Giovanni Forcina

Giovanni grew up in Naples, Florida. He received his B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. He performed undergraduate research under the supervision of Prof. Scott Strobel at Yale and Dr. Kirk Gustafson in the Molecular Targets Lab at the National Cancer Institute. In these pursuits, Giovanni isolated and characterized a novel fungal genus from the Ecuadorian rainforest and elucidated two new antimicrobial compounds the fungus produces. After graduation, he spent two years as a research assistant with Prof. Scott Dixon at Stanford. There, he developed quantitative methods to measure cell death over time. Giovanni is currently a PhD candidate in the department of Biology working jointly in the labs of Prof. Carolyn Bertozzi and Scott Dixon investigating the role of cell surface glycans on the execution of cell death pathways. Outside of lab, Giovanni is passionate about teaching and increasing diversity in STEM fields.