Biochemist by training, I graduated at the Federico II University in Naples with a thesis on a phenol oxidase from P.ostreatus. I then decided to pursue human genetics research at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGeM, Naples). There I worked on the Fanconi anemia as research fellow first and as a PhD student then. I achieved my PhD in molecular medicine at the University of Trieste, where my research was focused on the identification and characterization of novel interactors of Fanconi anemia proteins in order to find new insights on the disease. After my PhD, I moved to Toronto to work at the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumor Research Centre (BTRC) at the Sickkids Hospital, intrigued by the connection between cell polarity, development and tumorigenesis. Having been exposed to brain tumor research for several years, I then joined the Tripodi lab as research support officer at the MRC-Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.