DrCamilla Maria Fontana

Camilla completed her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and her Master’s Degree in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Padua, Italy, with internships in the use of zebrafish to model human diseases. In 2017, she was awarded the position of PhD student in the School of Molecular Medicine, at the University of Padua, and se obtained her title Cum Laude with a thesis on the role of autophagy-related proteins in the gonadal development, gametogenesis and reproduction in zebrafish.

Camilla continue her academic work at the University of Padua as a postdoctoral researcher studying the relationship between glucocorticoids and the gut-microbiome in zebrafish and was later awarded another postdoctoral joint position between the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy) and the Chiang Mai University (Thailand), switching her area of interest in the use of zebrafish xenografts for the study of novel cancer therapeutic molecules. Due to this joint position, Camilla relocated to Thailand at the beginning of 2022, and there she helped the Department of Agriculture at the Chiang Mai University to open the first Zebrafish Facility of Northern Thailand.

After two years and a half of work establish the facility, forming the personnel and researching on the effects of cannabinoids on oxidative stress in zebrafish, Camilla relocated to Ireland to work at UCD in 2024.

At present time Camilla is a CURAM  MSCA MedTrain+ CoFund postdoctoral fellow working on drug discovery in the context of metastatic uveal melanoma, under the supervision of Professor Breandan Kennedy.