Stefania Vietti-Michelina

I completed a BSc in Biotechnology (cum laude) at the University of Turin, Italy. I undertook my final year research project in Prof Carola Eva’s group at the Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO), examining the role of neuropeptide Y in modulating spatial memories formation and consolidation in the hippocampus. I then moved to the UK to undertake a MSc in Neuroscience at University College London. My MSc project, under Dr Daniel Bendor supervision at the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, aimed at investigating new tools to examine prosocial and cooperative behaviour.

I was then awarded a fully funded scholarship on the Oxford BBSRC Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP and joined Prof Steph Cragg’s group for my main DPhil project. My current research is focussed at exploring the mechanisms through which nicotinic acetylcholine receptors localised on dopamine axon terminals operate to gate dopamine release. I’m investigating this using a combination of electrochemical techniques (fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, amperometry) and optogenetics.