Valeria Losasso studied for a degree in biotechnology in Modena, “a beautiful, not too big town in Northern Italy. I studied for my BSc between 2000 and 2003. The course structure included the choice of a specialised path starting from the second semester of the second year. I chose Pharmaceutical Biotechnology." She went on to gain two PhDs before joining STFC more than seven years ago.
She is now a Senior Computational Scientist and has, until recently, been working on antimicrobial peptides (used in antibiotics and other medicines). She has just started a project on cryoEM (cryo-electron microscopy) maps of proteins and describes her work as “using powerful computers to save costs and time while searching for new drugs"
She is also supervising a PhD student on the modelling part of his project in collaboration with Unilever, for whom she has done several projects on drug discovery. “The best part of my role is definitely interacting with people from different backgrounds. Finding a common language is challenging in a positive way. Also, having the chance to be constantly learning new things."
