Michele Tufano is a bioinformatician in Dr. Sharma Lab at the Department of Psychiatry. He analyzes genomic data in schizophrenia patients, focusing on long non-coding RNA (RNA-Seq) and epigenetics (Ch-IP Seq). In collaboration with Dr. Rosen, he uses network analysis for elucidating the intercorrelation of clinical variables in psychosis and other neuropsychological disorders. 

He joined Graziano Pinna’s laboratory in September 2019 to work on research projects investigating the role of neurosteroids in animal models of stress-induced behavioral dysfunction, including post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). Michele has acquired expertise on the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) methodology and molecular biology techniques. Part of his research commitments included the quantification of GABAergic neurosteroids in clinical samples from PTSD and depression patients.

He obtained an Honors Master at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, which included two research projects. The first dealt with RNA-Sequencing on bacterial populations. Later, he moved to the Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR) for his second research project that aimed to investigate the role of SNPs associated with chromosomal translocation in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. In 2016, Michele received a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Rome, La Sapienza (Italy).