BSc Biological Sciences, University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy)

MSc (merit) Molecular Biology, University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy)

DPhil Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy) - École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France)

MSc Chemical Biology, Linköping University (Sweden)

I am a chemical biologist with a passion for amyloid chemistry, biology of amyloid proteins and mechanisms of amyloid aggregation. 

My overarching focus is to understand the role of peripheral alpha-synuclein in the outcome of Parkinson´s disease, with a special attention to the gut-brain axis, and to investigate alpha-synuclein strains as a potential source for stratification of patients within synucleinopathies.

I am an expert in the seeding amplification assay (SAA) and I have been working on optimising the method to become more robust and reproducible. The main goal is to move this assay into clinic to be used in diagnostics as a biomarker to aid in early detection of Parkinson's diseaseas.

I am also interested in deepening the understanding of the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the gut-brain axis, with particular attention to the bacterial-derived EVs, and the use of EVs for biomarker discovery.