Cinzia initiated her scientific career with the completion of a Ph.D in Animal Biology from the University of Palermo, in 2003. In the same year, she moved to Philadelphia (USA), where she spent three years as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, she returned to Italy as an Associate Researcher at IRCCS ISMETT. Her appointment with Fondazione Ri.MED began in 2008, initially as an Associate Researcher and subsequently as a Senior Scientist. Meanwhile, her research focus was centered around the establishment of cellular therapies aimed at restoring organ function, and she became responsible for the production of human fetal liver cells to be transplanted to cirrhotic patients. More recently, her scientific interest has shifted towards the development of a cell-free therapy based on secretome and extracellular vesicles from human mesenchymal stromal cells. Since 2022, she is Principal Investigator leading the Cell Therapy group.

The Cell Therapy group is primarily dedicated in optimizing the cell-free therapy through the utilization of polymer-based delivery systems. Particularly, Cinzia has developed a biomedical device consisting of a hydrogel sponge integrated with secretome of mesenchymal stromal cells for the treatment for chronic skin wounds. The device has shown promising results in a murine model of diabetic foot ulcer (proof-of-concept of efficacy), and is now advancing to the validation phase. Recently, she is also working to develop extracellular vesicle/microRNA-based treatments for chronic liver diseases, such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) (HALIFIB project).