research

I am an experimental biophysicist with a strong interest in the role of external perturbations during organism development and homeostasis. My current work focuses on investigating how organisms develop robustly despite the presence of fluctuating external mechanical perturbations, using Drosophila larvae as model organisms. To this end, I have developed a novel tool based on PDMS channels to confine and mechanically stimlate larvae in vivo, which I am using to screen the long-term effect of altered mechanical forces on development. I complement this with ex-vivo experiments combining high-resolution imaging and ex-vivo mechanical perturbations using a tissue stretcher, which enables the investigation of specific pathways of interest in real time. As a physicist by training, I enjoy building new tools that enable the control of key experimental parameters and allow me to explore how biological systems respond both within the physiological range and beyond.

I also have a long-standing passion for microscopy and bioimage analysis: during my postdoc I have contributed to testing and feature enhancement of Epitools , a napari plugin for epithelial tissue analysis. I have also led efforts to build and foster a community around bioimaging and image analysis at UCL and beyond through the UCL Bioimage Interest Group and more (see “service”).

PhD research

During my PhD at EMBL in the Lemke group, I have focused on the nuclear import properties of large cargoes in cells. I developed a large cargo model system for nuclear transport studies based on engineered virus-like particles, spanning the size range 18-36 nm and with tunable surface properties (number of nuclear localisation sequences, surface charge and hydrophobicity). By implementing an automated confocal imaging and image analysis pipeline I characterized the kinetics of nuclear import and the main factors affecting it. I complemented these experiments with higher resolution techniques, such as single-particle tracking and super-resolution microscopy to gain a more detailed understanding of the interaction between the cargoes and nuclear pore complexes.

Alongside my main PhD research project I was also involved in collaborations to develop advanced labelling techniques based on genetic code expansion to introduce minimal tags with site-specific targeting in a protein of interest sequence.

Previous projects

My Master’s thesis in Applied Physics (Supervisor: Prof. Remondini) was on statistical methods for the analysis of DNA sequences, with a particular focus on dinucleotide distribution in the human genome. Other Master’s projects included “TazBots”, a group project where we implemented a C++ agent-based model of a small ecosystem. We simulated a 2D environment where animals move, eat and interact with each other (biting), inspired by Tasmanian Devils and the challenge of Tasmanian Devil facial tumour disease, one of the few examples of a transmissible tumor. Another Master’s project was focused on a comparison of machine-learning and graph-based image analysis methods for the detection of microcalcification in mammograms.

My Bachelor’s thesis in Physics (Supervisor: Prof. Fantazzini) consisted in the characterization of an experimental setup for X-ray irradiation of cells in the low dose region.