Dr. Federica Scucchia

I'm currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Martindale Lab at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida (US). My research focuses on utilizing the starlet sea anemone Nematostella vectensis as a universal expression platform to investigate various aspects of the evolution of biomineralization for environmental restoration purposes (e.g. coral reef enhancement). I'm using a variety of techniques including molecular biology, protein engineering and high resolution in vitro and vivo characterization of biomaterial properties.

I completed my PhD in Prof Tali Mass' Lab at the University of Haifa, Israel. My research focused on the influence of environmental factors on the physiology, morphology and gene expression of stony corals across life stages.

I pursued my Master’s under a joint program between the University of Bologna and the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), where I focused on coral biology and gene expression. While at UCSB, I obtained the AAUS Scientific Diving certification.