In 2005, Serena Faggiano graduated in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Parma with a 100/100 cum laude grade with an experimental thesis on "Spectroscopic and kinetic characterisation of hemoglobins AHb1 and AHb2 from Arabidopsis thaliana" carried out at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Prof. Andrea Mozzarelli's laboratory.
In 2009 she obtained her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Parma with a thesis entitled "Characterization of non-symbiotic hemoglobins from Arabidopsis thaliana in solution and encapsulated in silica gels".
Between 2007 and 2008, she carried out a research project at the laboratory of Professors Mike Wilson and Chris Cooper, Colchester, University of Essex, UK, and at the Department of Biological Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, in the laboratory of Professors Angela Fago and Roy Weber.
From 2010 to 2014 she received a Career Development Fellowship at the National Institute of Medical Research, MRC, London, UK. Here she worked on a project on the ubiquitination of ataxin-3 in Prof. Annalisa Pastore's group. During 2014 she worked as a Temporary Researcher at King's College London, London, UK, on the enzymatic synthesis of polyubiquitin chains.
From 2014 to 2018 she was a Research Fellow at the Department of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Parma. In 2017 she obtained the Abilitazione Scientifica Nationale for the II Fascia in SSD 05/E1, General Biochemistry. From the end of 2018 to the end of 2021, she was Researcher on Fixed Term Type B and from the end of 2021 she is Associate Professor at the same Department.
She is involved in the structural and functional characterisation of proteins of pharmaceutical interest using various spectroscopic techniques.
In February 2023 she was awarded the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale as Professor for the I Fascia (Full Professor) in SSD 05/E1, General Biochemistry.
From 2014 to 2018 she participated to the EU COST Action CM1306 "Understanding movement and mechanism in molecular machines" as Early Career Investigator, since 2016 she was deputy coordinator of Working Group 3, "Methodology development in biomolecular spectroscopy", coordinator Prof. Claus Seidel, University of Düsseldorf, Germany.
Since 2017, she has been an Associate collaborator at the National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Biophysics, Pisa.
In 2017 and 2018, she was a Visiting Scientist at ESRF, Grenoble, France, and at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
Since 2019, she has been a member of the Board of Professors of the Doctoral Course in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biomolecules and Health Products (during 2019 called the Doctoral Course in Pharmaceutical Sciences).
She has been a referee for journals in the biochemical field such as: Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Molecular Biology, Structure, PLOS ONE, The Journal of Biochemistry, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, Helyion. She is part of the Editorial Board of the journals Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences and Biochemistry Research International.
From 2005 to July 2023, she has published 2 book chapters and 41 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She has participated in 42 national and international conferences and workshops. H index: 16, total citations: 709.
