
Position
Research Associate
Affiliation
Veterinary Medicine
Keywords
Vaccines, Infectious Diseases, Immunology
I am a biologist with research expertise in the field of infections and immunity, and a keen interest for dangerous pathogens and how to fight them with innovative effective vaccines.
After a BSc in Molecular Biological Sciences (University of Pisa, Italy) and an MSc in Medical Biotechnologies (University of Siena, Italy), I completed my PhD in Vaccine Design and Immune Responses, within the Marie Curie European Industrial Doctorate Programme. During this period, I worked between the University of Birmingham (UK) and the Novartis/GSK Vaccine Institute for Global Health, investigating vaccines against Neisseria meningitidis based on outer membrane vesicles (OMV, aka “bacterial blebs”!). While finishing the PhD, I broadened my research skills working as a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, in the Department of Structural Biology, gathering experience particularly in electron microscopy. I then joined The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, where I worked as Postdoc on transmission-blocking malaria vaccines. During this time, I expanded my experience in the vaccinology field exploring different vaccine-delivery platforms, mainly focusing on pre-clinical research, but also collaborating on human clinical trials. Since October 2020, I am a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge, working once more on bacterial vaccines based on OMV.