Lara was born in northwest Italy and raised in the architecturally famous city of Vicenza near Venice. She knew from secondary school exactly where her future lay… in science… in particular, biology.
“I’ve always been open-minded but science made me more so. What I enjoyed about science, and still do, is the ability to apply science to solve a problem. To be able to identify and define the issue and use science to resolve it.”
Her secondary school was where Lara’s imagination and her love for genetics was ignited by one particular Biology Teacher who taught her about Gregor Mendel, ‘the father of genetics’ and his discovery of cross pollination studies in plants, as well as garden peas, to discover inherited traits.
From secondary school, Lara attended the world-leading research intensive university in Padova where she studied for 3 years to attain a degree in Molecular Biology which she found challenging but ultimately rewarding.
From Padua, Lara relocated to Rome to study for her Masters in Genetics and Molecular Biology. This was a 2 year course, but during her second year she joined a double degree programme, moving from Rome to Paris. She remained in Paris to undertake her PhD at the Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases, researching novel genes in the pathogenesis of congenital abnormalities of the kidney and urinary tract. Her projects involved working both in vitro and in vivo to investigate the development of the kidney which she found totally fascinating. Thereafter Lara moved to the UK and joined the University of Sheffield as a Research Associate in the Mirna Mustapha Lab working on the genetics and molecular heterogeneity of spiral ganglion neurons.
Earlier this year Lara joined the team at Cellomatics Biosciences as a specialist in genetics and molecular biology to help manage the ever-increasing demand for its preclinical and early discovery phase expertise, something which excites Lara.
“With my speciality in genetics and molecular biology, and Cellomatics preclinical work across various therapeutics areas, the opportunity to join Cellomatics seemed like a great fit. Since my joining, my role has expanded and no one day is the same which I thoroughly enjoy. Although my focus is still molecular biology, I’ve expanded my repertoire to cover other area such as inflammation.”
Lara has progressed quickly at Cellomatics and she now manages a small team of scientists and she is more client facing. As Cellomatics grows, Lara’s enjoyment of the work she does grows with it. “With Cellomatics working within pre-medical research areas, you know that what you are doing will make a difference, and that’s a good feeling.”
To find out more about current vacancies at Cellomatics, visit our careers page.
