7 Questions with Alessandro Adelfio

Today we are getting to know Nuritas™ Bioinformatician, Alessandro Adelfio. Originally from Palermo, Italy, Alessandro is an integral part of our bioinformatics team here at Nuritas™ and is also a talented writer. Check out his fascinating blog post on new developments in the field of artificial intelligence here.

Team Member: Alessandro Adelfio

Position at Nuritas™: Bioinformatician

I have always been passionate about Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning in particular. As soon as I discovered that AI techniques could be used to enhance our understanding of life and unlock some of its mysteries the die was already cast.

It might sound commonplace, but I would definitely say the World Wide Web and Internet in general. I can not see many things able to impact science as much as the opportunity of instantly sharing ideas and knowledge and easily accessing them from all around the world.

I have many “science heroes”. One of them is definitely Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory and one of the pioneers of artificial learning. Among the anti-heroes, my favourite is the mathematician Grigori Perelman. When he was awarded the Field Medal (the mathematician’s Nobel Prize) he declined to accept the prize and he is quoted to have said: “[the prize] was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct, then no other recognition is needed. I’m not interested in money or fame, I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo. I’m not a hero of mathematics.”

Uhm, many things actually. Let’s just say that I completely embrace Nuritas’ mission: discovering new ingredients in natural and sustainable sources that are able to target the most common diseases such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity and many others.

Nuritas™ gave me the chance to work in the area I like the most and pursue one of the highest goals a person could work for: improving the health, and therefore the life, of millions of people. This makes it truly exciting to follow the development path of an ingredient: from the discovery, through the experimental validation, the clinical trials and finally to the commercialization.

We are also a vibrant group where everyone has a unique talent and uses their talent to help the group reach common targets.

This is an easy one. I would be a peptide that allows you to eat all the food you want (and when I say food I mean especially pizza) and keeps you healthy and in perfect shape. I don’t think that one exists but it’s a nice fantasy nonetheless.

I just would like to quote one of my favourite dialogues from a TV series:

Ross: […] They took my backpack which had all the original artwork I had done for my own comic book: “Science Boy”
Monica: Oh yeah! What was his superpower again?
Ross: A superhuman thirst for knowledge.
Monica: That’s it.