Welcome to my site and thanks for visiting!

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at NTNU, Trondheim, under the supervision of Dr. Edvard Moser. My long-term career goal is to understand the role of different types of neurons in the development of neuronal circuits.

During the development of the nervous system, millions of neurons are generated in specific regions, from where they migrate to populate different areas of the brain. Once neurons are in their final position they start to talk to each other creating synapses and neuronal networks. Interestingly, some of these circuits will only be present during development. But not only. There are specific types of neurons that are present only at this stage.

During my Ph.D. I became fascinated with one of these transient types of neurons, the Cajal-Retzius cells. These cells play a fundamental role during brain development, by releasing a protein that guides other neurons in place. Cajal-Retzius cells are present in all the cortical regions of the brains, but while in the neocortex they die soon after birth, they survive much longer in some areas of the brain, such as the hippocampal region. Why? What role do they have during these stages of postnatal development?

My research focuses on answering these questions, by combining molecular, cellular and system neuroscience techniques to unravel the function of Cajal-Retzius cells. The project has received funding in 2019 from the European Commission through a MSCA Individual fellowship.

In this website you will find updates about my project, publications and conferences.