She received her medical degree magna cum laude from the University of Genoa, Italy and earned a PhD degree from the same university after her formal training in neurology. Her current research, supported by the National Institute of Health, focuses on the development and application of new structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques at high and ultra-high field strength, to study multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. This work aims to identify the mechanisms of degeneration which lead to the accumulation of irreversible clinical disability, and to provide surrogate markers to monitor the efficacy of neuroprotective treatments in vivo.