Dr. Jessica Silvaggi attended the University of Connecticut (UCONN), Hartford, CT (USA) where she graduated summa cum laude in 2000 with a B.S. from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. During her time at UCONN, she conducted an honors program thesis with Dr. Robert Vinopal in collaboration with the company Arch Chemicals. During her research assistantship and thesis work with Arch, she conducted studies on their biocide zinc pyrithione (see the active ingredient in dandruff shampoo and many outdoor paints), and determined in laboratory assays that the biocide use did not lead to bacterial resistance or to antibiotic cross- resistance. This work and a second internship in industry solidified her interest in striving to work in the biotechnology realm. In 2005, Dr. Silvaggi received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (USA), working at the laboratory of Dr. Richard Losick. Dr. Losick is renowned for his laboratory's research studying the differentiation, morphogenesis, and multicellularity of the genetic model Bacillus subtilis, a sporulating bacterium. In the Losick laboratory, Dr. Silvaggi embarked on a new line of research searching for small, untranslated RNAs that were coded for in the intergenic regions of the B. subtilis genome. During her research, she discovered and characterized several previously unknown small, untranslated RNAs and published three first author papers. Realizing that she wanted to gain experience conducting research with a direct application to the medical and pharmaceutical world, she switched fields from bacterial genetics to mice.
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