2016-       Professor in Developmental Biology and Genomics

2013- 16  Senior Lecturer, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

2006-13   Lecturer, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

2001-06   Junior Group Leader Max-Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany

2000-01  Postdoctoral Fellow, Max-Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg, Germany

As human and other animal embryos develop, many different cell types must be generated at the right place and time.  Because all the descendant cells of a unicellular embryo share the same genome, differentiation is achieved when cells use different portions of this common genome and transcribe different genes. Interactions between regulatory elements in the genome and a vast range of transcription factors modulate transcription; these combinatorial interactions are highly dynamic, tissue-specific and time-dependent.  

 My research group uses the latest genomics technologies to study development in human, mouse, chick and fish embryos. We generate and integrate data on chromatin states, occupancy of transcriptional regulators (ChIP-seq) and transcriptional profiles (RNA-seq), to decipher the transcriptional networks that guide apparently similar blocks of tissue into forming anatomical structures such as the face, the ear and the heart.  

1996   PhD, University of  Genoa, Italy and Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria

1989   Degree in Biological Sciences, University of Genoa, Italy