Researcher

Ottavia Bertolli

Ottavia Bertolli is at Google DeepMind, with a career that runs from PET image reconstruction in Pisa, Leeds and London to AI research projects such as AlphaFold 3 and AlphaProof. At DeepMind, they coordinated and managed the research project for AlphaFold 3, published in Nature in 2024, and led organization and stakeholder relations for the 2024 International Mathematical Olympiad effort, where AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 reached silver-medal level. With Hussain Masoom, they led project management and operations for AlphaProof, described in a Nature paper in 2025. Before DeepMind, they worked on positron range correction and respiratory gating for PET, then became an Associate at Faculty in London, where they took part in the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database in 2020 and 2021 and in a 2023 Nature Machine Intelligence study on Parkinson's subtypes. In May 2026, they coauthored the Co-Scientist paper in Nature, a Gemini-based multi-agent system for hypothesis generation, with a Google DeepMind affiliation in Mountain View, California.

Works
34
Citations
16,870
h-index
14

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2014

    Positron range correction in PET

    In 2014, they present a method that corrects positron-range blurring in PET image reconstruction within the STIR library, with affiliations at the University of Leeds's Division of Medical Physics and the University of Pisa's Department of Physics. The method is tested on simulated data for the HYPERImage preclinical PET/MR scanner.

  2. 2018

    Data-driven respiratory gating

    At University College London's Institute of Nuclear Medicine, they are first author in 2018 of a Journal of Nuclear Medicine abstract on data-driven respiratory gating in PET. The principal-component method extracts a respiratory signal from PET raw data, and the evaluation covers 28 FDG oncology patient datasets.

  3. 2020–2021

    A COVID-19 chest imaging database

    By 2020, they are an Associate at Faculty in London, which sets up the data-storage platform for the UK National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database with NHSX. In 2021, they provide project administration for the GigaScience overview of the database, a collection of chest X-rays and computed tomography scans from patients across the UK.

  4. 2023

    Parkinson's subtypes in neurons

    In 2023, they are a coauthor, listed at Faculty in Marylebone, London, of a Nature Machine Intelligence study with the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and the Francis Crick Institute. The study builds a machine learning model that predicts the presence of Parkinson's disease and its mechanistic subtype in human neurons, and they provide technical support.

  5. May 2024

    Managing AlphaFold 3 research

    Published in Nature in May 2024, the AlphaFold 3 paper lists them at Google DeepMind in London. The model predicts the joint structure of complexes including proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules, ions and modified residues, and they coordinate and manage the research project with two coauthors.

  6. July 2024

    Silver-medal level at the IMO

    In July 2024, Google DeepMind announces that AlphaProof and AlphaGeometry 2 together solve four of six International Mathematical Olympiad problems, reaching the level of a silver medalist. They are named among AlphaProof's key contributors and lead organization and stakeholder relations for the IMO 2024 effort.

  7. November 2025

    The AlphaProof paper in Nature

    In November 2025, the AlphaProof paper appears in Nature, listing them at Google DeepMind in London. AlphaProof is an AlphaZero-inspired agent that learns to find formal proofs in Lean through reinforcement learning, and they lead project management and operations with Hussain Masoom.

  8. May 2026

    Co-Scientist at Google DeepMind

    In May 2026, Nature publishes the Co-Scientist paper, which describes a multi-agent system built on Gemini for hypothesis generation; it lists them at Google DeepMind in Mountain View, California. They contribute to paper organization and team logistics and to safety evaluation.

Career

  1. Since 2024Google DeepMind
  2. 2020–2023FacultyAssociate
  3. 2018University College London
  4. 2014University of Leeds
  5. 2014University of Pisa

Most-cited works

  1. Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 32024 · Nature · 15,549 citationsWith Alex Bridgland, Alexander Pritzel, Anna Potapenko, Augustin Žídek, David Reiman and Demis Hassabis
  2. Natural History, Quality of Life, and Outcome in Cardiac Transthyretin Amyloidosis2019 · Circulation · 537 citations
  3. Addendum: Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 32024 · Nature · 341 citationsWith Alex Bridgland, Alexander Pritzel, Anna Potapenko, Augustin Žídek, David Reiman and Demis Hassabis
  4. Accelerating scientific discovery with Co-Scientist2026 · Nature · 150 citationsWith Demis Hassabis and Pushmeet Kohli
  5. Maximum-Likelihood Joint Image Reconstruction/Motion Estimation in Attenuation-Corrected Respiratory Gated PET/CT Using a Single Attenuation Map2015 · IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging · 50 citationsWith Sebastien Ourselin

Sources and credits

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  1. Iterative reconstruction incorporating positron range correction within STIR framework - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Evaluation of data-driven respiratory gating in PET with PCA | Journal of Nuclear Medicine jnm.snmjournals.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Using imaging to combat a pandemic: rationale for developing the UK National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. An overview of the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database: data quality and cohort analysis - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Prediction of mechanistic subtypes of Parkinson's using patient-derived stem cell models - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3 | Nature nature.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. AI achieves silver-medal standard solving International Mathematical Olympiad problems — Google DeepMind deepmind.google. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. Olympiad-level formal mathematical reasoning with reinforcement learning | Nature nature.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  9. Olympiad-level formal mathematical reasoning with reinforcement learning - PMC pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 20 October 2026.
  10. Accelerating scientific discovery with Co-Scientist | Nature nature.com. Checked 20 October 2026.