Vanessa Aragona completed her M.Sc. in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Perugia (Italy), studying various mechanisms by which tumors evade the immune system. She pursued her interest in health and disease as a research fellow at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Milan, Italy), where she helped to identify powerful biomarkers associated with clinical response to a promising immunotherapy for malignant B-cell tumors. Fascinated by the role of the immune system not only in tumors but also during human development, she became particularly interested in the complexity of the brain.

Vanessa is currently a PhD student (MEM) at Humanitas College (Milan, Italy) in the Laboratory of Developmental Neurobiology of Simona Lodato, where she is combining her expertise in medical biotechnology with a deep interest in brain development, using cutting-edge techniques to model neurodevelopmental diseases and better understand the inner workings of the brain.