I come from Lanciano, a small city in the Italian region of Abruzzo.

I completed my bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences at the University of L'Aquila. I then received a master's degree in Evolutionary Biology graduating from the University of Padova, with a thesis titled "An evolutionary analysis of codon usage bias in Zika virus to identify possible vectors and hosts". My main expertise is in evolutionary biology, which is also my biggest passion.

I am currently developing three different lines of research: 1) coevolution of phages and their bacterial hosts in the context of the human microbiome; 2) identification and characterisation of unknown viruses from metagenomic samples, trying to unravel their biology and evolution through comparative genomics, phylogenomics and network analyses; 3) genome adaptation of arboviruses to their vectors and hosts.

Besides doing research, I'm also very interested in science outreach and I'm part of EuroScitizen, a group which aims to raise levels of scientific literacy in Europe using evolution as a model. In my spare time I like playing electric guitar, cooking and studying philosophy of science.

Department and supervisor : Department of Sustainable Agro-ecosystems and Bioresources, Agrarian Entomology Unit, Dr. Omar Rota-Stabelli

Email address: andrea.silverj@fmach.it; andrea.silverj@unitn.it; andrea.silverj@gmail.com

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Silverj GitHub: https://github.com/andrea-silverj