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Background and Interests:
I was born and grew up in Milan, Italy, although my parents are originally from a small village in southern Italy. I have always liked mathematics, which led me to consider the possibility of working either in the engineering field or basic mathematics. Nonetheless I did not intend to lose my interest for basic biology, which opened up for me the field of bioengineering, an emerging field in the early 90s. Therefore in 1999, I enrolled in a five-year bioengineering program at the Politecnico University of Milan. During my undergraduate career I built my background in the biomechanics field, working on topics like design of hip prostheses, assisted blood circulation, heart valve scaffolds, and aortic stents also by aid of fluidic softwares. My thesis project was carried out with the supervision of members of the ST Microelectronics Industry (one of the leaders in the semiconductor products industry) in an establishment near Milan. The research project involved the fluidic optimization of a PCR lab-on-chip by the aid of finite-element-method software capable of simulating flow in microchannels. Before graduating, I applied to the bioengineering program at Drexel University, which offered me a scholarship for pursuing my Ph.D. studies in the field. Once at Drexel, I started leaning more toward a molecular biology approach and for this reason I took different courses in order to start building my background, owing to my lack of knowledge in the field. In January 2007, I joined Dr. Wigdahl’s laboratory as an adjunct student between the Bioengineering and the Microbiology and Immunology Departments, working on a project that could possibly bridge the two fields together. |