Entomologist & Junior Business Developer

• Sep 2022 - Present

Research Intern

• May 2022 - Nov 2022

As part of the WUR Plant Breeding - Insect and Non-Host Resistance Group, this project aimed at assessing how the performance of a mirid predator might be impacted by the variation in plant defense traits in wild tomato plants while infested by the green peach aphid. This seeks to lay the basis for future breeding programmes of indirect defense recovery/enhancement. As part of the WUR Plant Breeding - Insect and Non-Host Resistance Group, this project aimed at assessing how the performance of a mirid predator might be impacted by the variation in plant defense traits in wild tomato plants while infested by the green peach aphid. This seeks to lay the basis for future breeding programmes of indirect defense recovery/enhancement.

MSc Student

• Feb 2020 - Nov 2022

Master Thesis Student

• Nov 2020 - Dec 2021

MSc Thesis at the Lab of Entomology entitled ‘Neuronal and behavioral responses to variation in plant volatiles by the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata’. Observations on the effects of cabbage-derived volatiles on the location of Pieris brassicae caterpillars by C. glomerata by means of gas chromatography, electroantennography and wind tunnel assays.

Janitor

• Jun 2022 - Oct 2022

Cleaning of offices, toilets and laboratories of Radix (Wageningen University Campus) Cleaning of offices, toilets and laboratories of Radix (Wageningen University Campus)

Research Intern

• Mar 2022 - Apr 2022

Internship at the Netherlands Instituut voor Ecologie (NIOO-KNAW) in the context of the ‘Smart Parasitoids’ project. This project aims at improving the host-finding ability of the parasitoids for biological control of mealybugs in rose and orchid greenhouses by means of behavioural assays. Internship at the Netherlands Instituut voor Ecologie (NIOO-KNAW) in the context of the ‘Smart Parasitoids’ project. This project aims at improving the host-finding ability of the parasitoids for biological control of mealybugs in rose and orchid greenhouses by means of behavioural assays.

Student

• Oct 2016 - Oct 2019

Bachelor Thesis Student

• Mar 2019 - Sep 2019

I spent the last semester of my bachelor’s interning at Dr. Emanuela Gobbi’s research lab as part of the agro-food and environmental microbiology platform of the Università degli Studi di Brescia. I attended the lab daily practicing using lab equipment, especially the ViiA 7 Real-Time PCR System, the agarose gel electrophoresis system, PureLink® RNA Mini Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) for total RNA extraction, DNA-freeTM DNase Treatment & Removal (Invitrogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) for DNAremoval, Nanodrop 2000 Spectrophotometer (NanoDrop Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) for nucleic acids quantification and quality check and First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) for RT-PCR. Besides, I had the opportunity of improving my skills to use bioinformatic tools, such as BLAST®, NCBI, EMBOSS Sixpack and Primer3Plus; in fact, a significant part of my thesis regarded the design of species-specific primers, together with their validation and calibration. Show less