Bio.

I am a PhD student in the La Manno Lab in Computational Biology at EPFL, Switzerland, to fuel my desire to contribute to therapeutics and basic understanding for neurodevelopmental diseases.

After a Mention of merit in the International Biology Olympiad in 2017, I earned a scholarship for merit at the Scuola Normale Superiore, where I developed a strong quantitative background thanks to supplementary courses in the mathematical, physical, computational, and engineering fields, while graduating in Biology and in Molecular Biotechnologies at the University of Pisa. My first research internships at the EPFL in Lausanne, IMB in Mainz, and the Scuola Normale Superiore have been in bioinformatics and molecular biology, also working on aging pathways with the Cellerino Lab and mitochondrial RNA import with the Cremisi Lab.

In 2022, I’ve defended my Master’s thesis on the genomics of rare, monogenic neurological disorders with childhood-onset at the Yu Lab (Boston Children’s Hospital/ Harvard Medical School), also thanks to the Ermenegildo Zegna Founder’s scholarship. In Boston, I’ve also started attending the meetings of the N=1 Collaborative, which aims to lay the foundations for clinical trials with very small sample sizes in interventional genomics. In 2022, I was included in the top 10 most promising Italian students under 25 in Healthcare & Biosciences by Nova, and I won the audience choice award at the BraYn conference presenting my research on antisense oligonucleotides.

I am devoted to scientific outreach, I founded and organized the TEDxLungarnoMediceo event, which took place in Pisa in September 2021 and November 2022. I’ve also written posts and organized the “scientific spritz” with Progetto Bio[Tecno]Logico, give Talks (eg, Festival della Scienza di Genova), and write questions and volunteer in the Italian Biology Olympiad. My first podcast, The Biotech Futurist, is out in March 2023.

In 2022, I’ve also volunteered with Community Outreach Program (CORP) in a shelter for street children in Mumbai, an experience that shaped powerfully me and my understanding of world priorities.

I’m currently working with my high school and some peers for a project on University orientation. I was a football referee for the AIA during high school, I am a member of the AVIS Italian blood donors and ADMO bone marrow associations, and love traveling, photography, running, ethnic cooking, and LEGOs.

If you have survived reading up to this point, you deserve a list of less-known good online resources:

https://www.benty-fields.com/ – daily ArXiv / bioArXiv papers well organized

https://sci-hub.hkvisa.net/ – scientific literature

https://temp-mail.org/en/ – temporary email addresses

https://otter.ai/home – outstanding audio-to-text

https://midjourney.com/home/?callbackUrl=%2Fapp%2F – best AI painter in my opinion

https://www.coursera.org/ – so many good courses on any topic

https://pixabay.com/ – lots of copyright free stuff to create content

https://www.explainpaper.com/ – AI that synthesizes papers for you and defines difficult terms

https://gnomad.broadinstitute.org/ – extensive genomics resource

https://ourworldindata.org/  – so good for any kind of data and stats!

https://wetransfer.com/ – share large files

https://www.wolframalpha.com/ – calculations

https://hubmapconsortium.org/ – human biomolecular atlas

https://hubermanlab.com/ – so good neuro-based resources to understand and intervene on well-being

Thoughts.

A few phrases that I think define me, something I believe in

 – He who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity’s sunrise –

– Happiness only real when shared –

– Cut the bullsh*t, pull the trigger –

– Fire together, wire together –

– I love not Man the less, but Nature more –

– Il rimpianto è il vano pascolo di uno spirito disoccupato –

– Who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses –

– Music rescues me again –

– Climate change is happening –

– Statistics are the way to understand the world –

 

My very vague long term goals

– Make therapeutics and diagnostics for rare neurological disorders and aging –

– Build new tools and software and generate knowledge for basic biomedical research –

– Support the rise of creative educational strategies for school and the general public –

– Work on the needs of the healthcare systems of developing countries –

– Collaborate in the design of business models for therapeutics, especially personalized medicines –

– Reason and take action for open science, collaborative, scalable, efficient, public-aware research –

Let's talk.

Get in touch on Instagram, LinkedIn, or email me at lucafusarbassini1@gmail.com. I’m always happy to have a conversation about biotech, AI, outreach, education, podcasting, LEGOs, photography, but also EDM and concerts, volunteering, start-ups, and memes. Especially over coffee or while jogging, of course.