Alexis Villani was a student in the PennPREP post-baccalaureate program and worked in the lab from June 2019 to June 2020. She was born and raised in Southern California. However, she spent a year living in Portland, OR and another in San Francisco. She is an avid hiker and has had the pleasure of exploring nine national parks (Grand Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Olympic, Sequoia, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Death Valley). Alexis was a varsity cross-country runner in high school, now enjoys jogging as a means to destress. If she is not outside, Alexis is usually in a coffee shop ingesting too much caffeine or roaming art museums.

Alexis graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Microbiology and Immunology. She was selected to represent the school of Biological Science at UCI in a campaign that highlights the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2019 (iamuci campaign). The reason Alexis is in science is because she became curious about Ebola virus during the 2014 epidemic. Alexis went on to discover an entire community/field of people that were just as curious as she is about the ways that nature and biology work! Alexis is extremely interested in science policy and the bridging of science communication from scientists to the general public. Alexis went on to pursue her Ph.D. at UCSF and earn an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Publication

Fare, C.M., A. Villani, L.E. Drake, and J. Shorter. (2021). Higher-order organization of biomolecular condensates. Open Biol.11(6):210137. pdf file link