 My name is Fortunato Palma Esposito, and I came from Napoli, Naples, in Italy. And I work as a postdoc researcher at the Stazione Zoologica Anton D'Or, that is like a marine station in Naples. And I come from the Department of Biotechnology. So we work on everything about application of marine, from marine environment. So microorganisms, compounds. We explore marine biodiversity to find new compounds for biotech applications. And are those biotech applications more medical, or is it quite range? It's a wide range of applications. Some medicals can be anti-cancer molecules or antibiotic molecules, anti-viral also, and some more industrial, like bicepactants, cytrophores, and many others. We have like a platform of screening, and every time that we produce some extracts or compounds, especially from microorganisms, we test and we check their bioactivity. You've now been at the summer school for like, I guess, just over a week. Yes. How's the experience been for you so far? So far it's really, it's a really amazing and amazing experience. It's like really inspiring situation because of the people that are here, especially for that. The topic is going to the deep about the mechanism that happens inside a microorganism. So for me that I come from like another world. So I'm interested what happens outside. So I want the production of compounds. This summer school is telling me what happens inside the cells to produce, for example, these compounds. And it's really nice. And also the mentors, the professors are like excellent. And it's nice to stay in this multi-cultural environment with different backgrounds of the people. Wonderful sound. Wonderful sound and wonderful landscape. And so like, did you have any questions from your own research that you wanted to bring to the summer school or any questions you're going to take or answers you're going to take back with you? Yeah, I will take a lot of questions back to me. But at least now I know these questions. I mean, before you don't tell or you have less knowledge about what's happening inside. Now I'm not an expert after the summer school, but at least I know what I should learn more to understand the real mechanism inside the cells. And I will apply the knowledge of the summer school in my own projects at the Station Zoological. So it sounds to me that the thing you're taking away from it most is looking at that intracellular kind of mechanism producing the compounds that you were previously looking at. Exactly, that you find outside. So what's the... Did you have any Eureka moments, any moments where you were like, aha, that really relates to what I'm doing in my own research? Okay, from here. Yes, it's really interesting the things that at the final part of the summer school last day we should develop a project. So we have been divided in some groups and each group has to develop their own project and explain this project in front of the commission. I mean the other participant in the last day. This is a really interesting exercise because it allows us to apply, to put in a project, everything we are learning here. So this is... And I'm creating a project that maybe I can use, I can really use in my career. It's quite exciting this. So I think this was really nice. And then for example today we heard about Miro, the founder of this institute and his talk was really, really, I don't know, motivational and inspiring, but also the others, the other mentors. Really, honestly I didn't know anyone, every one of these mentors, but it was quite nice. And if I can, the moment inside you learn science, it's okay. The moment outside when we are together, coffee break, lunch, dinner, breakfast, you exchange some feedback ideas and in general you know how they became researchers, how they became experts in their topic and you can get the experience. You can learn from that story a bit. You can learn, they spoke to us and they also told about their failures, not only the success. I think it's really important because in science 90% is failure. When you do experiments it's always failure and then 10% even less, it's really, you can change something, you can have an impact. But you will learn lots from those failures, I guess. Yeah, exactly. From these mentors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. So when you go back to your research institute, what is the first thing that you want to try new that you might have not thought about before? Yeah, for example, I didn't work with the mutagenesis or experimental evolution, but these two things are really interesting because what I'm looking for are new microorganisms that produce new compounds. But these new compounds can also derive this evolution of strains that I already have. Maybe I can submit, subject them, this bacteria to sort of evolution in the lab, accelerate the evolution in the lab and see if the product can change. So for sure this approach I will bring with me. So now you've looked at the inside of the cells, you might have a bit more control over things that are producing on the outside. Exactly. You can take that into account. Yeah, you can affect yourself in different way, different stresses. And you can simulate what's happening in nature in the lab. Okay, can you sum up the summer school for me so far in three words? Okay, for sure it's really inspiring, exciting and networking for sure. And maybe we can do a collaboration in the future. It's a collaborative, I guess. Collaborative, right, collaborative. Awesome, well thank you for your time and your interview today. Thank you to you. And enjoy the rest of the summer school. Thank you.