Chiara got her PhD with honors in 2016. For the high quality of her work, she also got the certification for the European Doctorate (Doctor Europaeus).

She won for two years  the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi Post-Doctoral Fellowship, in 2018 and 2019. Actually, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Information Engineering and an affiliate researcher at the Research Center "E. Piaggio".

Main research focuses:

1. Development of open-source imaging methods for tissue processing, single neuron segmentation and 3D morphometric extraction from confocal/two-photon datasets representing densely-packed neurons in their native arrangement within the brain. The quantitative morphological analysis of the micro-structure could be useful to better understand the structure-function relationship within the brain. In particular, the algorithms she developed was used to study sexual dimorphism in murine models of autism and to unravel human claustral micro-architecture. Recently, she is adapting the algorithms she developed for single-cell 3D reconstruction and 3D morphometric extraction, to map human brain organoids micro-structure.

2. Oxygen and metabolism measurements in vitro and allometric scaling. The real-time monitoring of cellular behaviour in in vitro constructs at different complexity (from traditional monolayers, up to organoids) is crucial for defining quantitative metrics for determining the physiological relevance of engineered constructs.

Arti Ahluwalia was born in Kenya and educated in the UK. She has a B.Sc. Physics from Univerisity of Bath,  M.Sc. in Instrumentation and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester (formerly UMIST), UK and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy. Her research interests are in in-vitro models of integrative pathophysiology and associated innovative materials and advanced cell culture systems. She is also involved in capacity building in the field of Biomedical Engineering, in association with UNECA, FABLAB Pisa and ABEC (the African Biomedical Engineering Consortium).

She is Full Professor of Bioengineering and Director of the Interuniversity Center for the Promotion of the 3Rs Principles in Teaching and Research (Centro 3R). Although highly multidisciplinary in nature, her research has centered on the interaction between biological systems and man-made devices or structures focused on the creation of human- based organ and system models in-vitro and in-silico models using soft and smart materials, cells and tissue derivatives, cell imaging, computational methods and intelligent bioreactor design as a way towards understanding tissue cross talk and how this cross talk is used to orchestrate systemic physiology. The applications span from disease models to alternatives to animal testing. 

Current projects are on tissue regeneration, biosensing, bioreactors, in-vitro metabolism (SINERGIA), biomimetic systems for the replacement of animal tests and nanotoxicology (Patrols), advanced imaging (DataBrain, SENSEI) and open biomedical engineering in education (UBORA, ABEM). 

Nicola Vanello, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione and the Research Center “E. Piaggio” at the University of Pisa. He received his Degree in Electronic Engineering, with a curriculum in Biomedical Engineering, in 2001 from the University of Pisa, Italy. He received his PhD in Automatics, Robotics and Bioengineering from the Department of Electrical Systems and Automation of University of Pisa, on 2006.

His research activity is related to models and methods for biomedical signal and image processing. In particular, his skills concern the study of cerebral functions in complex cognitive tasks, and the development of exploratory and confirmatory models for data analysis, using electroencephalography. His research interests include the analysis of datasets representing neuronal cells. He is actually coordinating SENSEI, a Partnering Project of the Human Brain Project. 

Rachele Fabbri is a PhD student in Information Engineering at the University of Pisa, where she is part of the Human-Relevant Models research group. She got both her B.Sc. in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering and M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florence. 

Her current research is focused on the development of a computational model of single neuron where the dependency on oxygen availability is introduced. This framework can be used to model in vitro monolayers of neurons and assess the effects of the concentration of oxygen on the firing behavior of the cells.  

Rachele has also experience with artificial intelligence tools, such as machine learning and deep learning, used for the development of computer-aided decision support systems in different clinical settings. 

Almost one year ago she got my Master Degree in Medical Biotechnologies at University of Bologna, with a thesis on Cellular Biology, but during my studies she also approached the fields of Nanosciences and Biomedical Engineering. An experience abroad helped her to see Scientific research from a different point of view, and to appreciate interdisciplinarity and sharing of knowledge. With a strong motivation, she recently started her pHD studies in Neurosciences, and she will focus my research activity on advanced cellular models of the human brain, focusing sleep and wake states in vitro.

Federico Tozzi is a PhD student in Information Engineering at the University of Pisa, where he earned his Bachelor and Master’s Degreen in Biomedical Engineering. Both of his theses were focused on imaging and image processing. A short period abroad has improved his practical skills with microscopy and image acquisition. Before starting his PhD, he had studied image processing algorithms used to segment neurons from images of high-density networks thanks to a scholarship.

His current research is focused on the development of new methods to characterize the microstructure and metabolism of human brain organoids subject to physiological and altered sleep-wake rhythms.

Vanessa Vasquez is the Project Manager forthe NAP research project. After her degree in European languages and cultures, she specialised as literature translator at Pisa university. Having a a long experience in the public sector, she is now excited to provide admistrative support to this project as she strongly believes in the value of scientific research. 

She also firmly believes that people who share their knowledge and experience can more easily reach their goals.

Ad maiora semper!

Patrizia Granella received the master degree in Sociology from the University of Pisa and the PhD in Politics, Human Rights and Sustainability from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa.

Since 2014 she started working in the Management Office of the Research Center “E. Piaggio”. She is currently a project manager for international and national research projects in Robotics and Bioingeenering areas.

She is also involved in the preparation of projects proposals and takes care of administrative and financial aspects related to research funds.

In the last years she also gained experience as Editorial Assistant of important Robotics Journals such as Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR).