Annabella la Grasta graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bari in November 2019.

In October 2021, she began a Master’s Degree in Medical Systems Engineering (Bioengineering curriculum) at the Polytechnic University of Bari.

During her MSc thesis, in conjunction with a leading company in the ophthalmic field, namely ProCrea Tech, she helped to design and implement an embedded system to optimize the construction of progressive lenses.

Currently, she is a PhD student in Electrical and Information Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bari, where she is working on a research project called “Photonic chip-scale sensors for chemical detection: a driver for Industry 4.0”.

There, she is exploring the functionalization of photonic chips for biosensing, in conjunction with Trento-based FemtoRays Technologies.

Annabella’s main areas of interest are designing multianalyte photonic biosensing platforms to maximize light-matter interaction through resonant structures, as well as investigating the functionalities of FET devices in electrochemical sensing for medical applications. Another area of research interest is wearable devices for monitoring physiological parameters, biomarkers, and attitudes for tracking health status in patients.