Deputy Head, GMO Unit, European Food Safety Agency (EFSA)

Claudia Paoletti did her Master in Biological Science at the University of Rome (Italy) and her Ph.D. in Plant Genetics at the University of Connecticut, USA.  For the next three years she studied plant population genetics and biometry at Dalhousie University (Canada), continuing at the Research Institute for Industrial Crops in Bologna (Italy) where she focused on the evaluation of risks associated to the use of transgenic crops. She has been the Italian expert nominated by the European Commission, for definition of sampling plans for GMO detection in conventional seeds. She coordinated the European Commission sampling research project KeLDA and she has been the biometrics officer of the EU Community Reference Laboratory for GMOs. She is an expert consultant for ISO/IWA committees, OECD, CEN, the European Commission and FAO. She organised international training courses on sampling of food/feed agricultural commodities for the European Commission, UNIDO, PHARE project and several universities, both within and outside Europe. In January 2006 she joined the GMO Unit of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Currently, she is Deputy Head of the GMO Unit and leader of the molecular characterization, food and feed risk assessment team, focusing on food and feed safety assessment and on the development of appropriate sampling approaches. She has over 80 contributions as book chapters, or peer-reviewed scientific papers.