Simulations of conduction in cell membrane. Ion channels are proteins responsible for ion conduction through the cell membranes. They are involved in a plethora of biological process, like nerve transmission, muscular contraction, and secretion. I use atomic stimulations with techniques for the acceleration of rare events to investigate how ion channels select the most permeable ion species, and how they switch among different functional states. These details might improve our current understanding of the biological processes regulated by ion channels, and provide useful information for drug-design.
Algorithms for the analysis of sequencing experiments. The cost of sequencing has dropped in recent years, with a consequent increase in data availability. The current bottleneck is how to extract relevant information from these sequencing experiments (i.e. which variants might be pathogenic? which genes are differentially expressed?). I am contributing to the development of bioinformatic pipelines and Machine Learning algorithms for supporting the interpretation of sequencing experiments. At the moment, my main field of interest is to identify the possible genetic basis of COVID-19 severity.
