I am a Cardiothoracic Surgeon and I have been focusing on congenital cardiac surgery. I am extremely fascinated by the complexity of congenital heart disease and by the challenges posed by its surgical treatment.

I graduated in Medicine at University of Genoa (Italy) in July 2009, and I completed my specialty training in Cardiac Surgery at the same University in May 2015.
I am currently working as a Clinical Fellow in Cardiothoracic Surgery at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, and I have been in this position since August 2015. I have clinical experience in all aspects of adult and congenital cardiothoracic surgery, having performed more than 200 open heart operations as first surgeon and more than 1500 as first assistant. I have been on the UK Specialist Register (Cardiothoracic Surgery) since August 2018.

As I have developed a special interest in congenital cardiac surgery over the past years, I recently started to collaborate with Professor Massimo Caputo, both from a clinical and an academic perspective.
I have held a Personal Licence to perform regulated procedures on living animals (pigs, sheep and small animals) for research purposes since March 2018. I have contributed to develop a large animal model (piglet) of repaired congenital heart disease, which we have been using to test novel materials for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction and to investigate myocardial protection in paediatric cardiac surgery. Finally, I am involved in several clinical trials within my Trust (GAP, PROMPT-2, OMACp).

I am planning to continue investigating tissue engineered biomaterials for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction, trying to expand our knowledge about prosthetic materials with a potential for growth after implantation in the paediatric population.