People

I am a molecular ecologist with a passion for ancient DNA studies. I am interested in studying how plants changed their distributions in response to climate and how they live and impact on cultural heritage material - statues and monuments. In my group we use modern plant DNA but also DNA isolated from a variety of ancient substrates like lake sediments, paintings, manuscripts, ancient manufacts to characterize samples important for historical, archeological or ecological reconstructions. To increase the taxonomic resolution of our identifications we are developing molecular techniques based on the shotgun sequencing and hybridization capture approach. 

Since 1994 I have worked in Sweden at Uppsala University and in 2020 I returned to Italy where I am Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome. I have a MSc in Agricultural Sciences (1991, Perugia University, Italy) and a PhD in Forest Genetics (2000, SLU Umeå, Sweden).

ALUMNI

Kevin Nota (Phd student) now at Max Plank Insitute, Liepzig; Eric Capo (guest Postdoc fellow); Francesca Benedetti (Erasmus student) Italy; Luca Turolo (Erasmus student) Italy; Katerina Tasiouli (Erasmus student) Greece; Tamara Van Steijn (Internship student); Maria Elisa Pierfederici (Internship student); Engy Ahmed  (Postdoc fellow); Anne von Woerkom (Visiting researcher) Umeå University, Sweden; Matias Tasel (BSc student); Masoumeh Aahmoudi Shamsabad (visiting PhD student) Iran; Giulia Ghirardello (Internship student); Katerina Günter (Internship student); Lu Han China (Postdoc fellow); Sonia Fontana(Postdoc fellow); Kathleen Crossen (visiting PhD student) Belfast; Kevin Fletcher (Internship student); Irina Matetovici (Internship student) Hungary; Linda Albinsson (BSc student).