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Biography
I am a very curious person, especially when it comes to science, and this is the reason why I chose Pharmacy as my undergraduate degree. It gave me the opportunity to explore science from different points of view. I completed my MSc degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at University of Parma, Italy in 2013. For my final dissertation I worked on the biochemical characterization of human serine racemase, a protein that participates in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated signal transmission, and whose malfunctioning correlates to important pathologies such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Excitotoxicity.
In 2013, I joined the Centre for Doctoral Training in Targeted Therapeutics and Formulation Sciences. In the first year of the PhD programme I undertook two training mini-projects. The first one, based in UCL, was about developing and characterising polymeric nanoparticles for pulmonary administration of hydrophobic drugs, in my case Itraconazole. For my second mini-project I investigated the solubility of a compound in its salt form in order to aid the crystallisation process development and prevent salt disproportionation. This project was carried out in the department of chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage.
Expertise Summary
PhD project: Self-assembling polymers as carriers for topical drug delivery to the nail.
Supervisors: Sudaxshina Murdan (UCL), Giuseppe Mantovani (University of Nottingham), Nicola Cardy (Boots Alliance).
My PhD project focuses on the development of a family of novel polymeric self-assembled nanovectors, called polymersomes, for the topical delivery of antifungal agents to the nail. An effective topical delivery is fundamental to achieve successful treatment of onychomycosis and prevention of the side effects caused by systemic treatments.