Supervisors: Prof. Tommaso Giordani and Prof. Silvia Tavarini
Research field: Agricultural genetics
Research interests: Bioinformatics, Functional genomics, Molecular marker, Metabolic characterisation, Stevia rebaudiana
Department head office, via del Borghetto, 80, Pisa
samuel.simoni@phd.unipi.it
Samuel has an intense curiosity and enthusiasm for scientific discovery, constantly seeking to expand his plant biotechnology and bioinformatics knowledge and skills. Throughout his studies, he laid the foundations for a solid background in plant genetics. After his Bachelor in Biotechnology at the University of Verona, he obtained the Masters in Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Perugia. In addition to his academic path, he spent 7 months as a visiting worker at the Medical Research Council Harwell in Oxfordshire, UK, where he deepened his knowledge of molecular biology techniques.
During his PhD, he specialised in using bioinformatic tools to study functional and structural genomics of various species such as stevia, fig and olive. His main research focused on the metabolic and genetic characterisation of Stevia rebaudiana. As part of his PhD project, he characterised the stevia germplasm of the Dept. of Agriculture, Food, and Environment of the University of Pisa using molecular markers based on transposable elements and carrying out metabolic analyses of several secondary metabolites. He also performed transcriptomic analyses to find candidate genes involved in the biosynthesis of steviol glycosides and phenolic compounds in stevia.
