Biographical Notes
In 2003 I was awarded MSc degree in Biotechnology at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) where I also started my PhD studentship in Industrial Biotechnologies (2003-2006) with a project in collaboration with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft, The Netherlands). Between 2006 and 2008 I continued my research activity as Postoctoral Researcher in the Department of Biotechnology at TU Delft focusing on the quantitative understanding of yeast metabolism and on the successful application of metabolic engineering approaches for the production of biofuel. My switch to biomedical research happened in 2008, when I was granted a two-year Ri.MED PostDoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh (USA), Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology under the guidance of Prof. Bruce Freeman. At Pitt, between 2008 and 2010, my expertise on mass spectrometry-based quantitative analysis of cellular metabolism served to the study of inflammatory reactions and contributed to the discovery of novel endogenous mediators of inflammation resolution. In 2010 I moved to Palermo as Ri.MED Research Fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation (IRIB-CNR) joining the group of Experimental Pneumology led by Dr. Elisabetta Pace where I combined my expertise on inflammatory research with a new interest for chronic lung diseases. Since 2017 I have started my own research lab focusing on innate immunity and lung diseases.
Scientific Activities
We study the innate immune response, with a focus on lung diseases. Non-communicable chronic diseases are characterized by a complex inflammatory scenario, very often involving sterile inflammation, whose mechanisms are still not well understood. We think regulated cell death of myeloid cells in the lung may be a key trigger for chronic inflammation. In this respect, macrophages appear to play a common role in many lung diseases, including COPD, fibrosis and cancer. We aim at discovering key molecular players through which macrophages promote chronic inflammation in the lung.
I am currently directing the Screening Platform within the Drug Discovery Area.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0712-8440
Scopus ID: 8417898300