Biosketch: Giorgia Bolognesi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and the Centre for Genome Biology at the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences of the University of Bologna.
Her research activity focuses on human-environment interaction, genetic and epigenetic variability, and forensic anthropology, focusing especially on chronological and biological age estimation.
After obtaining a B.Sc. in Natural Sciences and an M.Sc. in Biodiversity and Evolution at the University of Bologna, where she acquired expertise in physical and molecular anthropology, she continued her research activities as a postgraduate researcher and worked as a biotechnologist on the cruise ship AIDAPerla for the analysis of COVID-19 molecular swabs and rapid antigen tests.
During her PhD in Oncology, Hematology and Pathology at the University of Bologna, Giorgia studied DNA methylation as a tool to investigate the impact of environmental contaminants on human biodiversity and health, particularly in terms of methylation profiles variability, epimutations, epigenetic aging, and analysis of repetitive elements in the genome.She also collaborated in an interdisciplinary research team composed of hydrogeologists and anthropologists to investigate the dynamics of contamination distribution in groundwater through DNA tracers.
Her educational experience also included training at the company Personal Genomics (Verona, Italy) and the summer school "Statistical Data Analysis for Genome-Scale Biology" organised by the European Bioconductor Society.
Giorgia actively participated in several research papers and the filing of the patent application “Method for estimating chronological age from DNA methylation levels in human dental tissue” (No. 102024000024519). Currently, she is also a teaching assistant for the Forensic Molecular Biology course of the MSc in Biodiversity and Evolution.
In 2022, the contribution titled “The effect of chlorinated solvents on human DNA methylation variability” presented by Giorgia at the 24th Congress of the Italian Anthropological Association was awarded Best Poster in the Molecular Anthropology section.
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Contacts: giorgia.bolognesi7@unibo.it
Website: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giorgia.bolognesi7
Research interests