduate course. Basel Dynamo Workshop on Tomography and Sub-tomogram Averaging. Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Referent: Dr. Daniel Castaño-Díez, Dr. Alex Noble, Dr. Henning Stahlberg.

• 2019

Intensive post-graduate course. iNEXT workshop on integrated methodologies and approaches for structural biology. CEITEC, Brno (Czech Republic)

• 2019

Intensive post-graduate level course in DIgital SCience and EducatioN for Teaching Innovative Assessment (DISCENTIA). University of Cagliari (Italy).

• 2018

Intensive post-graduate course (21h). INSTRUCT course on Image Processing for Electron Microscopy in the cloud. National Center for Biotechnology (CNB), Madrid, Spain. Referent: Dr. Carlos Oscar S. Sanchez.

• 2015

Intensive post-graduate level module of lectures and instruction (58h). Image Processing for Cryo-electron microscopy. EMBO, Birkbeck University (London). Referents: Prof. Elena Orlova; Prof. Helen Saibil.

• 2014

FELASA B certificate, for laboratory animal science. Provadis Partner für Bildung und Beratung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany provided a course.

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Awards

• 2017 - L'Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science (National recipient for Italy, 2017)  -  for accomplishments in scientific research. Project: Functional and structural characterization of the main S-layer protein DR_2577 of Deinococcus radiodurans R1. The award has been given by the L'Oréal Foundation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The award ceremony was held on the 12th of June 2017 at the University of Milan, Milan – Italy.

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Entrepreneur activities

• CEO and Co-founder of ReGenFix (www.regenfix.eu; P.I. 03917790929), a biotech startup developing methods to regenerate chromatography columns, for a higher reproducibility and standardisation of this technique, as well as aiming at reducing the environmental impact of such highly used research devices.

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Editorial board of international journals

• Editorial board member of PLOS ONE (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/)
• Editorial board member of BMC Research Notes (https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/)
• Editorial board member of BMC Plant Biology (https://bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/)

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Membership in Scientific Societies

• Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (https://www.asbmb.org/)
• Member of Società Italiana di FotoBiologia (SIFB) – Italian Society for Photobiology (http://www.sifb.it/)
• Member of European Society for Photobiology (ESP) (https://www.photobiology.eu/)
• Member of Società Italiana di Biologia Vegetale (SIBV) – Italian Society for Plant Biology (http://www.sibv.eu/)

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Patents

• IT patent 102016000006106 “A method for selective isolation of bacterial S-layer proteins and their industrial application”;
• IT patent 102016000006131 “Use of the SlpA protein from D. radiodurans as a shield against ultraviolet radiations”
• PCT International Application PCT/IB2019/056397, “Isolation of chromoplastid carotenoids from fruits” (granted in July 2019).

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Public activities for research communications

• Since 2018, Science Ambassador for The L’Oréal For Girls in Science program, by L’Oréal Italia. The program is made for girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to overcome the gender equality issue.
• 13.09.2018. Invited talk at the event “Giovani Donne sulla via della Scienza”, led by Prof. Dr. Flavia Zucco (European Platform of Women Scientist -EPWS- founding member) and promoted by Associazione Donne e Scienza and L’Oréal Italia. La Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Roma (Italy).
• 28.03.2018. Divulgative research communication in F, an Italian newspaper  (n. 12 – 28.03.2018, Cairo Editore).
• 04.2017. Divulgative research communication in Sapere (http://www.edizionidedalo.it/sapere/sapere-2-2017.html), the oldest Italian journal for the divulgation of science