From 2021, she is Associate Professor in General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna. Her research topics belong to bioinorganic chemistry. In particular, her activity aims to understand, at the molecular level, metal-driven protein interactions that, in biological systems, regulate cellular metabolisms and biochemical processes, with medical applications.
Academic experience
- 2003: Visiting scientist at Department of Biochemistry, University of Gent (Belgium), supported by a UniBO fellow.
- 2005: EMBO fellow at the EMBL of Hamburg (EMBO Short term fellowship)
- 2006 – 2008: Post-doctoral position at the University of Bologna
- 2008 - 2021: Assistant Professor in General and inorganic chemistry
- 2016: National Academic Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) as Associate Professor for Chemistry and inorganic systems (03/B1) and for General Biochemistry (05/E1).
- 2020: National Academic Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) as Full Professor for Chemistry and inorganic systems (03/B1).
Education
- 2002: Laurea cum laude in Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Italy.
- 2006: PhD degree, University of Bologna, Italy. Thesis title: “Structural, functional and molecular studies of proteins involved in nickel-containing urease active site assembly: an example of intracellular metal trafficking”. Supervisor: Prof. Stefano Ciurli.
Specialization courses
- 2004: “Protein Expression, Purification, Crystallization'' (PEPC4) at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) of Hamburg.
- 2005: “X- ray absorption spectroscopy of metallo-proteins” (BioXAS) at the EMBL of Hamburg
- 2008: “Intrinsically disordered proteins and associated pathologies: prediction, characterization and function” at Inserm, Lyon
- 2016. EMBO course on Protein-protein interactions, Porto, Portugal.
- 2015/2016: Master in Journalism and science communication, University of Ferrara
Teaching activity
From 2013 to 2015: responsible for Module 2 of the course “Chemistry” for the first cycle degree programme (L) in Agricultural Technology.
From 2015 to 2018: responsible for Module 1 of the course Bioinorganic, Bioelectonics and Biosensors with Laboratory for the second cycle degree programme (LM) in Molecular and industrial biotechnology.
From 2012 to now: responsible for the course “Chemical and Molecular Methods for the Study of Proteins” for the second cycle degree programme (LM) in Molecular and industrial biotechnology and Molecular and cellular biology.
From 2010 to now: responsible for the course “Calorimetry, light scattering and circular dichroism. Theory and applications to characterize proteins in solution” for the PhD program in Cell and Molecular Biology.
Academic tutor and co-tutor for the thesis of more than 25 students of Master’s degree and Bachelor degree.
Supervisor of a PhD student, PhD program in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Bologna.
Teaching activity abroad
2014 - Reviewer for the PhD thesis dissertation of Rodrigo Ligabue-Braun (Centro de Biotecnologia – UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil).
2014: Lecturer at the Universitade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil – Responsible for the course “Methods of protein folding and chemistry”
2017 – Reviewer for the PhD thesis of Ewa Podobas (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Polland).
Scientific activity
In January 2021, she is author of 55 peer reviewed articles on international juornals, three book chapters and 45 conference presentations (10 invited). The scientific activity and the bibliographic parameters are visible in Google Scholar.
She serves as Associate Editor of Scientific Reports, PeerJ and Biomolecules journals.
She was part of the organizing committee of “Convegno della Divisione Chimica dei sistemi Biologici”, Bertinoro (2013), and of the annual Meeting of the Abre-Mobieu COST action, Praga (2020).
Scientific communication
In November 2016 she graduated in the specialization course on Journalism and institutional communication of science at the University of Ferrara, with a video visible here. She collaborated with some Italian journals (for example Galileo journal). She organizes and participate to science communication events (here an example) and from 2019 she participates to Unijunior with the University of Bologna.
