About me
Giulia is an assistant professor at the Department of Global Public Health and an affiliated fellow at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Division of Nanobiotechnology at SciLifeLab. Giulia's research is focussing on the development and understanding of point-of-care diagnostics in context of low-resource settings. She holds a fully funded VR International postdoctoral scholarship for development research and she is part of the "HoliCARE" consortium, funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
Giulia did her PhD studies at the Department of Neuroscience, at Karolinska Institutet and during her doctorate, she has managed several projects, ranging from Global Health advocacy events (Global Health Night) to scientific seminars series, online courses and outreach activities for the general public. She co-funded the course "Gender Health and Rights" based on Stanford's MOOC "International Women's Health and Human Rights". Giulia holds a Master of Law in Medical Law and Ethics from the university of Edinburgh and she is passionated about equitable development of novel technologies.
Giulia is a board member of the Swedish Organization for Global Health and a member of the Karolinska Institutet's Kulturrådet.
Research description
Translational research within global health depends not only on developing novel technologies and therapies, but also in understanding the context and how to deliver it to the population in need. Crucial to the success of novel diagnostic system is the technological feasibility and acceptability to end-users. It is therefore not surprising that many diagnostic prototypes have failed at this stage, due to poor understanding of the context and of the end-users.
In our team we are interested in the development of low-cost diagnostics. We work closely with end-users to design and develop test having their perspectives directly at the development and implementation stage.
In the quest to design low-cost and less invasive diagnostics, we also aim to investigate potential protein biomarkers that can characterise and distinguish between bacterial, viral and unclassified infections in children and determine the severity of the infections, using massive protein profiling.
Teaching portfolio
Giulia is active in the Programmes of Biomedicine and in the SciLifeLab's Molecular Techniques in Life Science providing teaching, research placement, and support with the integration of Agenda 2030 in the Programmes.
Giulia is contributing to Master's Programme in Global Health, as a master thesis examiner and providing research placements for the students' thesis.
Education
LL.M in Medical Law and Ethics, School of Law, University of Edinburgh, UK
Ph.D. in Medical Science, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
M.Sc. in Biomedicine, Karolinska Institutet
B.Sc. in Biotechnology, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy
Academic honours, awards and prizes
- Horizon (HORIZON-HLTH-2021-DISEASE-04), partner Karolinska Institutet
- Co-Applicant Vetenskapsrådet VR-Link Grant for Cholera Diagnostic in Nigeria
- International Postdoc grant, Swedish Research Council, Vetenskapsrådet
- Svenska Läkaresällskapet (SLS) Project grant
- Co-Applicant Vetenskapsrådet VR-Link Grant for Diagnostic research in Eastern Africa
- EIT Health DPhil/PhD Transition Fellowship, Silver Award
- Women in Global Health Sweden list (2018)
- Recipient of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) summer scholarship (2017)
- The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT)
- Capstone Award (2017)
- EU “Year of Development” Grant for Global Health Night initiative (2015)
- Karolinska Institute’s travel grant (2014)
- Undergraduate’s Academic Scholarship “Giovanni Dalle Fabbriche” Foundation (2007), (2008)