I graduated in 2001 from the WWU Muenster with a Masters in Biology and followed this up with a PhD in Christian Klaembt's group at the same universtity. I focused on the effect of beta-spectrin in the embryonic development of the fruit fly’s nervous system. Afterwards I did a 3 years postdoc with Juan Pablo Labrador in Trinity College Dublin before I joined Mani's group in late 2009. My research here initially revolved around particle formation and regulation of local translation with a special focus on the intrinsic effect of the poly-Q domains of Ataxin2. The results of this study has led me to get interested in the function of low complexity domains in relation to toxic protein/RNA aggregate formation in neurodegenerative disease progression.

Graduated in Biology, I performed my Ph.D. thesis on the differentiation of mouse neural stem cells. Specifically, I investigated the role of apoptosis-associated micro-RNAs during the differentiation process. After exploring biological processes at the level of the cell in vitro, I decided to switch to a new research field that would allow me to study the nervous system at the level of the whole organism. Thus, I joined the lab of Dr. Maria Luísa Vasconcelos at the Champalimaud Foundation in Potugal to study the neurobiology of mating decisions in Drosophila. As such, my work in the last years has focused on the identification and characterization of circuit elements associated with female receptivity behavior. In order to complement my understanding about how neural circuits are organized and how they generate specific behaviors, I have recently joined the lab of Prof. Mani Ramaswami where I am focusing on the neural circuit regulating olfactory habitation.

I completed my undergraduate in 2016 in Cellular Biology and Physiology in the Université of Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, which I followed up with a Master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Bordeaux. During this master’s degree I completed two internships: I worked with Dr. Andrew Harkin on the effect of NMDAr modifiers on neuronal spines in rodents (David J, et al. Behave Brain Res. 2019), and I worked with Dr. Benoit Cottereau in the CNRS in Toulouse on the cortical networks involved in processing binocular disparity in the Macaque brain. Finally, I moved to Dublin in 2018 to work as a research assistant within Mani’s lab studying genes related to neurodegeneration and how they affect the climbing behaviour of Drosophila.

I graduated in Biological sciences at the University of Pavia (Italy) in 2015, there I got my Master degree in Molecular biology and genetics in 2017. During my master I joined Professor Maga’s laboratory where I focused on an RNA helicase, DDX3, and its role in viral infection. As part of my master I moved to Ireland for my Erasmus Traineeship where I studied DDX3 role in breast cancer. For my Ph.D I decided to join Professor Ramaswami’s laboratory to study the nervous system at whole organism level. My project is aimed to uncover special and temporal requirements of new protein synthesis in long-term habituation and memory using as model Drosophila melanogaster.

I am a PhD student in the lab starting from Autumn 2017 and an alumnus of the department of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin. My areas of research and interest are the mechanisms by which the intrinsically disordered domains of the Ataxin-2 protein are involved in the progression of neurodegeneration as well as the application of findings from Drosophila experiments to the human scenario. I hope to translate our lab’s insights into potential therapeutic approaches for several types of neuronal degeneration, including ALS. Hiking, painting and mechanical tinkering are some of my favourite pastimes.