I trained in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies at the University of Naples Federico II before moving to the University of Glasgow, where I completed a PhD in Immunology as a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher. My doctoral and early postdoctoral research focused on osteoimmunology, investigating how inflammatory environments alter myeloid cell differentiation, osteoclast formation and multinucleation.

I subsequently joined the University of California San Diego, where I studied rheumatoid arthritis and therapeutic target validation, investigating how disease-associated changes in synovial fibroblast biology could be functionally modulated. I later returned to the University of Glasgow, extending this approach to human inflammatory disease tissues and combining spatial and single-cell technologies with functional models to identify cellular pathways associated with disease persistence, treatment response and potential therapeutic intervention.

I am currently an Arthritis UK Career Development Fellow, developing an independent research programme focused on the mechanisms that sustain persistent and relapsing inflammation. My work centres on myeloid cell biology and multinucleated giant cells, and on how their function is shaped by B cell interactions, immune memory and the wider tissue microenvironment. Using giant cell arteritis as a key disease model, I aim to identify mechanisms that are shared across immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and translate these insights into new therapeutic opportunities and biomarkers that can support more precise, biology-informed approaches to treatment.

My research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that sustain chronic inflammation, tissue damage and therapeutic resistance in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. A major interest is the myeloid compartment, including macrophage differentiation, cellular fusion and the biology of multinucleated cells, and how these processes are shaped by the surrounding tissue immune environment. I am particularly interested in how B cells, myeloid cells and stromal cells interact within diseased tissues, how immune memory contributes to persistent or recurrent inflammation, and how pathological processes such as granulomatous inflammation are shared across different diseases.

My group combines spatial transcriptomics, single-cell and immune-repertoire sequencing, multiplex tissue imaging and epigenetic profiling with patient-derived in vitro and ex vivo models. The overarching aim is to move from detailed analysis of human disease tissue to mechanistic understanding, therapeutic target discovery and more precise approaches to patient stratification.

List by: Type | Date

Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.

• Unpacking the B Cell-Macrophage Interplay in Giant Cell Arteritis and Treatment-Resistant Granulomatous Inflammation
  Arthritis UK
  2026 - 2031
   
• Mapping B-cell biology across the cardiovascular territories of giant cell arteritis: towards a new therapeutic approach
  British Heart Foundation
  2025 - 2027
   
• Identification of novel drug targets for large vessel vasculitis
  Vasculitis UK
  2023 - 2025
   
• Characterising The Spatial Transcriptomic Immune Cell Signature of Large Vessel Vasculitis for Drug Target Discovery
  Tenovus Scotland
  2023 - 2024