I was born in Modica, Sicily, in 1982 and grew up in Torino, where I graduated in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in 2006. I completed my master’s thesis with an Erasmus scholarship in Henry Markram’s lab at EPF. In the same year I joined to lab of Paola Bezzi at UNIL as a PhD student, working on neuro-glia interaction at synaptic level.
From 2012 to 2013, I was a postdoc in Graham Knott’s lab at EPFL, learning state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques. In 2013, I joined Pierre Magistretti’s lab at KAUST in Saudi Arabia, working with VR analysis techniques in basic neuroanatomy.
In 2020, I became a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Torino. In 2021, I founded Intravides, a startup developing AR tools for surgical applications. In early 2023, I became an Associate Professor of Human Anatomy at the University of Torino’s Medical School.
Research focus
My research focuses on neuroanatomy at the nanoscopic level, using advanced volume electron microscopy imaging and Virtual or Augmented Reality to explore astrocytes’ roles in brain energy metabolism and synaptic function.
At the University of Torino, I also investigate mixed reality applications in medicine and develop collaborative metaverse environments for data analysis and rehabilitation. My startup Intravides creates AR tools for surgical training and AR-assisted surgery, enhancing surgical planning and navigation. My work combines neuroscience with innovative visualization techniques. Key milestones include the first detailed description of glutamate exocytosis dynamics from astrocytes (Marchaland, Cali et al., 2009, Journal of Neuroscience), the first use of an immersive VR setup to analyse a dense reconstruction of brain neuropil (Cali et al., 2016, Journal of Comparative Neurology), and the first description of a full astrocytic morphology from Face-Block Scanning Electron Microscopy (2019, Progress in Neurobiology).
