Alex De Nardi
After earning a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology, I completed a master's in Quantitative and Computational Biology at the University of Trento in December 2022. This multidisciplinary program integrated quantitative sciences and applied biology, with a strong emphasis on mathematical and computational modeling of biological systems. During my thesis, I worked on a data-driven approach to quantify West Nile virus circulation, combining Bayesian inference with an ODE-based epidemiological model. Following a research fellowship that led to the publication of my thesis work, I began my PhD at COSBI (The Microsoft Research – University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems Biology). My current research focuses on investigating neuromuscular diseases such as ALS and SMA, using mathematical modeling and data analysis, with the end goal of supporting personalized patient care.
Research Interests
I am deeply fascinated by the intersection of mathematics and biology, particularly in the modeling and simulation of biological systems using both deterministic and stochastic methods. I am also interested in statistics and machine learning, especially as they relate to the analysis of high-dimensional data. I believe that effective variable selection, when combined with the huge amount of biomedical data generated by high-throughput technologies, is crucial for uncovering mechanistic insights into complex diseases. Within the broader field of biology, my passion lies in neuroscience. I am driven to understand neurodegenerative diseases at multiple levels-from molecular mechanisms to systemic processes-hoping to bridge the gap between quantitative analysis and biological insight.