Benedetta is from Italy and began her studies at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia where she obtained a bachelor degree in Biotechnology. She then continued at the University of Verona, where she gained a master degree in Molecular and Medical Biotechnology. During her time in Verona, Benedetta became interested in computational genomics, which she explored during her time at prof. Malerba’s laboratory, where she analysed a variety of transcriptomics data in the translational setting. Benedetta is experienced in RNA-seq analysis, programming, statistical analysis and general data mining. Prior to graduating university, Benedetta has also gained experience in the industrial setting working for a biotechnology company delivering toxicology reports to clients in the pharmaceutical industry.

Following her interest in bioinformatics, she is now pursuing an industrial PhD at Cell Networks - Metisox,a company based in Germany and UK that operates research and development in the fields of systems biology and applied bioinformatics and provides related services

Abstract
Current public knowledge of ciliary function, including ciliary transport, ciliogenesis and signalling, remains woefully underrepresented in public databases. The aim of Benedetta’s project is thus to expand the current set of cilia-relevant pathways via the integration of bioinformatics data, curation of established biological pathways, and modelling of novelly discovered biological pathways associated with healthy and damaged ciliary conditions into online databases such as SysWiz. In order to achieve this goal, she will both automate parts of the curation process , i.e. the interrogation of literature and datasets of multi-omics data, and put the findings of the SCiLS project partners into a complete context in order for them to be exploited and understood fully.

The ultimate aim is to create an online platform for ciliopathies wherein the user/researcher is able to differentiate between overlapping ciliopathies by the means of conclusions of various pathways and omics data that are unique to each pathology. These platforms can be exploited for various means such as drug discovery and treatment regimens as well as more detailed independent research into the aetiology of various forms of ciliopathies.