I was born in Naples, Italy, where I also completed my Bachelor (Health Biotechnology) and Master (Medical Biotechnology) studies at the University of Naples Federico II. I was first introduced to research during my Master studies. I did my Master Thesis at the Molecular Genetics and Genomics Lab at the National Research Council of Naples (CNR), where I spent 15 months and focused on the molecular characterization of Glycogenosis type II-Like patients. This experience made me understand how much I like working in research. Therefore, a PhD was the next step for my career.
I was totally fascinated by the nature of the TAPAS EJD-ITN programme when I first read about it, I was really interested in being involved in such an enthusiastic and international project. Furthermore, the idea of travelling and living in different countries has always captivated me. I will work the first two years of my PhD at the institute of Experimental Biomedicine Rudolf-Virchow-Zentrum in Würzburg, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Bernhard Nieswandt. I will move for the third year to the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Maastricht (CARIM), in the Netherlands, under the supervision of Prof. Johan Heemskerk.
The aims of this project are to establish a suitable CRISPR/Cas9 platform for the generation of new transgenic mice with altered receptor clustering and the generation of transgenic mice expressing human GPVI or CLEC-2. Fully characterize these mice using in vitro and in vivo assays to study platelet function and to allow the subsequent validation of novel small molecule inhibitors in hGPVI and hCLEC-2 mice.