BIOGRAPHY AND EDUCATION
Margherita Mottola was born in Putignano (BA) on 18th December 1992. She lived in Noci (BA) where she attended the Liceo Scientifico "L. Da Vinci" (High School), graduating with honours.
In 2014, she achieved the BS Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bologna, graduating with honours.
In 2016, Margherita Mottola spent a three-month period at the Department of Radiology of the Hôpital Beaujon in Clichy (Paris, FR) to carry out researches for her Master's Thesis work, under the supervision of Prof. Valérie Vilgrain. In 2017 she achieved the MS Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bologna, graduating with honours.
From June to October 2017, Margherita Mottola worked as Research Assistant at the Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems "Ercole De Castro" (ARCES, University of Bologna) under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Bevilacqua.
In July 2017, Margherita wins an Italian Ministerial Grant for a PhD programme in Bioengineering at the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering "Guglielmo Marconi" (DEI) of the University of Bologna, in collaboration with ARCES, under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Bevilacqua.
From February to April 2020, Margherita spends a three-month period as visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, Department of Radiology - Addenbrooke's Hospital, under the supervision of Prof. Evis Sala, who leads the Radiogenomics and Quantitative Imaging Group.
In May 2021, Margherita defends her PhD Thesis in Biomedical, Electrical and System Engineering (IBES) - currculum Bioengineering, titled: "New methodologies in CT perfusion and MRI analysis to develop cancer imaging biomarkers".
In November 2021, Margherita gets the professional qualification as Engineer from the University of Bologna.
ACADEMIC POSITION
Currently, Margherita is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the “Alma Mater Research Institute on Global Challenges and Climate Change (Alma Climate)", University of Bologna, and she mainly works at the Pathology Department of Maggiore "C.A. Pizzardi" Hospital in Bologna, under the joint supervision of Prof. M. Fiorentino and Prof. A. Bevilacqua.
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
Currently, her research activities focus on developing multi-omics tumour imaging biomarkers exploiting Artificial Intelligence and explainable Machine Learning technologies, with diagnostics, prognostics, and predictive purposes. The two main applicative domains are the Computed Tomography (CT), including morphological and perfusion imaging, and multi-parametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mpMRI).
Since January 2022, Margherita is guest editor, with Prof. Alessandro Bevilacqua, of the Topical Collection "Biomedical Imaging and Sensing" hosted by Sensors (IF=3.576, Q1).
COLLABORATIONS
Margherita Mottola has different national and international collaborations. Research activities, involving the Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST) IRCCS, aim at developing diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of prostate cancer and its clinical evolution. Margherita also collaborates with the Department of Radiology of the S. Orsola Hospital in Bologna and it is involved in different projects, including the developemnt of prognostic Imaging Biomarkers (IBs) of prostate cancer, and predictive IBs of colorectal cancer and Crohn disease.
Margherita is involved in the collaboration between the Department of Radiology of the Hôpital Beaujon in Clichy (Paris, FR) and the Computer Vision Group (University of Bologna). Research activities are based on two multi-centre studies exploiting CTp, PIXEL and SARAH. PIXEL aims at developing at least one imaging biomarker predictive of the development of liver metastases within three years from colorectal cancer diagnosis. SARAH aims at comparing the efficacy of the selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) and sorafenib (an anti-angiogenic drug) in patients with inoperable hepatocarcinoma. During the period spent at the University of Cambridge, Margherita has been involved in a reproducibility study of radiomic features on CT examinations of renal cell carcinoma and non-tumour bearing kidney.
