Alfredo Maria has an inter-disciplinary background. Ranked 29^th among the best high school students in Natural Sciences in Italy by ANISN in 2004, he obtained his MSc in Biotechnology cum Laude and Mention in 2011, Naples, working with Prof Leila Birolo and Prof Raffaele Velotta on laser induced cross-linking of polypeptides for mass spectrometry based proteomics. In the same year he was awarded a research placement on the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme and joined the group of Prof Pau Gorostiza at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) focusing on photocontrol of cell trafficking.

In 2015, Alfredo Maria received his PhD in Industrial and Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Naples “Federico II” (UNINA). During his PhD, he worked with Prof Paola Giardina on surface applications of self-assembling functional amyloid proteins and spent one year with Prof Arben Merkoçi’s group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Whilst at ICN2, he worked on nanomaterials-proteins hybrids. In 2017, after a post-doc in Naples, Alfredo Maria joined the 2D-Health project working with Prof Nicola Tirelli’s group. He is focusing on molecular engineering of graphene oxide for cancer immunotherapy. Since September 2018 Alfredo is a post-doc of the Nanomedicine Lab and he is liaising with the pre-clinical core of 2D-Health leaded by Prof Kostas Kostarelos.