I have completed my PhD in Cellular and Developmental Biology at “Sapienza” University of Rome in 2013 in collaboration King’s College London. Since then, I have been a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London working in the transplantation field. During my PhD, I gained an extensive experience in the characterization of human regulatory T cells (Tregs), in testing immunosuppressive drugs (such as rapamycin and all-trans retinoic acid) for ex vivo human Treg expansion and designed novel protocols to purify and expand Treg cell subsets from peripheral blood. I have also been involved in other projects including the generation of inducible Treg cells (iTregs), the role of exosomes on Treg biology and the effect of expanded Treg on monocytes.

In 2014, I joined the UK Regenerative Medicine Platform (UKRMP). My research focus has been to understand how complement activation could affect the prospect of stems cells being successfully used for cell therapy. In 2016, I won the Travel Awards to pre-sent my work at the International Complement Workshop (ICW) in Japan. I am currently carrying on the immune profiling studies of stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells to test their immunogenicity for their use in regenerative medicine.