Sofia Riccio

Sofia Riccio is a PhD student at both the Pirbright Institute and the Institute of Infection and Global Health (IGH) at the University of Liverpool. She is part of both the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) Immunology and Molecular Virology groups at Pirbright, and her project aims to identify and characterise novel interactions between PRRSV non-structural proteins and porcine proteins using the yeast-2-hybrid system.

Before coming to the Pirbright Institute Sofia completed a BA in Natural Sciences at Queens’ College Cambridge, using co-immunoprecipitations to investigate interactions between Vaccinia virus proteins and cellular proteins. Sofia has also worked with the A.W.O.L consortium in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, assisting parasitologists screening drugs to target Wolbachia bacteria, the endosymbiont of the parasites that cause river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.

Additionally, Sofia is a STEM ambassador, first aider and a student representative for both her university and the institute.