Federica Fregnan started her study in neuroscience in 2005 during her master thesis in biological sciences which then continued in her PhD in neuroscience (2007-2010). During this time, the ErbB4 receptor with tyrosine kinase activity and its role in neuronal precursor migration were the main subjects of the research.
Following her doctoral studies, she worked with several post-doctoral scholarships (2012-2020) at the Nerve Regeneration Group, in which she was involved in studying the mechanisms of interaction between nervous cells and biomaterials, both in vitro and in vivo. From October 2020 she is a Research Technician at the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences (University of Turin).
Research focus
Federica Fregnan is focusing her research on the peripheral nervous system and the biological processes that determine optimal nerve regeneration after injury. In order to create prostheses that can support and promote the regeneration of peripheral nerves this required investing the attention on different biomaterials, like chitosan, silk fibroin and PHB that demonstrated to be both biocompatible and biomimetic, so able to maintain cellular biological behaviour.
Another recent objective of her activity concerns the study of new regenerative strategies to be used in promoting the regeneration of autonomous nerves following iatrogenic damage. In the prostatic cancer therapy, erectile dysfunction is one of the consequences which most undermine the quality of postoperative life in men. The application of new techniques in the field of regeneration of autonomic nerve fibers would result in minor inconvenience for patients extending the treatment also for other applications in oncology.
