Valerio achieved his BSc Degree in Chemistry at Sapienza University of Rome in 2017. He subsequently enrolled for the “Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry” Masters Degree, which he completed in 2019. In his MSc thesis, Valerio worked in the field of supramolecular chemistry, dealing with the synthesis and study of a molecular switch with autonomous motion. In 2020 he joined the McGouran Group at TCD to pursue a PhD focused on the use of Activity Based Probes (ABPs) to reveal new insights into p53 deubiquitination. P53 is a transcription factor capable of inducing apoptosis, cell cycle arrest and senescence. Despite its key regulatory role in the cell, the deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) which regulates this activity, remains elusive. ABPs can prove as a valuable strategy to deepen our knowledge about this enzyme and its biological functions.