Role
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Università degli Studi di Trieste and Head of the Molecular Biology and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MolBNL@UniTS) at the Università degli Studi di Trieste.
Bio
A graduate in Chemistry and licensed to practice from the Università degli Studi di Trieste, she conducted research at the Area Science Park and served as a researcher at the Faculty of Engineering in Trieste, where she has been an associate professor of Chemical Engineering since 2002. Scientific director of the Molecular Biology and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MolBNL@UniTS), she directs the Life Science research line, applying advanced principles of molecular engineering and high-performance computing (HPC) to structural biology, the design of new drugs, and nanostructures.
Her research combines computational modeling and experimentation to study the relationships between structure and properties in complex systems. She has distinguished herself for pioneering studies on leukemia , and in particular chronic myeloid leukemia , demonstrating how mutations in the BCR-ABL1 protein induce drug resistance . In the field of nanotechnology , she has developed specific dendrimeric nanovectors capable of delivering RNA fragments for the therapy of various tumors .
Her molecular simulation studies investigate protein conformation and antibody interactions, extending during the pandemic to the analysis of the Spike protein of the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 . Affiliated with leading scientific societies in biology, chemical engineering, and rheology, she boasts a large production of high-impact publications in international journals.