I am a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the University of Valencia, where I investigate the complex interactions between insects, their pathogens, and host plants. My work seeks to understand how these players influence each other’s biology and ecology, with the broader goal of deciphering how insects respond to—and shape—their environment.
I earned my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Plant Biotechnology from the University degli Studi of Milan, followed by a PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Valencia, funded by a V Segles grant. I then continued my research abroad: first as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Germany), working on plant–insect interactions;
later at the Fondazione Edmund Mach (Italy) through a Marie Curie Slodowska fellowship, focusing on insect olfaction; and subsequently at the University degli Studi of Pavia, studying insect–mosquito interactions. Throughout my career, I have worked with diverse insect groups—from lepidopteran pests to mirids, fruit flies, and mosquitoes—an approach that has shaped my research philosophy: to follow scientific questions rather than specific model organisms. I now apply this perspective to study tritrophic systems involving insects, their pathogens, and plants, integrating molecular biology, chemical ecology, and genomics to uncover the mechanisms underlying these interactions.
