Dr. Federica Bernardini is a Research Associate at Imperial College London, working on novel strategies to control the mosquito vector of human malaria. Since the start of their PhD studies at Imperial, Federica has been successfully working on the development of synthetic biology approaches for the genetic control of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. These novel tools show great potential to eliminate invasive species, pathogen reservoirs or disease vectors and the results of Federica and colleagues’ research were published in prestigious scientific journals generating extraordinary interest in the field. Currently, Federica’s interest focuses on two main research fields: unravelling hybrid incompatibility in mosquito species within the Anopheles complex and developing vector control strategies in the two main vectors of the complex, Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles arabiensis.
Federica received their Bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in Biology from the Università degli Studi di Palermo where they worked in several laboratories acquiring a vast range of expertise spanning from microbiology, genetics, molecular biology and bioinformatics. The subsequent Master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology, awarded with summa cum laude from the same university, paved the way for their career in genetics and molecular engineering.
In 2024, Federica joined the Malaria Technical Expert Collective (MTEC), a group derived from Malaria No More UK. MTEC aims to bring together researchers, policymakers and health advocates who share the goal of working to end malaria.
