My scientific background is in Cell Biology with main experience in neural and immune cells. I studied neurobiology at University of Bologna (Italy) and received the PhD at The Theodor Kocher Institute in Bern (Switzerland). I investigated immune cell signaling in Cambridge UK at The Babraham Institute before moving to USA. Cell response and cross talk between different cell membrane receptors was the focus of my research on immune cells at FELS Institute of Temple U. (Philadelphia, PA, USA), and on neural cells at Dep. Of Pharmacology and Physiology, College of Medicine at Drexel U. (Philadelphia, PA, USA). Back to my home country, I have been involved in a 3-year project (NINIVE, FP6) aimed at the use of carbon nanotubes for gene delivery in the brain at the Neuroscience Institute CNR (Pisa, Italy). Since late 2006 I try to understand how engineered nanoparticles can interact with cells and which physiological/pathological results we could expect by their interaction. Recently, I have been offered a position at the Center for Nanotechnology Innovation @ NEST (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia), where I am responsible for the investigation on the possible adverse effects of engineered nanomaterials.