- Retroviral and lentiviral vector integration site analysis- Lentiviral vector-based gene therapy for human immunodeficiencies and hemoglobinopathies- Design of efficacy/safety preclinical studies for ex-vivo gene therapy- Design and development of innovative gene therapy vectorsPERSONAL SKILLS AND ATTITUDES- initiative and willingness to take risks- perseverance and flexibility- scientific and creative thinking- critical thinking- curiosity and lifelong learning- time and resource management- team workingTECHNICAL SKILLSMOLECULAR BIOLOGY- DNA and RNA analysis (Southern-blot, Northern-blot, RT-PCR, gene-expression microarray, RNA-seq, CAGE-seq)- Design and construction of recombinant retroviral and lentiviral vectors- Linker Mediated-PCR (viral integration sites analysis)- 3’ and 5’ RACE-PCR - Real Time PCR- Chromatin Immuno-precipitation assay (ChIP, and ChIP-seq)- Protein analysis (Western Blot, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry, FACS)- Molecular cloningCELLULAR BIOLOGY- In vitro culture of human primary cells and cell lines- Purification of human hematopoietic stem/precursors CD34+ cells from cord blood- Production of recombinant retroviral and lentiviral pseudotyped vectors- Transfection and transduction of human cells- Flow-cytometry (Coulter Epics XL2, instrument, BD FACSCalibur, BD FACSCanto)- Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical assaysINFORMATICS- Computer systems: Windows, Macintosh.- Softwares: Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Explorer, CellQuest, Flow-jo 8.7.1, BD FACSDiva Software, Vector NTI suite 7, SDS 2.0., GraphPad Prism- Bioinformatics: Genome browsers; Galaxy; Genome Hyper browser, David Annotation Tool; Gene Ontology; Ingenuity; GREAT; dChipLANGUAGESItalian (native), English (C1), French (B1)

Fellowship at the Molecular Medicine Department, working on two main projects: the genome-wide definition of regulatory elements in human glioblastoma cancer stem cells (Ref: Prof. Giorgio Palù) and the development of a gene therapy strategy for AIDS, based on RNA interference silencing of multiple viral genes (Ref: Prof. Cristina Parolin).

Fellowship at Gene Expression Unit, working on the genome-wide definition of regulatory elements in human stem cells.

The PhD project was aimed at the genome-wide definition of regulatory elements in human embryonic and neural stem cells.Supervisor: Prof. GianGiacomo ConsalezSecond Supervisor: Prof. Fulvio Mavilio

Graduate student in the Gene Therapy Laboratory, Centre for the Regenerative Medicine“Stefano Ferrari”, Department of Biomedical Sciences, working on the development of a gene therapy strategy for Meesmann’s corneal dystrophy, a human genetic disease with dominant inheritance.

Thesis internship in the Gene Therapy Laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Sciences,working on the design and construction of viral vectors for restricted gene expression inthe epidermis basal layer.

Summer internship in the Epithelial Genetics Laboratory at Ninewells Medical School. The aim of this stage was improving the knowledge about MCD and RNA interference technology.

Summer stage working on the design and construction of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy of AIDS