Hi everyone, I’m Chiara! Ever since I was young, I’d always be in awe at the little critters that would quickly hide in the shallow water of a pond if I would get too close to it. It was mesmerizing to me (and it still is, to be fair!) how extraordinarily interesting such small creatures could be. After a BSc in Biology (where I could get a glimpse of the wonders and mysteries of life) at the University of Pavia I pursued a MSc in Bioinformatics for Computational Genomics at the University of Milan: while genes transformed into codes on my computer screen I discovered just how much I liked how the “bio” and the “informatics” would complement each other in order to make sense out of complicated biological data. During my MSc I also had the privilege of staying at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Tübingen under the supervision of Christian Rödelsperger.
Currently my PhD project revolves around transposable elements in Aedes albopictus (the dreaded asian tiger mosquito): we want to see if and how thermal stress is responsible for an increase in their transposition activity, thus possibly providing mosquitoes with enhanced adaptive capabilities.
Besides mosquitoes, I am deeply interested in eco-evo-devo and population genetics and in my free time I like to organize events, paint, read a lot of books and learn more about other very cool organisms (like ants and tunicates!).
Search for Chiara Albertini's papers on the Publications page