Born in a little village near Venice, Italy, Arianna pursued her interest in life sciences at the Università degli Studi di Padova. After her Bachelor’s in molecular biology, she decided to join the double degree program between the Master’s in molecular biology from the University of Padova and the Master in genetics at Université Paris Cité, obtaining both diplomas in 2018. Enthusiastic of her first experience with yeast genetics, she decided to continue her Master’s project under the supervision of Dr. Palancade and obtained a PhD student position to join his newly formed “RNA biogenesis and genome homeostasis” group at Institut Jacques Monod in Paris, France. During her doctoral work she studied the spatial regulation of mRNA metabolism, characterizing cytoplasmic and nuclear pathways targeting potentially harmful mRNA-containing structures to nuclear pore complexes. Having acquired a deep appreciation for the meticulousness with which biological events are coordinated within cells, down to the precise positioning of individual molecules, she decided to join the Vastenhouw lab as a post-doc in 2023. Here she aims at exploiting zygotic genome activation to investigate molecular mechanisms by which cells spatially and temporally orchestrate gene expression programmes.

​

Outside of science, she continues to satiate her curiosity by listening to a wide variety of podcasts, which serve as a soundtrack both to her work at the bench and her free time, when she tries to improve her cooking and sewing skills.