I graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Padova, Italy. After a postgraduate research placement funded by the European Oncolgy Institute of Milan working on PEGylation of avidin for tumour pretargeting, I joined the University of Vienna to investigate the mucoadhesive properties of thiolated chitosan.

I obtained my PhD from the University of Portsmouth, UK for my work on azopolymers for colonic drug drug delivery and became a lecturer at the same university in 2005. I am currently a senior lecturer in pharmaceutics in the School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences where I am continuing my research in drug delivery and novel biomaterials. 

My interest in applying hydrogel formulations to bone and cartilage tissue engineering has lead me to develop strong interdisciplinary collaborations and to provide my PhD students the opportunity to work in a multidisciplinary team learning state of the art techniques.

I am also passionate about supportining students who what to work and study abroad and I lead the development of new exciting opportunities of student exchange. 

• Hydrogels for drug delivery and tissue engineering

• 3D printing of hydrogels

• Biomedical applications of carbon nanotube and silver nanowires

• Development of composite bioceramics

• Development of peptides drug delivery systems

• Bone and cartilage tissue engineering