Lab Members
Armando GENAZZANI
Armando Genazzani obtained his degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1992. He then moved to Oxford, to the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH, Zurich; where he held an EMBO long-term fellowship) and to Cambridge, where he was appointed to a lectureship up to retirement age and was also named an Official Fellow and graduate tutor of Clare Hall. He returned to Italy in 2003 and is now a Full Professor of Pharmacology.
He has authored over 200 papers in international journals. Google Scholar estimates a H-index of 61 and 172 publications cited at least 10 times. The median publications in the period 2018-2022 was 8 per year. Moreover, he is a named inventor on four patents in the field that have been licenced or have been the object of research contracts with pharmaceutical companies. He has also received the David Phillips Fellowship for research in marine biology and the Marine Biology station of Plymouth in 1997 and the Galeno Prize for Young Scientists in 2008.
At present he sits on the Scientific-Technical Committee of the Italian Medicine’s Agency (AIFA), on the Institutional Review Board of the local hospitals, on the Expert Panel of the World Health Organization for the Essential Medicines List and on Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) at European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Dmitry LIM
Dmitry Lim has graduated from the Moscow State University (Russia) and obtained his Ph.D. from the Stazione Zoologica “A. Dohrn”. He then undertook his postdoctoral work in the lab of Prof. Ernesto Carafoli in Padua.
He is currently Associate Professor of Physiology in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Università del Piemonte Orientale. He has always been interested in Calcium Signaling in Health and Disease, with particular emphasis on glial cells and neurodegenerative disorders.
Salvatore TERRAZZINO
Education and training
1992 – 1995: Ph.D in Pharmacology, at the “Mario Negri” Research Institute, Milan.
1990 – Degree in Biology Sciences, State University of Milan.
Actual position
From 2 May 2019: Fixed term University Researcher, art. 24 comma 3 lett. B), L. 240/2010- S.C 05/G1- Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy – S.S.D. BIO/14-PHARMACOLOGY, at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Novara.
Previous positions
September 2017 – April 2019: Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Novara.
September 2012 – September 2017: Fixed term University Researcher, art. 24 comma 3 lett. A), L. 240/2010- S.C 05/G1- Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacognosy- S.S.D. BIO/14- PHARMACOLOGY), at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Novara.
Pubblications
1994 –2020: 65 publications on peer reviewed journals, h-index: 24 (Scopus, 10th April 2020), Total number of citations: 1590 (Scopus, 10th April 2020)
Roberta ZANINETTI
Roberta Zaninetti received her Master Degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology and the Postgraduate Degree in Experimental Endocrinology from Università degli Studi di Milano.
In 2005 she moved to the Università del Piemonte Orientale where she obtained her PhD in Food and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and continued her Postdoctoral research activity in the Laboratory of Prof. Genazzani.
Since 2014 she has been the Lab Manager of the Genazzani lab and the Project Manager of the Master in Discipline Regolatorie e Market Access (DRMKA) https://www.drmka-master.it/. Currently she is also member of the Management Staff of the European Master in Translational Cosmetic and Dermatological Sciences (EMOTION) http://www.emotion-master.eu/.
Ambra GROLLA
Ambra Grolla received her Master Degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2009 and her Ph.D. in Food and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in 2013, from Università del Piemonte Orientale (UPO), under the supervision of Prof. Armando Genazzani.
She started her bachelor thesis on NAD metabolism and she moved on calcium signalling deregulation in astroglial cells and neurodegeneration during PhD. She spent one year abroad under the supervision of Prof. Alexej Verkhratsky at the Faculty of Life Sciences in Manchester (UK).
She came back to study NAD metabolism in cancer, particularly focusing on nicotinamide phosphoribosyl transferase (NAMPT) involvement in tumour- associated angiogenesis. In 2016 she obtained the Società Italiana di Farmacologia Postdoctoral Fellow and, in 2017, the Fondazione Veronesi Postdoctoral Fellow for studying NAMPT in cancer.
Since 2018, she is contract Professor in Pharmacology at the Faculty of Biology, master degree, UPO in Alessandria.
