Silvia Picciolini graduated in pharmaceutical chemistry and technologies (CTF) at the University of Milan in March 2014. She spent one year at FDG obtaining research experience for her experimental thesis in collaboration with a spin-off of the Joint Research Centre (Ispra) aimed at the optimization of nanohole arrays as solid SERS substrates for the detection of genetic biomarkers of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), in order to evaluate the minimal residual disease. She was granted an AXA scholarship for the Raman analysis of lipids in the blood of Alzheimer’s patients. In 2019, she completed her PhD in Translational and Molecular Medicine at the University of Milano-Bicocca working at LABION on a project aimed at the detection and characterization of neuronal extracellular vesicles from human plasma, in order to identify their role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In particular, the intent was to design an SPRi-based biosensor for the simultaneous detection of these multiple complex circulating biomarkers using an extremely limited amount of peripheral blood. Now, she is applying the optimized SPRi platform for the rehabilitation monitoring of stroke patients. She is also working on the biophotonic characterization of liposomes as therapeutic agents for neurological diseases (NEVERMIND project). She is co-author of several publications in international peer-reviewed journals and abstracts of national and international conferences.
