Pietro Marchese is a Ph.D. student at the National University of Ireland Galway, School of Medicine, funded by the Irish Research Council. He holds a B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Turin in Italy and a M.Sc. in Plant Biotechnology, majoring in microbial biotechnology, from the same institution. His doctoral research focuses on marine natural products drug discovery for regenerative medicine, implementing high throughput screening strategies to detect drug candidates produced by marine filamentous fungi. As a Fulbright-Marine Institute Student Awardee at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Pietro will investigate the chemistry of fungal strains isolated from the deep Atlantic Ocean in order to identify new bioactive molecules for diseases such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis. While at USF, he will also improve the drug discovery program by testing a library of deep sea fungal compounds for new medical targets.