PhD (Quantitative Biology), University of Texas Arlington, USA
MS (Conservation and Evolution), University of Pisa, Italy
BS (Natural Sciences), University of Pisa, Italy
Giulia was born and raised in Milan (northern Italy). In 2008 she moved to Tuscany to study ethology and neurobiology (BS) at first, and then population and conservation genetics (MS).
In In 2015 she left Italy to join Todd Castoe’s snake genomics lab in Texas (USA). Under his mentorship, Giulia focused on the characterization of transposable elements (TEs) in squamate reptiles in order to understand broad patterns of vertebrate genome evolution and transposable element biology.
While working on the dissertation, Giulia found her true scientific call: to work on TEs in respect to their relationships with the host – and so to provide her contribution to this fascinating field.
In Ed’s lab she has been combining wet and dry lab techniques to study the role of TE-derived alterative peptide isoforms in host-pathogen evolutionary arms-races.
Since joining the lab, Giulia has also found another call: road bike hill climb, which she combines with running, skiing, and pole dancing when not playing computer games or reading (mostly in her free time).