1. Boston University
Department of Biology Professor Dean R. Tolan
5 Cummington Mall www.bu.edu/aldolase
Boston Massachusetts 02215 617-353-5310
United States of America FAX: 617-358-0338
May 5, 2015
RE: Laura Serio, Ph.D.
Prof. Francesco Salvatore
President of S.C. CEINGE - BIOTECNOLOGIE AVANZATE a r.l.
Via Gaetano Salvatore, 486
80145 Napoli, ITALY
I'm very pleased to certify that Dr. Laura Serio worked in my laboratory at Boston University from May
of 2009 until October 2009. Laura worked very hard and succeeded in producing chimeric constructs of
aldolase A and C. She also was able to study the expression of these constructs and the purification of
the proteins. The aldolase C gene is a critical gene for the brain and is involved in energy metabolism,
along with potential moonlighting functions in the CNS. After her return to Italy she continues on this
project, and completed her PhD thesis within the subsequent two years. The project she started is
ongoing and will become the centerpiece of a publication in the near future.
During her time in the United States, Laura acquired several important lab skills in both molecular
biology and biochemistry. She impressed me as a highly motivated, committed young scientist; she is
hard working and talented experimentalist.
Laura has become an excellent investigator and has a broad perspective on research problems. If I had
the opportunity, I would surely reappoint her again to work with our group. She made an impression
around here and we still miss her. Overall, considering her performance, productivity, scientific
abilities, and organization she was easily competitive with the top third of graduate students from the
United States among those I have trained in the past 30 years. She has my earnest and enthusiastic
recommendation as a Research Fellow at CEINGE.
I trust you find the above information useful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any
further information.
Yours sincerely,
Dean R. Tolan
Professor of Biology