I am a Physics Engineer with a Ph.D. in Physics and I am currently Senior Researcher at the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and member of the faculty in the School of Industrial and Information Engineering. My know-how is mainly on the development of new optical setups, preparation of biological samples for imaging and building pipelines for data processing.
My background is in physics and photonics, thanks to a BS and a MS in Engineering Physics. During my Master Thesis, I specialized in non-linear optics (Prof. Cerullo). During my Ph.D. in Politecnico di Milano my main research shifted in the field of time-resolved spectroscopy and advanced fluorescence microscopy. Concerning spectroscopy, I had the opportunity to study both inorganic and organic materials, like photocatalytic substates on one side and polymeric complexes for biology on the other. With fluorescence microscopy I explored the life science area. I then focused my activity on light-sheet fluorescence microscopy, in particular for the in vivo analysis of calcium dynamics in plant roots and in the zebrafish brain activations (done at the Biology Department of École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France). During my Postdoctoral Fellowship, I expanded my portfolio of samples and collaborations and I contributed to the development of novel instrumentation. During my Postdoctoral Fellowship in Politecnico di Milano I developed further my expertise on light sheet fluorescence microscopy, expanding the portfolio of samples and collaborations.
As Link Scientist at the Central Laser Facility (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK), I managed the light-sheet fluorescence microscopy laboratory and the related users’ program, supporting them from project draft to data collection and analysis, and boosted collaboration with companies. Here, I was able to carry out my own research while entering into contact with many different projects from the international community. I have been Visiting Researcher at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and I am still Visiting Scientist at the Central Laser Facility. Hence, my expertise has covered all the phases of the researches I have been involved with, from the scientific design to the final outcomes. These are the skills that I have brought with me at Politecnico di Milano as a Researcher.
Last but not least, to satisfy my desire to disseminate and reduce the gap between science and gender inequalities, I applied and have been selected to participate in the first cohort of the EIC Women Leadership Programme (WLP) run by the European Innovation Council. This programme offers a skills enhancement and networking trainings to further support the role of women in innovation and tech. Moreover, I have also been selected to participate at the MEKE (Museum Engagement for Knowledge Exchange) Public Engagement training, that runs in presence at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, Milano, Italy, that includes volunteering in the museum activities of dissemination to the public and secondary schools.

Career contributions:
I contributed to the development of a light sheet fluorescence microscopy laboratory in Politecnico di Milano, Italy, part of the LaserLab Europe facility network. This was one of the first laboratories developing the technique and applying it to innovative biological fields, like plant roots signalling (Candeo, Plant Cell Phys 2017), cardiovascular disease and neuroscience in zebrafish (Romano, PLOS Comput Bio 2017), regeneration in Hydra (Iachetta, Int. J. Dev. Biol , 2018), intestine dysfunction in murine (Candeo, J. Biomed. Opt. 2016).
I also contributed to the development of new technologies, starting with developments in laser science (Varillas, Opt. Lett 2014) and the focusing on the implementation of light sheet fluorescence microscopes in various research centres (Politecnico di Milano, Italy - ENS Paris, France - CLF, Didcot, UK) with collaboration with multiple institutions (Universita’ degli Studi di Milano, Mario Negri in Milano, INSERM in Paris, CLF in UK, Stellenbosch University in South Africa). I then designed and implemented a spectroscopy technique to study catalytic materials (Dozzi JPCC 2018, Omori JPCC 2019) and helped in the one of a novel time-resolved camera (Farina, Optics Express 2019). More recently, I developed an innovative hyperspectral microscope (Candeo APL photonics 2019) and a microscopy technique based on light sheet fluorescence microscopy applied to bio-printing, subject of the patent application through the United Kingdom Research and Innovation at the UK IPO on 31 January 2020 and the Invention Disclosure (Tech ID 0582) Inspection of biomaterials flow in 3D bioprinting by advanced microscopy, submitted 07/11/2019 at the Central Laser Facility. In the context of time-resolved diffuse optics, I contributed to a novel technique of instrument response function acquisition (Pirovano Bio Opt Express).