Ylenia Vassallo graduated in Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Rome “Sapienza” in 2021 with a thesis based on the development of a workflow for diagnosis and characterization of biodeterioration on an ancient parchment manuscript. In 2022 she is starting a PhD in Earth Sciences, curriculum Cultural Heritage, with a focus on the application of metagenomic analyses in cultural heritage, in particular with the aim of standardizing a protocol on different artefacts, and creating a database.