Beatrice RIVA
Beatrice Riva received her Master Degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies and her PhD in Science of Bioactive Compounds from Università del Piemonte Orientale in 2014.
After a PhD under the guidance of Prof. Fabrizio Condorelli, where she deepened her studies on chronic myeloid leukaemia, she became Postdoctoral Researcher in the laboratory of Prof. Armando Genazzani.
Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Pharmacology. Her research interests include: (i) assessment of the mechanisms underlying the peripheral neuropathy induced by oxaliplatin and evaluation of new drugs to treat neuropathy; (ii) identification of molecules with therapeutic activities for some rare diseases related to gain-of-function mutations in calcium channels.
In 2016 she co-founded the Academic Spin-off ChemICare, (www.chemicare.it).
Laura TAPELLA
Dott.ssa Laura P.F. Tapella is a Postdoc researcher with a background in neurobiology and neuroscience. She is an expert in cellular and molecular biology and biochemistry, utilizing a variety of approaches, including protein chemistry, molecular biology, cell biology and transgenic mice.
She received her Master Degree in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies at University “A. Avogadro” in 2007. In the same year she did her first Research fellow in the Biochemistry Lab of Prof.ssa Sinigaglia, studying the role of membranes lipid rafts on estrogen-dependent signaling in human platelet.
Laura moved to Mario Negri Institute, Milan where she took her PhD in 2011, founded by Telethon fellow. Under the guide of Dr. Chiesa, her Phd research was on structure-function correlation in different form of inherited prion diseases. After PhD her interest was to discover and characterize the mechanism of new therapeutic compounds for prion diseases using in vitro screening and in vivo study.
In 2014 she moved to University of Milan at IRCCS-Istituto Auxologico, in the neuroendocrine Lab of Prof. ssa Pecori Giraldi, founded by Prin postdoc fellow. Her project was to characterize the proliferative activity of endocrine disruptors on rat primary pituitary cells and human pituitary tumors in order to find a possible role of pollution in cancer progression.
Then in 2017 she came back to UNIUPO, Novara founded by Cariplo and CRT postdoc fellow. Nowadays she has been studying the role of astroglial calcineurin both in cellular and animal models and her current proposal is to investigate the role of astroglial dysproteostasis in the progression of AD.
Sarah CARGNIN
Sarah Cargnin received her Pharmacy Master Degree in 2011 at the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UPO, in Novara (Italy).
Her passion for scientific research was fostered by a six-month Erasmus period spent at the Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University (Sweden), during which she has been working for her Master’s thesis project in the genetics field (Supervisors: Dr Maria Grazia Scordo and Prof. Grazia Lombardi). Once graduated, she became a member of the Genazzani’s group, where she deepened her knowledge in pharmacogenetics. In 2016, she obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical and Food Biotechnology under the supervision of Prof. Genazzani.
Nowadays, she is a PostDoc reasercher and she continues focusing her efforts in the conduction of pharmacogenetic studies in different pathological contexts, including migraine, kidney transplantation and radiotherapy for breast cancer. Moreover, she is involved in the performing of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the pharmacology, genetics and medicinal chemistry fields.
Since 2018, she is contract professor of Toxicology and Pharmacovigilance at the Master Degree Pharmacy course, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UPO. In 2019 she was lecturer in “Systematic reviews and meta-analyses” at the European Master in Translational Cosmetic and Dermatological Sciences (EMOTION Master).
Giorgia COLOMBO
Giorgia Colombo received her master degree in Pharmacy (110/110 cum laude) in 2017 from Università del Piemonte Orientale. Already during her bachelor studies, she developed a strong interest for inflammation, in particular for inflammatory bowel diseases.
In November 2020, she obtained her PhD in “Chemistry and Biology” under the supervision of Prof. Armando Genazzani and Dott. Cristina Travelli. Her main study is focused on the role of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase in inflammatory bowel diseases, its neutralization with a monoclonal antibody and the functions of the protein on the inflammatory circuits in immune disorders.
In January 2021, she won a 2-years “AIRC fellowship” sponsored by Lome Superfruit, focusing on extracellular Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase (eNAMPT) in triple negative breast cancer.
