Marco Marino

I am a biomedical engineer by training and a neuroscientist who mainly investigates the mechanisms of neural communication in the human brain. To perform this research I use different neuroimaging and neurophysiology techniques to characterize neural processes across different spatiotemporal domains, not only within the brain itself, but also considering their relationship with the rest of the body.
Throughout my career, I have developed a highly interdisciplinary profile, strengthened by extensive international experience, having spent ten years abroad, in different countries, including France, USA, Switzerland, UK and Belgium, first as a student and then as a researcher. I received my Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bologna, and my Ph.D. in Neuroscience at ETH Zurich, where I worked under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Wenderoth on a thesis focused on functional connectivity analyses in the resting human brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging and high-density electroencephalography data simultaneously acquired. During my doctorate I also worked with Prof. Dante Mantini, who strongly contributed to my methodological training on neuroimaing and neurophysiology techniques, first at the University of Oxford and then at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), where, at the end of my doctorate, I was awarded with an Individual Fellowship, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO). In 2024, I was awarded by the STARS@UNIPD funding programme to work at the Department of General Psychology of the University of Padova and to investigate the effects of microgravity on the neural system.
In my research, I use terrestrial analogs to simulate the microgravity condition experienced by astronauts in orbit and to study some physiological processes that characterize the human body during spaceflight missions, such as accelerated ageing. This research will deliver innovative tools to understand what happens in our brain and in our mind, not only in Space, but also on Earth, when degenerative processes occur.