July 1995: Chemistry Degree (summa cum laude), at the University of Naples Federico II presenting a thesis which received the "G. Laonigro" award from the Italian Chemical Society. 1995-1998: Ph. D. in Protein Crystallography, Department of Chemistry, University of Naples Federico II. 1998-1999: Temporary Fellow at the CNR Biocrystallography Research Center-Naples". 2003: Short-term fellowship award from the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization. June-Oct. 2003: Visiting scientist at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. May 2010: Visiting scientist at the University of Cambridge, UK. Since Dec. 2001: Permanent staff scientist at the CNR-IBB. My scientific interests lie in the general area of Structural Biology with an emphasis on computational techniques applied to the study of macromolecular systems. Indeed, my expertise in experimental macromolecular crystallography has been complemented by theoretical approaches such as statistical analyses on structural databases, molecular modeling, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The main results of my research activities have been achieved in the following fields: (i) the study of the deamidation process and its structural effects in proteins (ii) protein crystallization in microgravity conditions (iii) ultra-high resolution protein structural studies (iv) structural studies of extremophilic dehydrogenases (v) statistical analyses of databases to unveil novel details and properties of protein structures (vi) MD study of the dynamical behaviour of proteins and/or polypeptide fragments involved in the misfolding process, eventually leading to amyloid fiber formation (vii) MD study of DNA sequences with special reference to their sensitivity to UV photodamage (viii) the study of disease-causing mutations in human proteins.