Alessia Soru

My name is Alessia, born in 1998, and science has become my greatest passion since I discovered during my studies how human beings are able to modify the mechanisms underlying life.

I believe I have always been a curious person: I remember that as a child, the few times I heard adults talking about tumors, I was scared and fascinated, and I didn't even know what they were. I thought: how can something so small cause so much damage?

However, I never thought I could become a researcher. I started to hope to become one in my last year of the undergraduate course in industrial biotechnology, after the internship at UC Berkeley, where I had the opportunity to study the regulation of the mTORC1 protein complex in cancer processes. Being able to regulate what is invisible to the human eye amused me, but above all, only then did I understand how science can truly change people's lives. My goal in life is to become a researcher capable of contributing to improving people's health, life, and well-being.

After an Erasmus at the University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, immersed for a semester in the world of green biotech, I obtained a Master's degree in Criminology with a thesis that analyzed genetic dysfunctions in mtDNA and their therapeutic implications, opening new frontiers in the fight against mitochondrial diseases.

Certain of my passion for the world of oncology, during my master's degree in Medical Biotechnology, I had the opportunity to approach the world of non-coding RNAs in relation to cancer, studies that I still carry on today thanks to a research grant at the Non-coding RNAs and Cancer Biomarkers laboratory at the University of Bologna. Alongside my master's degree, I had the opportunity to interface with a company that introduced me to the world of hi-tech, particularly the metaverse.

In recent years, I have cultivated three great passions: science, technology, and graphics, with the hope of being able to combine them one day.