Assistant professor of Genetics at University of Salento-Lecce, Italy
Degree in Biological Sciences (1999) cum laude with a special mention of the Committee, at the University of Lecce with a thesis in Genetics
PhD school in “Biology and Biotechnology” (2000-2004) at the University of Lecce, tutor prof. MP Bozzetti with a thesis in Genetics “Characterization of two genes, hsp83/scratch and aubergine/sting, the crystal-Stellate system modifiers in D. melanogaster”
Post doc fellowship (2005-2009)on theproject “The genetic and molecularcharacterization of genes involved in RNAi pathways in Drosophila melanogaster” directed by prof. MP Bozzetti at the University of Lecce
EMBO short term fellowship (2010)on the project “Studies on the distribution of FMRP in testes of D. melanogaster” at the laboratory of prof. A. Giangrande at the IGBMC, CNRS, INSERM, University of Strasbourg
Member AGI (Associazione Genetica Italiana)
GRANTS: Principal investigator: Futuro in ricerca 2010 fromItalian Ministry of Education, University and Research
Title: Environmental stress, transposable elements and genome evolution
Research unit member: Telethon 2014.
Title: Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study the role of the Fragile-X Mental retardation Protein in the genome stability pathway mediated by piRNAs
Research unit member: PRIN 2004-2006 fromItalian Ministry of Education, University and Research
PI prof. S. Pimpinelli; Title: “Genetic and molecular characterization of genes involved in RNAi in D. melanogaster “
Research unit member: PRIN 2007-2009 fromItalian Ministry of Education, University and Research
PI prof. S. Pimpinelli; Title: “Genetic and molecular analysis of crystal-Stellate modifiers with respect to the RNAi process in D. melanogaster
Research
The priciple interest is the Genetic and molecolar characterization of known and novel components of piRNA pathways in Drosophila melanogaster gonads
ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS
2000 Organization of X Italian Drosophila Meeting, Lecce 6-8 September
2010 Organization of XV Italian Drosophila Meeteing, Lecce 28-30 June. 2010
2013 XI Drosophila Heterochromatin Conference, Lecce