Biographical Sketch
Marta is originally from Naples (Italy). During her studies at the high school, she discovered a strong interest in biological sciences which gave her the reason to enroll in a Bachelor’s Degree in Health Biotechnologies at University of Naples “Federico II”. At the same university, she decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Medical Biotechnologies where she got familiar with many scientific fields such as genetics, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology. During her Master’s thesis, she did an internship of 2 years at the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM) in Naples, where she experienced the essential concepts and techniques of cell and molecular biology. After graduation, she won a scholarship grant in the same laboratory for 1 year where she worked on a project in the cancer field with an important translational value.
This experience further confirmed her desire to follow a research career. She has been always fascinated by the different mechanisms of protein trafficking operating in mammalian cells under pathological and physiological conditions. This passion provides her a solid motivation to pursue a PhD experience in a different country. In 2019, she got accepted as PhD student in the Institute of Physiology at the Department of Inherithed kidney disease at University of Zurich under the supervision of Prof.Dr.Med Olivier Devuyst. She is currently working on understanding the mechanisms of inherithed kidney disorders including uromodulin-associated kidney diseases. With a multilevel approach, based on in vitro and in vivo studies, the aim of the project is to gain insight into the role of uromodulin in the context of common CKD and rare mendelian disorders like ADTKD.