Who do you look up to (inside or outside of academia)? Travel more, practice your English as much as you can and eat your veggies! Don’t be scared if nothing makes sense at the moment, everything will fall into place at the right time. What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self? I am also planning to learn some coding in the near future. I really love going to the gym, going to live gigs and playing the guitar. What do you do with your time outside of academia? The diversity of tasks, for sure! The main reason why I decided to move away from the bench is that I wanted to try new things, and this position allows me to acquire expertise in health and safety, finance and management without having to leave the academic research environment. What is your favourite part of your current role? Where is your research area heading in the next five years?Īs I am not managing a research project anymore, my role in the next five years will be to handle budgeting for research grants, perform health and safety assessments, manage technical staff and oversee research facilities in the CSCRM. I am in the very early days of my new role, so most of my days are currently spent attending meetings and training courses, introducing myself to people in the centre and learning how the centre works. We believe that an understanding of these interactions is important for developing effective cell therapies in the clinic. We are particularly interested in how stem cells interact with their local environment.

The Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine is led by Professor Fiona Watt. What research are you currently working on?

Now I am back to King’s (I am in the first few weeks on the new job!) and I am the new Senior Technical Officer of the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine (CSCRM). I then worked as a research assistant at the Barts Cancer Institute for about a year and a half.

After that, I moved to London and obtained a PhD in Cardiovascular Science from King’s.

I obtained my BSc and MSc in pharmaceutical biotechnology from the University of Bologna (with a 6-months internship working at the Cancer Center of Amsterdam during my MSc training). Briefly, tell me about your background and career up to this point at King’s?

Elianto by Stefano Benni