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.