Emanuela PESSOLANO
Emanuela Pessolano received her Master Degree in Pharmacy in 2017 from University of Salerno. During the master Thesis she developed her interest for molecular biology and cell signalling.
In November 2017, she started the PhD fellowship in “Drug Discovery and Development” focusing on the effects of mesoglycan, a pro-fibrinolytic drug, in the treatment of wound healing.
From September 2019 she worked for one year in the Biochemical Pharmacology department of William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, under the supervision of Professor Mauro Perretti.
Nowadays, she is a postdoc of Genazzani’s lab, University of Eastern Piedmont, and she is involved in the study of rare diseases related to gain-of-function mutations in calcium channels and in the identification of small molecules as modulators of the Stored-Operated Calcium Entry, which is a main actor of rare disease such as Tubular Aggregate Myopathy (TAM).
Celia CORDERO SANCHEZ
Celia Cordero Sanchez is licensed in Biotechnology and Bioengineering at Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Alicante (Spain) in 2017. Celia worked for 2 years in the area of channelopathies of calcium channels, searching for modulators of TRPM8 by High Throughput Screening (HTS), under the guidance of Prof. Asia Fernández Carvajal.
During her studies, Celia spent three months at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Università del Piemonte Orientale, (Novara, Italy) where she worked on the characterization of modulators of a cellular mechanism regulating of calcium, the Stored-Operated Calcium Entry, of which missregulation is associated with some rare diseases,
such as Tubular Aggregate Myopathy (TAM).
After that, Celia continued the discovery and biological evaluation of new small-molecule modulators and started a new project in the characterization of a TAM mouse model as researcher of ChemIcare s.l.r. that turned into her PhD project in November of 2018, under the guidance of Prof. Armando Genazzani and Dott. Beatrice Riva.
Arash FOROUTAN
Arash Foroutan, received his professional doctorate in Pharmacy in 2018, from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Interested in pharmacology and fascinated by the great experts of his field, in par with his curricular studies, he began to research and investigate in the Experimental Medicine Research Center, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. His studies are mainly focused on Pruritus, behavioral studies, underlying neuro-immunological basis, and possible pharmacological interventions.
Arash is a Ph.D. student of Professor Genazzani and a research fellow in the pharmacology department.
Giulia DEMATTEIS
Giulia Dematteis obtained her master degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology (110/110 cum Laude) in 2019 from The Università del Piemonte Orientale. During her master thesis she showed an outstanding enthusiasm and curiosity for the field of Neuroscience and developed technical skills for studying neural cells in vitro and in vivo. Dr. Dematteis is now a PhD student in “Dug Innovation” and is deeply involved in the research conducted by Prof. Dmitry Lim and Dr. Laura Tapella. Her scientific interests include the homeostatic role played by astroglial cells in the CNS physiology and pathology with particular focus on astroglial Ca2+/calmodulin-activated phosphatase calcineurin.
Marianna MORO
Marianna Moro obtained her Bachelor degree in Biotechnology in 2018 and in 2020 her Master degree in Medical Biotechnology (110/110 cum Laude) from the Università of Piemonte Orientale.
During the Master thesis she developed her interest for the role of NAMPT in tumour vascularization focusing on mammary carcinoma.
Marianna Moro is currently a PhD student in “Drug Innovation” and she is involved in the research studies of Dr. Ambra Grolla.
The strong interest of Marianna is the role of the vasculature in tumour progression mediated by NAMPT and in particular she focuses on a specific cell type, pericytes.
Federica Carolina BALESTRERO
Federica Carolina Balestrero received her Bachelor degree in Biological Science in 2018 and her Master degree in Biomedical/Biomolecular Biology (110/110 cum Laude with mention of honour) in 2021 from the Università of Piemonte Orientale. During her master thesis she was involved in the research of the involvement of extracellular Nicotinate Phosphoribosyltransferase (eNAPRT) in inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer, conducted by Dott. Giorgia Colombo. She is currently a PhD student in “Drug Innovation”, under the supervision of Dott. Ambra Grolla, and her study is focused on the extracellular Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase (eNAMPT) in triple negative breast cancer.