About me
I hold a Master degree in Bioinformatics and a PhD in the field of AGR/17 General Zootechnics and Genetic Improvement.
For over twelve years, I have been involved in bioinformatics analyses for several livestock species, focusing on genetic improvement and biodiversity conservation. Throughout my career, I have gained experience in the analysis and management of genomic and metabolomic data from various platforms, including Next Generation Sequencing, high-throughput genotyping, and metabolomic platforms.
Currently, my work mainly focuses on genomic data analysis for pigs, cattle, rabbits, and honey bees, integrating this data with information from other -omics disciplines such as metabolomics, metagenomics, and phenomics. My research activities are oriented towards both genetic improvement for animal production and the conservation of local breeds, contributing to biomonitoring and biodiversity preservation.
Over the years, I have participated in numerous research projects, mostly focused on genomics applied to characterization, conservation, and sustainability, utilizing technologies like GGP-HD GENESEEK and Next-Generation Sequencing for inbreeding analysis, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and population genetics.
I have contributed to the drafting of research projects at both national (PSR) and European (H2020, Tender) levels, some of which are currently ongoing.
Research Projects
Coordinator of PRIN 2022 PNRR Project
Deep Whole Genome Sequencing of bulk milk for sustainable cattle productions (DeepMilk) (November 30, 2023 – November 30, 2025)
Funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) - Mission 4 Education and Research - Component 2 From Research to Business - Investment 1.1, PRIN 2022 PNRR call issued by DD No. 1409 of 09/14/2022, project code MUR P2022ALHF4 - CUP J53D23018270001.
Local Unit Leader for PRIN 2022 Project
Image analysis of hams for the generation of high-throughput data for the meat industry and animal breeding (Ham-Capture) (October 12, 2023 – October 12, 2025)
Funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) - Mission 4 Education and Research - Component 2 From Research to Business - Investment 1.1, PRIN 2022 PNRR call issued by DD No. 104 of 02/02/2022, project code MUR 202238NP9N - CUP J53D23009570001.
PNRR
Responsible for activities related to livestock species for Task 1.1.4 under Agritech Spoke 1 - Animal Genetic Resources – National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) (2023-2025).
Other Ongoing or Recent Research Projects in which I collaborate
- Re-Livestock - Facilitating Innovations for Resilient Livestock Farming Systems. European Project funded under Horizon Europe (2022-2027).
- EU-LI-PHE - European Network on Livestock Phenomics CA22112 – COST ACTION – Member of WG3 (Computational resources and methodologies for data analyses) and WG4 (Economic Impact, Regulations, Policies, and Society) (2023-2027).
- Agritech Spoke 1 - Animal Genetic Resources – PNRR (2023-2025).
POS-Cattle - Integration of novel phenotyping and omics-approaches for the sustainable management and breeding of autochthonous cattle genetic resources - PRIN2022 (2023-2025).
- FEEDTHEPIG - An integrated metabolomic, transcriptomic and genomic approach to identify new markers for the genetic improvement of feed efficiency in Italian pigs - PRIN PNRR (2023-2025).
- PigPhenomics - Applied phenomics and genomics in pigs for the identification and use of new phenotypes in breeding plans. PRIN2017 - MIUR, Ministry of Education, University, and Research (2019-2023).
- SUIS, SUIS 2 - National Rural Development Programme 2014-2020: Genomic analysis for the conservation of local pig breeds.
- Dual Breeding, Dual Breeding 2 - National Rural Development Programme 2020-2023: Genomic analysis for the conservation of local dual-purpose cattle breeds.
AnGen1H - The EGI call for COVID-19 research projects 2020-2021: Animal genomics for a “One Health” perspectives in the COVID-19 pandemic era.
- LIVESTOCK-STOP-COVI - Por Fesr Emilia-Romagna 2014-2020: Genomic application to combat coronaviruses in livestock species in a One-Health approach.
- TREASURE. Project ID: 634476. Funded under: H2020-EU.3.2. “Diversity of local pig breeds and production systems for high quality traditional products and sustainable pork chains.
- "CASTRUM", Literature research activity for Tender SANCO/2014/G3/026 "Pig castration: methods of anesthesia and analgesia for all pigs and other alternatives for pigs used in traditional products."
Teaching activities
From Academic Year 2022/2023:
Course of "Animal Production Biotechnology", cod. 78787, Module 2; First cycle degree programme (L) in Biotechnology at University of Bologna
Further Information
Member of the Genetics Commission for the European Federation of Animal Sciences (EAAP).
Member of the "Young EAAP Scientists".
Subject Expert (SSD AGR17) for the teaching of Livestock Genomics. Approved on 11/20/2019 by the Council of the International Degree Course in Genomics.
Member of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) since 2019.
Member of the Association for Animal Science and Production (ASPA) since 2015.
Education and Training
16/04/2015 PhD in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science and Technology
3/10/2011 MSc Degree in Bioinformatics Bologna University
4/11/2008 Bachelor Degree in Biotechnologies for Human health Naples University
Training schools: Genotyping by
sequencing at TGAC, RGB-Net COST Action Training School
- RGB-Net Training School in Genomic Selection Rabbit Breeding
- RGB-Net - COST Action Training School in Genomics/Bioinformatics
with EuroPRRSnet RGB-Net - COST Action
