Manuela graduated from the university of Milan (IT) as medical doctor.
She continued her education with 4 years of specialised course in occupational health, industrial hygiene and toxicology, and a PhD in occupational health (with a focus on risk from non dietary exposure to pesticides).
In 2000 she joined as regulatory toxicologist the International Centre for Pesticides and Health Risk Prevention in Milan, one of the EU national competent authorities dealing with the risk assessment of plant protection products at national and EU level.
In 2005 Manuela was hired by EFSA as scientific officer for mammalian toxicology in the Pesticide Unit, where a couple of years later she took the position of team leader responsible for mammalian toxicology risk assessment and non dietary exposure assessment.
In 2014 she was offered the position of Head of the EFSA FEED Unit, where she worked from 2015 to 2018 for a total of 4 years.
In January 2019 Manuela went back to the pesticide area, being appointed as Head of the Pesticide Peer Review Unit (PREV) of the European Food Safety Authority.