Narrative Biosketch
I conducted graduate studies in hematopoietic cell biology and gene transfer at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Alessandro Aiuti and of Prof. Maria Grazia Roncarolo. As a graduate student I established in vitro and in vivo systems for differentiation of human lymphoid cells, work that formed the foundation for demonstrating successful gene transfer and multilineage engraftment in the treatment of ADA-SCID. After obtaining a PhD in Immunology from the University of Ancona, Italy, I conducted my postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Cleary at Stanford University, California, US, to establish the role of the Pbx1 oncoprotein in hematopoiesis. I discovered that Pbx1 regulates self-renewal of hematopoietic stem cells by maintaining their quiescence, and that it restrains myeloid maturation while preserving lymphoid potential. I then joined Humanitas Clinical and Research Center as a senior postdoc within the Unit of Medical Biotechnologies and of Human Genome directed by Dr. Paolo Vezzoni and Dr. Anna Villa, upon obtaining a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant. In December 2011 I obtained a permanent position as Researcher with the National Research Council (CNR), which has a scientific agreement with Humanitas that allowed me to continue working in the same venue, and in 2017 I became a Junior Principal Investigator in Humanitas.