Data Management and Research Integrity - Best Practice Transfer From the University of Milan 

Image integrity in scientific publication (Valentina Lodde)

Data collection and analysis in scientific research often requires use of digital imaging. Moreover, scientists communicate their work to their peers and to non-scientist by means of images. This seminar will cover best practice in scientific images acquisition and processing, both for the purpose of data collection, organization, storage and security in the context of a Data Management Plan, and for the publication in scientific journals, conforming images to publisher’s requirements while ensuring image integrity. 

Conducting and reporting quantitative real time PCR experiments according to the MIQE Guidelines (Federica Franciosi)

The Minimum Information for publication of Quantitative real-time PCR Experiments (MIQE) Guidelines were initially published in 2009 to overcome shortcomings in the reproducibility of quantitative PCR experiments. This seminar is designed to:

- discuss the importance of MIQE in warranting the reproducibility of quantitative PCR experiments

- identify shortcomings in a quantitative PCR experiment

- plan MIQE-compliant quantitative PCR experiments

- critically evaluate the quality of the results of quantitative PCR experiments

The overarching aim of this seminar is to improve the integrity of performing and reporting qPCR experiments.

Valentina Lodde

Valentina Lodde is Associate Professor of Animal Anatomy and Physiology, at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Milan, since 2016. She graduated in 2002 in Biotechnology from the University of Milan and earned her PhD degree in Biotechnology applied to Veterinary Science at the same University in 2006. After a period of post-doctoral fellowship in Italy, she joined Professor John Peluso Laboratory at the University of Connecticut Health Center (USA), where she completed her post-doctoral training in 2011. Back to Italy she worked as researcher at the University of Milan until 2016. She was awarded with the LOREAL-UNESCO for women in Science National Award in 2006 and was the recipient of the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (Individual Fellowship programme) in 2012. Dr Lodde’s research interest focuses on the determinants of mammalian female fertility, particularly the study of oocyte and embryo development. Major topics that characterize her investigations are the study of morphological and functional changes occurring in the nucleus of mammalian oocytes, the study of PGRMC1 function in ovarian somatic cells, oocytes and preimplantation embryos, and more recently the role of Reactive Oxygen Species in mammalian oogenesis and embryogenesis

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9768-2292 

UNIMI webpage https://www.unimi.it/it/ugov/person/valentina-lodde 

LAB Website http://www.redbiolab.unimi.it  

Federica Franciosi

Federica Franciosi earned her degree in Veterinary Medicine cum laude and her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the University of Milan, developing nuclear transfer techniques and studying the interplay between somatic cells and the gamete during oocyte growth. She has been awarded the L'OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science National Award prize for studies on epigenetic modifications during oocyte maturation conducted in collaboration with the French Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA, Tour), after which she completed a post-doc at the University of California San Francisco in the lab of Marco Conti, supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie international outgoing fellowship. During those years, she studied mechanisms controlling maternal mRNA translation. She received a tenure track position from the University of Milan in 2017 and became Associate Professor in 2021.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8742-0291 

UNIMI webpage: https://www.unimi.it/it/ugov/person/federica-franciosi1 

LAB Website: http://www.redbiolab.unimi.it